[Television Thursday] Why “The Office” Has Peaked… and How the Show Can Get Its Edge Back

The Office is a great show... but it really peaked around the fourth season.

It’s a shame when a favorite show starts to go downhill, and I’ve watched more than a few good comedies go down the drain. I watched the slow decline of The Simpsons from genius to banality, and I watched Scrubs go from a sharp sense of humor to a dull set of goofy gags. (Though I will say that in its new eighth season on a different network, Scrubs has reclaimed a lot of its bite.) I watched the promising My Name is Earl go from being a quirky comedy to a ho-hum farce.

I’d always hoped that the same thing wouldn’t happen to The Office, which was one of my favorite shows when it originally aired on the BBC, and which had a wonderful transition to American TV thanks to Greg Daniels. The British version was full of snark and bite; its purpose was to build up a villanous doofus who was not so unlike a real boss and then to watch him self-destruct. At the same time, viewers were built up to expect that the only two likable characters in the show, Tim and Dawn, would wind up together, only to be slapped in the face with reality at the end. The subsequent Christmas special, which tied up all the loose ends and redeemed the characters, was produced as a means of giving the fans the happy ending that they demanded, even though it went against the spirit of the show somewhat. The BBC show has some real moments of genius, finding comedy in long pauses and awkward behavior. That’s one of the reasons it caught on so quickly and remains popular today.

The American version, on the other hand, was forced to trade a lot of its bite for goof, and the result has been a show that began on firm footing, but that’s been slipping a lot over the last few seasons. It’s not too late for the show to eschew some of its goofiness and get back to being relevant, and Scrubs has proven that you can reboot a series properly when you have  the right motivation to do so. In the case of The Office, the best thing the producers could do would be to remember what made the show so popular in the first place… and make adjustments now before the ratings start to slip and NBC sends out a cancellation notice.

1) Tone down Dwight. Dwight Schrute began as an American version of the original’s Gareth Keenan, but he came into his own quickly as the writers found a unique voice for him. Dwight is at his best when he’s a sychophant, taking every word of his boss seriously and treating every workplace situation as a chance to improve himself in the eyes of Michael. He is also interesting when his meglomania gets the best of him and he tries to make a power grab. That second element makes him human; we realize, as viewers, that he only adores Michael because he has a fierce respect for the chain of command. When Michael is removed from a position of power, Dwight is all too happy to make changes.

Dwight is also an excellent target of office pranks, since he takes everything so seriously. But the temptation to overplay Dwight’s seriousness has resulted in some really over-the-top antics. One example occurred in the third season, when Dwight attended a party at the CFO’s house, only to get locked into a sideplot where he was inspecting the place for structural damage.  Another occurred in an episode where Dwight tricked his former girlfriend into marrying him. And in the recent hour-long episode following the Super Bowl, Dwight staged a fire to play “gotcha” with a staff that had not been paying attention to his fire safety procedures. Later in the episode, Dwight became annoyed with a CPR trainer and used his knife to cut the face off the doll, offering a hideous impression of Hannibal Lecter that was, to put it plainly, bizarre.

Dwight is one of the most memorable characters on the show, and it’s a shame to see that the writers don’t know where the line is in how they should use him. To paraphrase the character, “The writers should ask themselves, would an idiot do that? If so, Dwight should not do that thing.”

2) Give Andy some better scenes. Andrew Bernard is a character introduced in the third season from the Stamford branch. He’s a great character, too – a frat boy who is slightly smarter than most of his co-workers, but who irritates everyone with his personality, poor sense of humor and anger issues. Andy started off as one of the best additions to the show, but the writers have relegated him into “B-story” and “C-story” scenes as of late, turning him into somewhat of a hard luck doofus who’s always getting himself into awkward situations while everyone else ignores him. Andy is at his best when he’s trying to compete with Dwight and when he’s annoying his co-workers by trying to scheme his way into being friends with them. He’s also very funny when he is the target of a prank where he can’t let something simple go. Andy is not funny when he’s a pariah or dealing with some weird subplot, like having sensitive nipples, getting knocked into the river in an inflatable sumo suit, or trying to plan a wedding that everyone knows isn’t going to happen.

3) Bring Michael back down to Earth. Michael is the dumbest character in the office, and he does some absolutely stupid things. But where Michael is at his best is when he is deluded enough to think that the terrible things he’s doing are for the good of the office. Where Michael is at his worst is when he is involved in a romantic subplot, where he is inviting people to his house, where he is giving inane motivational speeches, or pretty much anything else that takes him out of the office and into the real world.

I would argue that one of the best Michael episodes was in season 2, where it’s Halloween and Michael has waited until the last minute to fire someone. Michael tries every trick and stall he can think of, and he even goes through the painful experience of trying to fire an employee and then finding himself taking it back and firing someone else instead. Michael goes home, feeling awful about what he’s had to do, and he takes some consolation in the trick-or-treaters who come to his house, because he realizes that there is a life outside his office.

That is The Office at its best. Michael’s antics have to have a purpose, and they have to be the actions not of someone who is genuinely dumb, but rather, someone who is simply incompetent and deluded.

Phyllis’s wedding showed Michael at his worst, as did the episode where he drove his car into a river because he was blindly trusting technology, as did the episode where Michael and Holly staged a fundraiser to replace stolen items and Michael promised everyone that he would sell off his (nonexistent) Bruce Springsteen tickets. When Michael is played so over-the-top that he cannot understand any consequences for his actions, he stops being funny and starts being irritating. And while irritation is part of the humor of the show, it’s a poor substitute for smartly written comedy.

4) Get rid of Ryan. I realize that BJ Novak is one of the writers and producers on the show, and that his character is going to be involved in the story somewhat. But Ryan is really one of the show’s biggest excesses. Sure, it’s funny when he’s a temp and Michael continually makes unconscious advances towards him. Sure, it’s funny that Ryan winds up in an office relationship he hates and that he’s constantly getting dragged into drama he doesn’t want any part of. But the entire subplot in the fourth season about him being an executive was a wasted effort that was rarely funny, and having Michael hire him back on was indulgent, to say the least. Ryan’s rarely funny, and when he does tell jokes, they’re barely worth a chuckle.

5) Narrow the scope – The show is called The Office, but lately, very little of the plots have had to do with the workplace. The show is blessed with a great ensemble cast and some good writers.  There’s no reason the show can’t narrow its focus back down to the monotony of working together instead of trying to see what crazy plot Michael or Dwight can get involved in this week. As Tim explains in the end of the BBC version, the office is a tragic place, because it’s somewhere that we spend a lot of time, with people that we don’t always know very well or even like, and yet it becomes so much of our life. Some of us (like myself) are blessed with office environments where we have little drama and everyone gets along. But most are more like Dunder Mifflin than we care to admit. So, the writers should focus not on breaking out of that environment, but rather, in focusing primarily upon it.

2 Comments

• 

  By David Pratt, February 11, 2009 @ 5:59 pm

  Man,

  You nailed it with this post! The Office has jumped the shark. It still can make you laugh out loud, but just as easily misstep with the very next beat. I agree totally with your suggestions on how to reboot the series. More Andy, less Dwight being an idiot. I especially think it is not funny whenever Dwight does something like climb a telephone pole following the cord that Jim ran from his phone, or cut the face off a CPR dummy, etc. There is plenty of humor to mine in the office environment–or business environment even when they leave the office.

  Cheers

• 

  By SeanJJordan, April 13, 2009 @ 10:44 pm

  Hi David,

  Sorry, your post got caught in my spam filter for some reason, so here it is, added 2 months later.

  I think it’s unfortunate that the show has taken a radical new direction with Michael leaving to start his own company, because it indicates that the writers are really reaching. But, with that said, I think there’s room for examining why the more realistic boss, Charles Miner, is an even worse boss than Michael was.

  It’s a sad truth that there are many people out there like Charles who are competent enough managers, but unable to deal with people effectively or to understand that bad employees tend to be the ones who suck up the most. Jim is far from a model employee, but the way Charles dismisses him and tears him down every time he gets an opportunity to shows Miner’s lack of perspective.

  I’m sure that either Dunder Mifflin is eventually going to acquire the Michael Scott Paper Company or the writers are going to have everyone leave to go work for Michael so that things will return (somewhat) to normal, but I’m hoping the next season works to evolve Michael from being a childish buffoon to a more believable boss… and that some of the dark wit of the British original can return.

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