Time for The Office to sail into the 5pm sunset while the getting is still pretty good?
The Office‘s sixth season finale (and a long one it was at that – 26 episodes!) is emblematic of the season as a whole: some nice moments and a few laughs from a group of characters we’ve grown fond of and comfortable with over the years, but the antics and energy and awkwardness and deadpans to the camera feel less fresh and snappy and original than they did during the early seasons.
The plot involved the investigation of an office “whistleblower” who leaked to the press that Sabre printers spontaneously catch on fire and therefore are not safe. That brought Kathy Bates back as Sabre CEO Jo Bennett, who delivers her typical gravitas and scary corporate presence that got everyone scurrying, and by the end there were a slew of people coming forward as crime breakers.
Honestly, I didn’t care that much about the main story. It was the little moments that kept me interested and reminded me why this used to be one of my favorite comedies on television.
The best part of the episode by far was a 30 second in show “commercial” of sorts featuring Ryan (B.J. Novak) for his new social networking/social media mega idea called Woof (part of his “dog pack”). It was shot with Ryan on the back side of an office chair in front of his bizarre and literally-closet sized office.
Ryan’s outfit – bright pink novelty watch, long sleeved tee-shirt over a dress shirt, topped off by bowtie and thick Rat Pack-era eyeglasses – made this segment feel like a different show… a really funny one. It ended with Ryan sending himself a “woof,” which prompted multiple instant messages to pop up on his computer, fax machine to bust out a page, and finally Kelly (Ellie Kemper) to announce, “You have a woof on line one.”
You have to kind of think that this group is ready to go on to (even) bigger and better things, don’t you? Steve Carell is a bona fide A List movie star at this point, with John Krasinski, Craig Robinson (fabulous in Knocked Up and particularly Hot Tub Time Machine), and BJ Novak (Inglorious Basterds) moving up the big screen ranks themselves.
There’s been talk of a post-Office universe without Carell, but I think it’s fair to ask at this point whether it’s time for The Office to sail into the 5pm sunset while the getting is still pretty good?
More thoughts on “Whistleblower”:
- Probably funniest single line of the episode: when Jo Bennett tells Dwight that he should “turn his money into more money,” Dwight (Rainn Wilson) slowly looks around, leans in and says, “You mean like alchemy?”
- When Kathy Bates says “speak” in a louder command style voice to Michael, her Dalmatian barks.
- “Write your own damn novel.” Toby (Paul Lieberstein)
From Around the Web: The Office, “Whistleblower”
- IGN: This was probably the weakest finale in the show’s history, coming in just below “Hot Girl,” which ended the first six-episode run by at least introducing a new potential love interest for Jim. There were no big twists in this one, unless you count Dwight buying the Scranton Business Park. But fans probably won’t be anxiously waiting all summer to find out what Dwight will be like as a landlord.
Some stats and info about The Office, “Whistleblower”
TV SHOW – The Office
SEASON/EPISODE – Season 6, Episode 26
AIRED ON – March 25th, 2010
NETWORK/STREAMING SERVICE – NBC
GENRE – Comedy, Office Culture
CREATED BY – Greg Daniels, Ricky Gervais, Stephen Merchant
CAST – Steve Carell, John Krasinski, Jenn Fischer, Rainn Wilson, Leslie David Baker, Brian Baumgartner, Angela Kinsey, Kate Flannery, Phyllis Smith, Creed Bratton, Oscar Nunez, B.J. Novak, Mindy Kaling, Ed Helms, Paul Lieberstein, Craig Robinson, Ellie Kemper