TV #57 of 2020:
The Office, season 9
This final season recovers substantially from the weaker entries that it follows, and improves further as it approaches the catharsis of the series ending. At the end of the day I still don’t know if I can say that it’s great — this is, after all, the zanier mode of the show that has no problem shooting a lazy salesman with bull tranquilizers and sliding him down several flights of stairs to get him to see a client — but I admire how it takes risks that The Office never has before, even if those choices remain controversial and not entirely effective. Primarily, the writers transform the camera-people from the sporadically-justified framing device they had previously been to actual characters who can interact with our leads, and they finally introduce legitimate conflict and stakes into Jim and Pam’s happily-ever-after.
Some fans, of course, hate this. It’s certainly a big turnaround for the program! And it’s an element that’s rather light on jokes, playing into the sadder notes of the early years in place of the manic comic energy that otherwise defines this era of the sitcom. But there’s a welcome nuance to the Halperts navigating their opposing visions for their family’s future, and although Brian the boom guy turns out to be a bust of a concept who’s barely more sketched-in as a viable romantic alternative than last season’s Cathy the temp, the couples counseling and tense conversations add a certain realistic poignancy to a central relationship that’s coasted for far too long. (I think I appreciate this storyline more now that I’m a married thirty-something parent myself, too.)
That’s the closest we get to genuine pathos for this stretch of episodes, unfortunately. Dwight has a few nice moments here and there, but his arc is too wrapped up in the setup for a proposed spinoff that never ultimately comes to fruition. Kelly and Ryan are written off with minimal fanfare in the first half-hour so that their actors can go work on The Mindy Project, and Andy disappears for an extended period himself while Ed Helms films The Hangover Part III. His absence as manager somehow doesn’t much affect the workplace dynamics, an angle which could have been pushed for satirical bite but mostly just seems like a plot hole given how quickly Nellie jumped on the last similar opportunity. And Erin and Pete’s new flirtation is simply a weak retread of various stories we’ve already seen in this setting, despite the dialogue lampshading it as exactly that.
By the standards of Dunder Mifflin without Michael Scott, this is nevertheless a strong run, and the finale is a worthwhile sendoff to the erstwhile Scranton branch, full of fun callbacks and emotional farewells for viewers who have stuck around since the start. It’s admittedly not the series that it once was, but under returning original showrunner Greg Daniels, it’s a big step back up from that recent nadir of aimless Robert California nonsense.
[Content warning for fatphobia, transphobia, and sexual assault.]
This season: ★★★☆☆
Overall series: ★★★★☆
Seasons ranked: 2 > 5 > 3 > 4 > 6 > 9 > 7 > 1 > 8
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