Just as I thought, the last few seasons of this show have been a derailed train and it's finally wrecked.

You can argue all you want about whether "Friends" sucked since the beginning; but I maintain in its early years, it was one of the most consistently funny sitcoms on the air.

But what made it so great was also its worst enemy: Ross and Rachel

unfortunately because "The Office" went away from the brutal satire angle that the UK version did, it also presented the same conflict: Jim and Pam.

Once these were resolved, there was really no conflict to keep the show going. "Friends" went for a fuck-all free for all, where everyone got together to the point of insanity.

"The Office" tried to make us care about Michael...but never gave us a chance to really build credibility as a "person". There were a few times where Michael was a sympathetic character; but he was not what this show was based around for what we cared about. He was just a foil. It'd be like if "M*A*S*H" tried to shape itself around Frank Burns.

Both shows suffered from becoming far too self-referential and now...yeah, there's a chuckle here or there. But as a show, it's just awful. It's a shame that this was pretty much set up for this to happen...but it's painful to watch.

I agree with you. But I compare it to The Simpsons (btw, the Office has staff who used to work on the Simpsons FWIW). While early on the Simpsons was a show that had some basis in reality (in spite of being animated) it just got sillier and sillier every year. Now it's just "Who's guest starring this week!".

The Office had some substance early on, maybe up to a couple of years ago. But this year, things are just really fucking weird. Everybody is acting odd (used to just be Michael, and maybe Dwight and Jim in the past), and there are no "straight characters" for them to play off of. (Maybe Oscar is the only one, which is ironic, since his character is gay).

Now if they decide next season to bring in a boss character who is more "serious" and have the goofball staff play off him/her, that'll be fine. But if they bring in a dumbfuck, a la Michael, this show is going down the shitter (like current Simpsons).

Has it jumped the shark? If so....when? I agree that the show has lost something.

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Proud to be UNVERIFIED.

Way too much Jim and Pam bullshit.

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"Nobody ever went broke underestimating the taste of the American public." ~ H.L. Mencken

I think it jumped the shark when Ryan started wearing weird shit to work. Funny glasses, Justin Timberlake hats, scarves, etc.

It is in the fact that I watch neither.

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That's my purse! I don't know you!

No, that just makes a show more appealing.

"the simpsons" also had some great social satire. but it, too, has become VERY self-referential. and it has totally lost its touch in many ways. some episodes are decent, and there was a season a few years ago that had some consistently good ep's...but "the simpsons" isn't really a "sitcom". that's why i chose "friends"...

"The Office" is just like "Friends" in that, I have never seen an episode of either.

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We all have private ails. The troublemakers are they who need public cures for their private ails.- Eric Hoffer

Joey and Chandler were hilarious. Monica was a good character until they made her a shrill, hyper-competitive shrew, and in addition to being eye candy Jennifer Aniston was often pretty funny, too.



IMO, the more preposterously stupid Michael became the less funny the show became. Holly was an awful character and I nearly stopped watching because of her. I had some hope after she left but I've only seen a few episodes from the last couple of seasons.

I recently got married and have moved in at my wife's place... she's got DVR, so I asked her if she could record The Office since I am in a bowling league on Thursdays. I then followed that up with something like "I don't like the show... I mean, I used to like the show, but I feel obligated to watch it until the show is done." It is BRUTALLY bad. The Pam character sucks now big time -- they made her way to Jim like. They've obviously abandoned all hope that we would think perhaps a crazy boss would actually act like Michael Scott. That being said, Creed is always good for a great line every other show, and I really like some of the backup characters like Kevin, Toby, and Stanley. But they need to kill this thing off after this year. Kathy Bates cannot save it.

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"All crowds boycotting football games shouldn't care who sings or takes a knee because they aren't watching." - Nas

You could say the exact same thing about Seinfeld, another show that started out good and went to shit the last 3 or 4 seasons.

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he became stupid to the point where you just couldn't buy into it anymore. i mean he was always over the top, but he had a redeeming quality lingering there. holly was *awful*. nothing against her as an actress, she did the best she could with that character; but my god it was painful to watch. that was the beginning of the end for me.

i agree totally about pam. not that she was a stellar character to begin with, but she was at least cute. she's unwatchable now.

shakes - i think the only "season" i disliked from "seinfeld" was 7; but i know where you're coming from. i actually enjoyed the new direction the show took once susan was killed off. it got progressively sillier and stranger. sometimes it did fall flat, but i still give the show credit. seasons 3 & 4 were still the best.

I would rate seasons 4-6 of Seinfeld as the best, but I still love 8&9 also. Yes, they were extremely silly, but somehow it worked for me. Really the only Seinfeld seasons I thought were sub-par were 1&2.

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6 started to lose me a bit, but 5 was really good. i just think they hit their stride around 3 and then 4 is easily the best and most consistent season they had, when everything was clicking.

Last night's episode was brutal.

They've really gone and ruined a lot of the best things the show had going for it. As soon as Jim and Pam got married everything really started going to shit. They've absolutely destroyed Michael's character. He worked because while he was a screw up, they gave him just enough endearing scenes to make you care about it. At this point, he's basically just doing slapstick and it's really bad.

Less Darryl please. He is not funny. He sucks as the host of Last Comic Standing as well. More Creed, Kevin, Stanley.


Dwight is still funny, that's about it

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Team Cutler.

I haven't watched any of this season yet and from what the board and people I know are saying, I'm not sure I want to.

Jim and Pam hooking up kinda killed the awkward tension they had. I thought Pams character was pretty good before when she was a receptionist

Michael Scott is/was the show imo. His character makes the office more lively. He did start getting over the top silly the last few seasons.

Love Creed and Stanley

Darrel was better as the warehouse guy showing up every couple eps. Having too much of him kinda makes him less funny

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"You can kill the revolutionary, but you can't kill the revolution."

I think the whole Scranton branch being acquired by a new company is lame also. Some of the best stuff was Michael interacting with DM corporate types. They were perplexed that this goof was the manager of the best branch in the company.

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I agree. I think this is the worst thing to happen to the show. I really liked Jan and David Wallace

I also like Ryans character too

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"You can kill the revolutionary, but you can't kill the revolution."

Agreed. Seinfeld was at its best in seasons 3 & 4.

Last nights Office was a painful 30 minutes.

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"Nobody ever went broke underestimating the taste of the American public." ~ H.L. Mencken

Best Office of the season last night by a mile. Really funny I thought

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Team Cutler.

I hope there is no press at the party. I am dating a senator.

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-- source

You can watch them all on netflix if you have it

I agree last nights ep was a good one

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"You can kill the revolutionary, but you can't kill the revolution."

The Office jumped the shark when they replaced Gervais with some dude from the Daily Show.

I think that phrase did the same thing about five years ago.

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-- source

no it just got worn out. and that's been one of the problems with that phrase. everytime something starts to suck, people say it's "jumped the shark". that's not what "jumping the shark" is.

Dont try to jump SHARK unless you want your arm bitten off.

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Pointing out that the phrase 'jumped the shark' has 'jumped the shark' jumped the shark long before that.

The term "Jump the SHARK" (no pun intended) actually dates all the way to the 1978 "Happy Days" episode when Fonzie did just that when the Cunninghams were in Hollywood...I think that's when a show tends to lose its appeal and pulls out all the stops to stay relevant...