The Office

     By far, one of my all time favorite shows would have to be NBC's "The Office". It took the idea of the show from the BBC version in the United Kingdom created by Ricky Gervais and Stephan Merchant. The show was cancelled due to low rating after only two seasons. In 2005, NBC choose to adapt "The Office" for American Viewers. Greg Daniels was called on to be executive producer for the show.

     "The Office" is a fake documentary, or as some call it a "mockumentary", of a Scranton, Pennsylvania paper company. The show, for its first seven seasons, had the hilarious actor, Steve Carrell, playing as Michael Scott, the branch manager. His outrageous interactions with the rest of the cast helped make the show a humungous success. Every week viewers tuned in to find out what Michael would do next. Michael wasn't alone though, it seemed that everyone else in The Office was a little crazy too. However, the show wrote in two "normal" people that one could relate to; Jim Halpert(John Kransinski), a salesman and Pam Beasely(Jenna Fischer), the receptionist. The two have an obvious attraction to each other but there's a catch, Pam is engaged to a warehouse worker. I wont give it away but a lot of drama unfolds and it kept me hooked on the show.

  

      It the most recent season, season 8, these two main factors of the show, Steve Carell and Jim and Pam's romantic endeavors, had hit their peak and began to fade out. Steve Carell left the show and Jim and Pam were happily married and with a child, (sorry for the spoiler!). Without these two things, mainly believed the show would come to an end and be no longer fun to watch. On the contrary, I believe the show has done an excellent job maintaining interest as well as humor. The experimented with potential fill-ins for the manager postion, like Will Ferell for example, and eventually settled on Andrew Bernard(Ed Helms). Being one of the most awkward and gullible people in The Office, Andy was a good fit. Jim and Pam's romance was kept alive with cute interactions and reassurance after Pam gets  jealous of a coworker. Also, the romance between Andy and Erin(the new receptionist) is continued although this will never be quite the same because they are more difficult to relate to.

     Overall, I think "The Office" is a great series and is sure to give you a couple, no, several laughs with every new show. I do agree, however, that it is on a slight downturn from the first six seasons but will still be fun to enjoy. For these reasons, I give "The Office" 10 out of 10 stars for the first six seasons and 8 out of 10 stars for the past two seasons.