Saying Goodbye to the World’s Best Office

Ace Wellington, III needs Kleenex and a cuddle partner now that one of his fave shows is ending.

Do you know that feeling when a series comes to an end?  That horrible moment where it feels like you’re losing a friend?  Well, this year we’re losing one of our best…The Office.  Now, some may argue that The Office was over the minute Steve Carell left and I can’t say that I was never, at one time or another, on that bandwagon.  But, it seemed that the characters we had grown to love over the years never left.  I could still watch Jim and Pam and see something that made the romantic in me live.  Dwight was still always good for an awesome albeit awkward laugh.  So, what the hell is going to happen when we have to sit face to face and say goodbye to them?

So, in a season that is said to reveal all the questions and answers that have been looming since the inception of the series (i.e. who is making this documentary and why?) it had to be a good premiere.  Did it live up?  The start of the episode was in typical Office fashion.  The camera crew begins filming the cast and they tell the stories of how their summers went.  Jim and Pam have become a boring married couple with nothing of interest left to say, save the fact that Jim’s friend from college has started a business off of one of his ideas and wants to partner with him but Pam says they are too settled into their lives now (if that doesn’t scream foreshadowing, than I don’t know what the fuck does).  Andy went on an “Outward Bound” experience and gained a backbone and is now determined to make Nellie’s life a living hell.  Kelly has left the office to move away with her boyfriend.  Ryan subsequently moved to the same town as Kelly because it was going to be the next “big place”.  Kevin killed a turtle.  Dwight isn’t the father of Angela’s baby.  Oh, and Oscar is banging Angela’s senator husband.  Shocking, I know. We are also introduced to two new guys at the office who are seemingly reminiscent of a young Dwight and Jim.  So, after looking at a past version of himself, someone who has great ambition and hope for the future, it is no surprise to me when Jim picks up the phone and tells his college buddy that, “He’s in.”

This season is seemingly going to tie up every lose end and this episode is the catalyst for that.  It seems like from the first interview, when we finally get to hear a member of the film crew talk, that this season really does have finality to it.   So, what will I do when May finally comes around and I have to sit down and say goodbye to an office, a group of people, some characters who exist truly only in my mind, that have changed my life? I’ll make a “That’s what she said” joke because that’s what Michael Scott would have done.   I hope that in and of itself is an homage to The Office.

Stay tuned this year as I help you countdown the days until the end!