“The Office” needs to stop working overtime.
On Thursday, the season finale of “The Office” will air. Along with “My Name is Earl”, this episode will span an entire hour. This on the heels of an announcement that the series will kick off next year with several hour-long installments before being reduced to a half-hour to make room for “SNL” specials and the series’ mid-season spin-off.
It’s time for “The Office” to recognize it is a sitcom, not an hour-long drama. The series seems to enjoy blurring the lines between the two genres with the Jim/Pam storylines and the occasional moments of heartstrings-tugging redemption for the hapless Michael and the hopeless Dwight.
While these may add a touch of humanism and class to the sitcom (something that sets it apart from its contemporaries) it is fast becoming too much of the show’s focus. This is underscored by the producers’ new-found infatuation with these hour-long episodes.
On Sunday, NBC aired an “Office” marathon. This was actually just a night of back-to-back installments from the beginning of the season. Both of these were one-hour episodes focusing mainly on the burgeoning relationship between Jim and Pam.
Sure, there are laughs in these episodes, but it seems the comedy is not at the forefront. Instead, these episodes feel more like a funny drama rather than a comedy with heart.
While this shift in focus is more a result of the show’s writing than its running time, it’s incredibly curious that the drama-fueled episodes always seem to run a full sixty minutes. If “The Office” wants to remain a sitcom, that’s what it should be. Ditch the hour-long sob fests and focus on the stronger half-hour episodes that have signaled a miniature Renaissance for the show over the past few weeks.
“The Office” always seems on the verge of jumping the shark. Since the beginning of the show, Michael has gotten dumber, there’s more drama than comedy, and the show’s scope has expanded too far beyond the titular location. With its increasing reliance on hour-long episodes, those fins may finally begin to surface.
Give your employees a break, they sorely need it.
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