A Goodbye To 'The Office'

A Farewell To The Office
by Brett Stewart

This evening, the series finale of the NBC show 'The Office' aired. After 9 years on the air, the show came to a close with a return of Michael Scott, the marriage of Dwight and Angela and the resolution of each character's story-line. This short post is designed to be a reflection of the show as a whole -

Whenever I wear my Dunder Mifflin Paper Company shirt, I always get the comments, "You still watch that show?" and, "It started to suck after Steve Carrell left." I whole heartily disagree with the latter.

The show has always been wonderful. For 9 years, it was more than entertaining, and it was certainly more than a TV comedy. It was a commentary on life. The love-longing Michael Scott, the socially awkward, but good hearted Dwight, the blissfully ignorant Andy, even the depressive Toby. Almost everyone can relate to someone on this show, because the characters always faced real problems. Marital and relationship troubles, troubles at work with an incompetent boss, conflicts between coworkers, and life getting in the way. Having kids, buying homes, moving on to new horizons, hell, even Oscar being sexually harassed by Michael Scott in the workplace after coming out gay was a social commentary on the average American workplace.

The finale tonight was wonderful, and it's only appropriate that the Office left on the note of resolving each character's issues. I sincerely hope that our generation comes to realize that 'The Office' was our Seinfeld. Twenty years from now, TBS and NBC will still be running re-runs of the show every week night, because it made a permanent mark on TV history.