Image Credit: Chris Haston/NBC
Last night’s series finale of The Office was way up in the ratings — meaning that a bunch of people who haven’t been viewing the daily happenings of Dunder Mifflin tuned back in to see Pam, Jim, Dwight — and yes, even Michael — one last time.
This morning at Entertainment Weekly Headquarters we naturally all had opinions about what worked and what didn’t in the farewell episode of the long-running sitcom. Was it a fitting end for America’s favorite paper company? Over email this morning, Jeff Labrecque and Erin Strecker hashed out the supersized episode — Jeff didn’t care for it; Erin loved it. Read their debate, and then tell us what you thought of the finale in our poll below.
JEFF LABRECQUE: For the record, I am a devoted fan of The Office. I’ve watched just about every episode from the very beginning and I’ve never been part of the herd that liked to complain that the show lost its fastball in the final few seasons. But I can’t remember a series finale of a beloved show that was more self-congratulatory. It was simple and total wish-fulfillment for every character. (Except Toby?) It almost felt like the writers crowd-sourced the plot from the whims of the show’s biggest fans. (Turns out they sorta did, according to Jenna Fischer, who told Dan Snierson that executive producer Greg Daniels asked each cast member for what their dream for their characters would be.) It just felt like one 75-minute long curtain-call, bow after bow after bow, patting itself on the back while taking every easy way out. Didn’t it feel a little pandering to you? READ FULL STORY »
