The Office Season 7 - - Part 2

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This is a continuation thread, the old thread is Here

[Thread Manager]

This is a continuation thread, the old thread is Here

[Sawyer]

Things are getting Scrubsier and Scrubsier with every passing moment....

‘The Office’ Update: Series Reboot Eyed As Talks With Cast Still In Holding Pattern
By NELLIE ANDREEVA

NBC’s The Office went through a major transformation at the beginning of this season, following the departure of original star Steve Carell. But I hear the show, which has not been officially renewed, may undergo an even more dramatic change going into next fall. Word is that The Office executive producer Greg Daniels, who originally developed the American version of the cult British comedy, is mulling a reboot of the series, now in its eighth season. Daniels is expected to meet with NBC brass to lay out his idea for The Office 2.0, which I hear would feature existing characters as well as new ones. As for The Office key original cast members, Ed Helms, John Krasinski, Jenna Fischer and B.J. Novak, whose contracts are up at the end of this season, there hasn’t been a lot of movement in the negotiations over the past few weeks, following an early overture by the network around the time The Office spinoff starting Rainn Wilson came together. There are a number of major outstanding questions, including the number of episodes the stars would sign for. Helms has The Hangover threequel and Krasinski is eying a possible January movie shoot, so potential new deals for them will likely accommodate that the way House accommodated Olivia Wilde when her feature career took off. Also unclear is how long The Office would keep going. I hear the main cast may want next season to be last while NBC is leaning towards not closing the door to one additional season. I hear no major decisions will be made until NBC brass review their crop of pilots for next season.

http://www.deadline.com/2012/04/the-...lding-pattern/

For the love of God, NBC, show this thing a bit of dignity. Put a bullet in the back of it's head. :o

[Matt]

One part of this gives me hope....

Greg Daniels is pitching it. The show started its major decline when Daniels left to focus on Parks and Rec. If Daniels will return, I'd give a "reboot," a chance.

[Sawyer]

I wish that could put me at ease, but I'm just getting too many Scrubs flashbacks...

[HighFivingMF]

If they tell Catherine Tate to **** off I'll watch it.

[Matt]

Originally Posted by Sawyer

I wish that could put me at ease, but I'm just getting too many Scrubs flashbacks...

Well, Bill Lawrence had moved onto Cougar Town at that point, right?

[Sawyer]

Was it? I can't remember...

Still, though, Daniels also has another pilot in the works at NBC. If that gets picked up and this is renewed, I have to imagine he'd go with the newer of the two and hand The Office off to one of the other writers. Sure, they'd have his pitch to work off of, but then, this season has had years of Daniels' writing to work off of and look what we got.

[Dr. Evil]

The last season of Scrubs doesn't exist for me.

[Spidey-Bat]

I still haven't seen that season's last few episodes.

[Sawyer]

Same here. Season 8's finale was pitch perfect. It was the series finale, as far as I'm concerned.

[Scarecrow_King]

wtf, this episode was good. I liked it a lot.

[Dr. Evil]

Nellie is still a crappy character played by a terrible actress.

[Prison Mike]

Was the episode any good? I turned it off after the cold open.

[Scarecrow_King]

I thought it was really good, especially for this season. It had me laughing a lot.

[ironmaidenrules]

Donna noble was at her best in last night's episode.

Still horrible episode of the office....decent episode of whatever the show is now

[Scarecrow_King]

no, last night's episode was good by just about any standard.

people are letting the fact that Michael is gone, and that in general this season has been awful, infect their opinions of every single episode. There have been a few good eggs in the basket, but people don't want to admit that they've enjoyed them. Last night was a good egg.

[Matt]

I didn't think that last night was good. This Nellie situation is beyond ridiculous. It is like they are dragging out an story arc that should have been resolved three episodes ago.

The problem isn't that people aren't letting go of Michael....it is that the writers aren't letting go of Michael. This review that I read sums it up best.

“Welcome Party” is an attempt to humanize Nellie. It turns out she’s a real person with feelings and everything and Jim doesn’t want her to get hurt. Well, I’m afraid I still don’t care about her. She’s just another piece of the rotating puzzle that The Office has become, constantly shifting characters into new positions to see if they’ll fit and the show will work like it did when Steve Carrel was still in it.

link

The logical step for the writers was to make Jim the manager and let him play the ultimate straight man to the insanity of the office staff and the even more insane Robert. Instead the writers took Andy and made him Michael 2.0, jamming him into Michael Scott stories whether he fit or not.

Then about half way through the season they got wind that it wasn't working so what do they do? They re-introduce a character that no one particularly liked (aside from Paul Lieberstein for some bizarre reason) and make her into "Michael with boobs."

This whole episode screams of an unused Michael plot....the staff makes fun of Michael, Michael doesn't realize it, Michael realizes it, is hurt, Jim saves the day (or at least attempted to in this case). Hell, they probably HAVE done that plot before only in more clever ways.

The problem isn't that viewers won't let go. It is that writers won't let go. Nellie is a female Michael Scott with none of Carrell's charm or likability yet the writers seem desperate to jam her down people's throats.

And the strange part is, I think that the writers realize that Jim needs to become manager. In the episode where Nellie took over, the plot was hinting that Jim just step up and take over. Hell, even Robert California was hinting that he wanted Jim to do it (and in some bizarre 180, this week he seems infatuated with Nellie despite having shown nothing but disdain in the past). Yet the writers are determined to just stretch it out rather than do something creative. This whole season has felt like a desperate attempt to keep Michael Scott without Steve Carrell by forcing other characters into Michael's role. So don't blame the fans for refusing to let go of Michael, blame the writers for continuing to produce Michael Scott stories.

That being said, the cold open with Stanley's mustache was great.

[HighFivingMF]

So um... I was looking at the episode descriptions for the last few episodes of the season. It said that in the finale "Nellie learns how to eat a taco"


......?

[Matt]

Originally Posted by HighFivingMF

So um... I was looking at the episode descriptions for the last few episodes of the season. It said that in the finale "Nellie learns how to eat a taco"


......?

That's not the finale. There are four more episodes, that in two weeks. Clearly they are stretching the Nellie plot even further than the search committee plot. These writers are desperate.

[ironmaidenrules]

Can they at least pretend like a camera crew is around them. No one seems phased by it. All of Andy's ex girlfriend's friends didn't seem to mind Andy arriving with a camera crew behind him (they clearly weren't in the back seat)

[HighFivingMF]

Originally Posted by Matt

That's not the finale. There are four more episodes, that in two weeks.

Thank god.

[Incrediblejeff]

Originally Posted by HighFivingMF

So um... I was looking at the episode descriptions for the last few episodes of the season. It said that in the finale "Nellie learns how to eat a taco"


......?

I'm on the fence about an Office 2.0. on one hand I'm getting kinda uninterested in these characters,but at the same time I think new characters it can be a fresh start.I personally liked Scrubs 2.0. I think if it was labelled as a spinoff fans would've been more receptive of it.

[Shifty]

Originally Posted by Matt

That being said, the cold open with Stanley's mustache was great.

They can still produce good cold opens but that's about it.

Thursday's episode was a new series low for the show, beating the previous series low from a few weeks ago (until this season the series low was in the first season). A year ago Michael was about the leave and they've handle the transition in the worse way possible, eliminating half their audience in a year to the point that NBC is considering a Office 2.0 to save the franchise.

Oh well, we've got the good season DVD sets and can hopefully block out everything post Michael leaving.

[Sawyer]

I'd only be even slightly interested with an Office 2.0 if the boss was the straight man type.

If it's going to another instance of "Hey, let's just make this character Michael Scott", I'll pass.