That was a great but bittersweet finale. I'm really sad it's over. I'm so glad Michael came back but I was hoping for more than just a cameo.
Steve was great, and like Starbreaker said, he had the best two lines of the show, but he didn't take over the show. Everyone had some great moments too, and with that big of a cast that's pretty hard to do. Definitely one of the better finales that I've seen.
That was a lovely and satisfying finale, and went a long way toward redeeming some of the poor characterization this season (like with Andy) and making up for a string of weak episodes. I thought it was great, as was the retrospective. I'm really happy where everyone left off. Michael's return was handled well and complemented the finale rather than dominated it.
The finale was OK, I'd give it a B. It was great that they didn't let Carrell ham it up all over the place. The saddest thing was to see how the show had sunk from sharp, incisive and believable to unfocused, mushy and absurd. If it had ended after five years I would probably rank it near the original "Office" and The Larry Sanders Show for workplace comedies but the last few seasons really dulled its luster. I was surprised not to see Jan, Packer and too a lesser extent Gabe. Rachael Harris didn't look right, like she's had something done to her face. I have to ask again: Is there any realistic scenario whereby PBS or anyone else would pay a documentary crew for nine years before showing any of the product? I didn't buy it.
No, but I bet they didn't think this show would take off like it did. Wasn't season 1 just 6 episodes, and aired as a spring replacement series?
Until last night I had absolutely no idea whatsoever that Creed Bratton was a fictional version of a real person named Creed Bratton. I just assumed they'd just named the character after the actor for no apparant reason.
I loved that finale. Nearly everyone got their moments. I was a bit disappointed that Michael wasn't on the panel but then he showed up as the best man. I actually clapped at that point. I don't think there could have been a better finale really, all the characters were left in a sensible place, lots of laughs and sentiment.
The finale was nice, it wrapped things up well. The only thing I didn't like was the questions/comments at the panel for Pam, basically criticizing her for being upset at Jim over his job in Philadelphia. I didn't really understand this or why they weren't criticizing Jim instead, who I felt was much more at fault. He put Pam in an impossible situation. I thought that part of the panel was weird and wasn't necessary.
Very satisfying ending. When Dwight turned around to see Michael..."that's what she said"...just perfect. Tears actually welled-up! I agree with everyone else who said that his appearance was just right. They didn't have him go nuts or anything. It was very nicely done. "All my kids have grown up and married each other. It's every parent's dream!" Everybody got a little something, which was nice. Meredith and her son at the bachelorette party...wow! The friendship between Phyllis and Stanley. Erin and her parents. The even re-humanized Andy, which was good. The only part I didn't like was Ryan's baby thing. That was unnecessary and kinda dumb, IMHO. Overall, a solid A of a finale.
I thought it was a decent though unspectacular finale, a sweet and gentle goodbye. I did enjoy Dwight trying to place his order with the "waitress". I was surprised at how much Oscar helping Angela and her son made him more likable even at the late stage they introduced that. Phyllis and Stanley was sweet. I thought for sure there was going to be something up with Erin's parents.
A few years ago i got the urge to hear an old 1960's hit called, "Pushin' to Hard", by the Grass Roots. As I listened to the song on Youtube I scrolled down to read the comments on the song. One of them said something like, 'look at Creed. He looks as sneaky as he does on The Office'. I went back up and took a good look at the band and sure enough it was Creed from the office. That was so weird because I remember the Grass Roots and used to like them. After that I noticed that in the episode that began with the song (can't recal the name of the song), they showed Creed playing guitar. How appropriate. Pretty cool to, that they let Creed play himself, kind of. Liked the finale a lot, although I missed most of the last two seasons. Can someone tell me what was going on with Darryl. Was he trying to keep secret that he was really successfull or something? If so, why? One last thing; did Erin and Andy break up? Loved Michael's appearance. I was completely unspoiled and I believed the announcement that he wouldn't make an appearance. Very nicely done.
I don't know what to think about that. I like that they didn't attempt to redeem everyone or give them all ideal endings, and given Ryan's (and Kelly's) narcissism and immaturity it's not unbelievable that he might do something like that, but it still kind of left a sour note with me. If you mean the part where Daryl ducked in the limo at the beginning, he did that because Andy had quit Dunder-Mifflin and tried to make it big in acting and singing and failed miserably, so Daryl didn't want to rub his success in Andy's face and didn't really want to talk with him because he didn't know what to say. Daryl joined the sports promotion company Jim had started with his friends which took off and became a huge success. Jim decided to stay behind at Dunder-Mifflin with Pam because him commuting to and staying in Philadelphia for the job half the time was causing tension in their marriage. Daryl also played it down a bit because he didn't want to rub it in Jim's face either. Erin and Andy broke up when Andy decided to take a long boat trip to the Caribbean without bringing her along and without contacting her the whole time (this was when Ed Helms was filming Hangover 3). Andy did not handle it well and became a little creepy. Or creepier than usual.
That's interesting, because if you read the Television Without Pity episode threads, the tone is generally very anti-Pam. Some of those panel questions could be directly ripped from the posts over there. I think they were pretty equally at fault, but motivated by realistic fears and desires. A lot of people didn't like their conflict this season, but I thought it is fairly true to both their characters and a sort of marital conflict in general. As for the overall finale, I thought it was pretty good. I liked the preceding two episodes better, but this was a nice bow on top of the closure already given.
The finale just milked all the sentimentality it spent nine years earning. Nothing wrong with that. My feeling about The Office is that, seasons two and three were spectacular, season four was horrible, then it gradually built itself back up to 'good' over the rest of the run. I think in the middle of the run it got terrible, but starting from the point Sabre showed up it got back to being one of the best network shows. It's awesome to see Michael got to have kids like he wanted. Is that Steve Carrell's real hair and they usually dye it black, or did they dye his hair gray for the finale? I'm glad there's not a literal film crew in Parks & Rec, of course. But it worked for The Office. I'm also glad Dwight finally got the joke about himself. I would have loved the final scene to be Dwight putting something of Jim's in jello. As for Jim and Pam, I'm surprised all the people are blaming Pam for everything considering she was the one raising the children every day. You can't blame Jim for wanting to get a job he really cared about, but you also certainly can't blame Pam for being angry.
The only negative was Ryan and Kelly, their characters were, and always have been, completely worthless, I know they were writers on the show and wrote some good episodes, but we didn't need to see either..ever..unless they were getting hit by a truck.