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Niagra as the Office's series finale?

Joe Washington

Fleet Captain
Fleet Captain
Do you think the Niagra episode featuring Jim and Pam's wedding would have be the perfect episode for the show to end with?
 
Almost, except I think that
like its British counterpart
, the series HAS to end with the boss finally achieving some happiness in a romantic relationship after so many devastating disappointments.

All of the episodes since "Niagara" have been rather weak and I'm getting a bit burned out on the show (was a huge fan from seasons 2-4). "Niagara" would have ended the show on a high note and left me feeling less disillusioned about it than I do right now, but the lack of closure for Michael would have been disappointing too. I think we need to see Michael find happiness before it's all said and done. :angel:
 
I find Pam to be a idiot who treated Jim like shit because she wanted to have her cake and eat it too. And I find Jim and Pam as "the perfect couple" positively insufferable, so I'm gonna go ahead and vote no on this one.
 
The show, while still entertaining, is a shell of it's former self. The perfect ending to the show would have been the season three finale, "The Job". It wrapped up many things from the first three years: Michael realized he's happy where he is at; he's in a good (well, at the time) relationship; Jim and Pam are finally together; and Dwight finally gets a taste of real power.
 
They can't end the show until the "documentary" that's being filmed about them finally starts airing on TV in their world. Like it's UK counterpart, some really funny stuff can be had by having the characters become reality tv "stars" in their own world. Then they should end it. And quickly.
 
Have they even directly acknowledged the "documentary" in dialogue since the pilot episode?
 
When Jim and Pam first started dating in secret, the doco crew confronted them with footage from the previous episode showing them leaving work together (after trying to look like they weren't). We didn't actually see or hear anyone on the crew, though, just Pam watching the tape.
 
Ah, okay. It would make a nice bookend to the series, then, having the documentary finally air. Though I must confess I haven't seen much of the fourth or fifth seasons. Is it in the sixth season now? If so, haven't seen any of that.
 
I think the 'dunder is shutting down' storyline has given the show a little more breathing room. The 'Michael Scott Paper Company' arc from S5 was brilliant and one of my all time favorites... but I think it says something that they have to keep changing things about the company, setting, and situation itself to try and keep the show from getting stale. S6 should really be the last one, or maybe a shorter S7, going in knowing its the last (a la Lost, not that office is nearly that dramatic).
 
Would Niagara make the perfect series finale, if it had the two following alterations:
  1. Holly comes to Niagara to find Michael after realizing she wants to be with him and no one else. But she gets lost in the city for a while before she arrives on the eve of Jim and Pam's wedding. Michael and Holly reunite and hook up. The last we see of Michael and Holly, they are joining in on the dance down the aisle.
  2. Right after the lovely scene of Jim holding Pam as they watch the falls, the scene freezes and we pull back to see that it's on the screen of a cutting room where the documentary crew are putting the finishing touches on the documentary. Some of the crew are watching what they made and they turn their heads when they hear the voice of their boss saying, "Excuse me..." The camera turns to the crew's boss, who's played by Rick Gervais, "Is it me or was this documentary over a hundred hours longer than it should be?" Cut to black.
 
Niagara should have been the season finale at least... because they've got no real place to go this season so far.
 
Some of the crew are watching what they made and they turn their heads when they hear the voice of their boss saying, "Excuse me..." The camera turns to the crew's boss, who's played by Rick Gervais, "Is it me or was this documentary over a hundred hours longer than it should be?" Cut to black.

'The Office' Ends As Documentary Crew Gets All The Footage It Needs

"Sheffield said that the footage will be drastically cut down and used primarily as B-roll for the planned 90-minute educational film about paper manufacture and production."
 
Have they even directly acknowledged the "documentary" in dialogue since the pilot episode?
Yeah, in the first few episodes and they frequently break the fourth wall by looking at the camera or locking it out of places.

I can't think of a time that they've ever talked to the camera man though.
 
They often engage the camera man. Quite often in talking heads they will direct a question at the camera man, but he never replies. Ignoring the talking heads in and outside the office, the characters at odd times will wave to the camera man or acknowledge that they are being followed.

Some of the moments I can recall when when they went to Karen's new office and Jim pulls the camera man down when they are hiding in the car.

The camera man and Pam interacted when she was looking to find out if Dwight and Angela were going on in the second season.

The camera man went and god Jim and Pam to show them the tape they had of Jim getting in Pam's care to make them admit they were going out in the fifth season.

Kevin pushes over the camera man in the episode where Dwight lights a fire in the office and locks them in.

Michael turns to the camera man after Jan kisses him at the New York office letting Jan know their private moment was not so private.

Not counting the talking heads there is usually at least one moment in most episode where the cast will acknowledge that they are being filmed.
 
Another I remember is when Jim distracts the cameraman outside Pam's dormroom so they can close the door on him and get some 'privacy'. The cameraman, left out in the corridor, just looks down and sighs.
 
"Company Picnic" was terrible and would have made for a very lacking finale. Nothing was resolved. The only thing close to resolution (if it could be called that) is that it was suggested (later revealed to be true) that Jim knocked Pam up.
 
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