The show “30 Rock” ended last week.
Forever. Seven seasons of TV gold met with mediocre fanfare just over and done with.
Yeah, we were sad to see it go. How could we not be? Tina Fey’s brainchild helped us get through high school and college; those can be some pretty delicate times for young ladies.
Another comedy titan is coming to an end soon, too.
“The Office” has its final season this year.
Arguably, it lost a lot of its fans with the departure of Steve Carell, who played the lovable and stupid Michael Scott. Many fans were upset that the driving forces behind the show, Scott’s antics and the chemistry building behind a Jim-and-Pam romance, were resolved too early on in the show’s run.
But don’t forget about it just yet.
No, it hasn’t helped move along a weirdly suggestive phenomenon like “That’s What She Said” in a while, but that doesn’t mean it’s uninteresting.
Also, everyone has different tastes in comedy.
Fun fact: Nearly every comedic show on NBC we’ve shown our parents has not gone over well. They don’t even smile during “Parks and Recreation,” and that’s one of the most joyful shows on television right now.
You should maybe start getting prepared for “The Office” to shock you. There’s already a gay politician on there; it’s ready to take us to some real emotional places.
Jim and Pam could get divorced. This is just a theory, but we wanted to prepare you for the possibility, just in case it’s true.
“Slowly realizing that locked in by their growing responsibilities, Jim and Pam are both going to work at Dunder-Mifflin until they die,” wrote Molly Lambert for “Grantland” back in Sept. 2011.
As that was written more than a year ago, we think the path “The Office” has planted for Jim and Pam is one that won’t work. Jim’s new job in Philly combined with Pam’s recent frustrations in the office don’t leave us feeling easy about their relationship.
This series, by the way, has been a documentary/mockumentary the whole time, and you should also remember that point right about now.
The fourth wall is going to be broken more than it already is.
“‘The Office’ has always balanced out its humor and absurdity with insight into the bleakest depths of human nature,” said Lambert. “If anyone could pull it off, they could.”
“With Jim’s budding startup job in Philly and the Halperts’ budding interaction with the documentary crew,” said Megh Wright in a “Splitsider” article this month, “it’s likely that the Philly situation will play a huge factor in the series finale come May.”
Why couldn’t the show have started some of that intrigue earlier, closer to when Carell left the cast? The Grantland article was written in speculation of how the show could continue without him.
Now that it’s almost over and no one cares, the show might get more creative to spite us all.
