The sixth season of The Office is 26 half-hour episodes long. The season starts with a status quo. It follows Michael Scott of the Scranton branch of Dunder Mifflin, a paper company. He does his usual shenanigans, this time spreading a boatload of rumors around the office in an bid to fit in. this inadvertently ties into Jim and Pam’s revelation of having a baby from the end of last season.
Over and over we are reminded of the fact that Michael cannot hold in a secret. He is completely inappropriate, he cannot manage, and also constantly feels threatened of being backstabbed (with good reason, considering the track record). He blows every chance he gets and yet he still manages to keep his job. In an interesting turn of events in regards to the management of the Scranton branch early on in the season, he effectively loses a lot of his power.
In comparison to previous seasons, Michael doesn’t change; in fact he might be getting worse. He loves to dish it out but cannot take it. This can make him seem like a petty and insecure guy, and that is correct. You might feel a bit bad but it is great watching him get mocked. However, for some reason, once he crumples, others in the office takes pity on him. Michael wants everything but gives nothing. He changes his mind constantly and once he makes a mistake, he wants things to go back to the way things were. It can be a frustrating exercise watching this, and even more so when he gets what he wants.
It is hard to understand why other characters seem to give Michael things to blabber out about. You simply cannot fathom why the CFO would actually tell Michael high level secret stuff that he shouldn’t know. Michael even admits himself that he cannot, and will not, keep a secret. One key trait of Michael is how he is desperate to find love, but always seems to make poor decisions and date the most inappropriate of people. It’s quite sad to watch. Although then he has the nerve to think that he is not wrong and never reflects on anything. It can be grating among the other humor that is funny.
One of the plot points in the earlier seasons is how Dunder Mifflin is considering downsizing. Well, that type of threat returns once again. It was always hinting at this ever since the various branch shutdowns and it hits the characters hard this season. All the other characters continue their downward spiral of becoming ever more unlikable with their negative attitudes becoming more prominent. Ryan just does not seem to have anything positive to say while Michael is taking his hate of Toby to newer levels. There are many points in the show where you can’t help but feel that all the characters are idiots. They play the sane person in one scene but then an idiot in another. There are as many moments where it is funny as cringey moments where they cannot read the situation and do something inappropriate.
The roles of Jim and Dwight in this season are reversed of what you’d expect. Before, it used to be Jim pranking Dwight but now, Dwight is using some pretty evil schemes in order to get Jim fired. It feels like Dwight is going too far since he uses blackmail or putting blame onto Jim when it was him that had done all the whispering in the background. Time passes really quickly in the show. Jim and Pam take significant steps towards each other. There are funny self-reflections, and the humor is some of the best that we have seen. An interesting choice is how there is a clip-show episode in the middle of the season. It actually isn’t too bad since it is a select of the best and funniest moments in all the previous seasons up until now.
Overall, the sixth season of The Office is enjoyable and fun to watch with all the characters that you have known for a while now. While the season finale does not feel like the closing of a season and was a tad bit too abrupt, the humor is some of the best that we have seen. It is a testament to the writers that there can still be things that Michael does that we as the viewers will be surprised with.
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