The eighth season of The Office is 24 episodes long. It is the first full season without Michael Scott. It is set a few months after the end of the previous season. The show is set at the Scranton branch of the paper company Dunder Mifflin. The replacement of Michael Scott is revealed and it is surprising while at the same time, amusing. Jim’s delivery seals the deal. In additional, quite a number of things have also happened during the break between the seasons, with a few pregnancies going around.
Andy has a lot of focus this season, for better or worse, he has become the de facto lead character. He has a lot of annoying traits if you were to work with him but as a viewer, you can see where he is coming from. His string of bad luck continues and his fellow coworkers look down on him. He’s not great as his job and he doesn’t get any recognition for the things he tries to do as a good guy. He is not as unlikable as he was in the previous season but at the same time, he’s fairly flat as a character too.
Dwight continues to be overbearing. In typical fashion, he is not happy staying second in command of the office (even though he had a chance in the last season and blew it by firing a gun…). He carries on his quest to gain more power and in getting Jim fired. While in the past he has had some good ideas, nowadays, they’re all over the top and hardly appropriate. His relationship with Angela and the way he is so smug is extremely annoying. There’s no one to tone him down since the only person he had ever respected and listened to was Michael.
The new CEO of the company, Robert California, constantly turns up as the Scranton branch of Dunder Mifflin, which means he shows up in literally every episode. This is overkill and we’re so over-saturated with his character, which wasn’t great to begin with, that he starts to feel annoying. Robert is all show and has no real skills to back himself up. He is a great talker at convincing someone of something but is weak when something doesn’t go his way. By the time the fifth episode comes along, you feel the departure of Steve Carell as Michael Scott had left a gigantic hole in the show. It feels like it drags on and it is so much easier in this season to tune out since the scenes and conflict aren’t that interesting. There is none of the trademark craziness and stupidity from the character. While a lot of the cold openings are still funny, the rest of the episode often feels like seasonal rot has settled in.
Relationships are all over the place and are very messy. Characters who weren’t interested in the past now has their feelings rekindled for no reason except jealously. It continues to encourage characters to go for someone who already has a partner. A lot of them are oblivious to the awkwardness that they are causing. A typical example is how they don’t take a hint and ends up staying for a conversation where the others wanted some privacy.
There are unfathomable situations where the illegal and unfair actually happens. Yet for some odd reason, everyone still wants to stay working for Dunder Mifflin. The supporting characters are hit and miss. Toby is often overlooked and everyone gives him flack. The sad fact is that he is not actually that unlikable or boring. Stanley undergoes a slight change in personality. He’s more outgoing and does a lot more partying. Phyllis swings from being sweet to petty at a moment’s notice. Angela is as unpleasant as ever while Kelly continues to be annoying with her melodramatic and attention seeking actions.
Overall, the eighth season of The Office has taken a noticeable drop in quality. The tone feels completely different and it is not as funny as before. At the same time, there is a lot less extremely awkward moments. The season ends without too much fanfare and there is still a bit to like here but there are too many annoying situations and slow bland scenes where nothing happens.
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