Tonight we say goodbye to The Office.

Well friends, it is finally here. Tonight is the conclusion of a great comedy señes. These past nine seasons have been full of great memories that have touched us one way or another. I know I am going to be a wreck tonight!, and I am prepared to cry like a fool. I hope that tonights episode does the show justice, and gives the proper send off the fans deserve.

I never liked this show. I think part of it was all the weird camera angles.

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Even though a lot of people seem to feel it went downhill since Steve Carell left I still think that the show at its worst was still a lot better than a lot of other shows when at their best.

That was a great way to send off a great television show. Thank you The Office for 9 years of great memories!

I thought it was pretty much perfect. I let out an audible gasp when Michael appeared. That was a genuine shock since Carell said he was not in the finale. And he gave us one last "That's what she said" which made me burst out laughing through my tears.

Seeing Kelly & Ryan end up together was perfect and especially with the baby, it fit those two characters better than anything else ever could. Strangely, the one line of the night that affected me more than anything else was when Phyllis said "I've worked at a paper company all these years and I never wrote anything down". I can't put my finger on why that was so perfect and beautiful, but it really was.

I'm going to miss this show and these people tremendously. When I see Jenna Fischer's play next week I was hoping to meet her, i just hope I don't start crying.

i let out a gasp as well... then i cried when Michael appeared.... loved his cameo and that it didn't overshadow the finale... loved his two lines...

loved seeing Devon, Carol, and that's the same stripper from previous eps, right?... love the fact that Meredith has Ph.D... and that stripper scene was so hilariously awkward...

loved the final words from Pam... "There's a lot of beauty in ordinary things. Isn't that kind of the point?"

beautiful series finale

"Ya know...?

I wasn't as moved or nostalgically tearful as I'd hoped. I expected the kind of send-off that MTM, M*A*S*H, Newhart, etc. had (as posted in another thread).

When I compare how well-written and moving other Office "send-off" episodes have been (i.e., Michael's good-bye episode, Michael's proposal to Holly, and others), this finale fell pretty short.

******* SPOILERS (IF YOU HAVEN"T SEEN THE FINALE YET, YOU MIGHT WANT TO STOP READING) ******

This finale felt very "cut and paste". It seemed that there were too many loose ends that needed to be un-cohesively tossed together like a salad, just so that they could finally be resolved.

Some elements should have been taken care of in recent weeks. (IMO, there was a lot of wasted "filler" time towards the end.) For example, I think Pam should have sold the house and completely resolved the Jim/Pam storyline last week. No need to drag it out for this finale. That way, "finale" time could have been completely devoted to making me cry...

Although it was fun to see Meredeth's son show up as the stripper, why ONLY him when there were so many other memorable, minor characters who might also have been inventively included to "surprise" and emphasize 9 years of nostalgia? I'm sure it would have been difficult to write, but to have David show up in the finale, but not Jan was weird.

There was also an odd imbalance of "fiction" (the wedding) and "disguised reality" plot elements (those fabulous lines that were written for characters once they all finally got back to the office set). BTW, that physical move from wedding reception back to the office was *really* clunky and forced. Oh, and call me crazy, but I didn't like seeing Angela so happy and reasonable.

There were a few really GREAT moments (we all know what they were 'cause they've already been mentioned), but this was not the finale it COULD have been. A wedding reception seems like the perfect setting for reunion, reminiscing, and nostalgia. That didn't happen, though - at least not as well as it should have. This finale seemed un-focused and pasted together.

I enjoyed the 1-hour retrospective that came before the final episode much more than the actual finale.

Updated On: 5/17/13 at 01:43 PM

>>"when Phyllis held up the little statue that Stanley made her and said "That's me", I just lost it."

ABSOLUTELY! (I wanted 55 minutes of that kind of stuff tempered with the level of humorous writing it took to bring Meredeth's son back as the stripper.)

...and many thanks for that link!

Updated On: 5/17/13 at 02:05 PM

Interesting, Adam Scott auditioned for the role of Jim and Eric Stonestreet auditioned for the role of Kevin.


'The Office' audition tapes: Watch Adam Scott, Kathryn Hahn, and more try out for Dunder Mifflin