My Thoughts on The Office "Search Committee"

"Or, I don't know. Something always works out." 

I was pretty nervous about the season finale of the office.  Why is that you ask?  Because of all the guest stars they were packing into it.  I thought Will Ferrell was downright awful.  He seemed to play a different character each week and none of them were funny or fit into the genius world The Office has built.  That was one of the main reasons why I was really worried about last night’s finale.  As it turns out, I was right to be worried because the episode itself was all over the place and every uneven.

“Search Committee” at time almost felt like a sketch comedy show.  They trotted in each guest star one at a time to do their thing and for the most part it really did not work.  It was like the show needed to validate itself by saying “We might not have Steve Carrel, But look at all these other people we can get!”  As for the stars performances, the only one I enjoyed was James Spader.  I actually think he could make it work as a long term replacement, but I highly doubt that he would do it.  Ray Romano and Jim Carrey were just over the top and goofy.  The worst one was by far Rick Gervais and it pains me to say that because his cameo earlier in the season was SO well done that I wish they would have just left it at that instead of going to the well one too many times.

The most frustrating aspect of the finale was that just one episode prior to this, The Office had its strongest episode of the season and they did not need Michael Scott or any other outsiders to pull that off.  And the stuff in this episode that focused on the normal staff for the most part worked.  Erin and Phyllis as a mother daughter duo worked really well and made me smile more than a few times.  The Creed/Pam stuff was golden and shows that when Creed is taken in small doses, he can still be one of the funnier characters in the ensemble.  Even a storyline I don’t like, such as Erin and Andy provided moments that made me laugh out (“I wish the puppets would talk more about the alphabet”)

I really think The Office can work going forward.  They showed me that last week.  These other characters have had 7 seasons to develop, so while they may have started as bit characters, we know enough about them now that together they can carry this show.  In my mind, Darryl would make the best boss going forward.  I think by choosing him, your ensuring that the chemistry is still great, and picking someone very funny, who at the same time, is very different from Michael Scott.

Rating:  5 out 10