The Office still has a heart

I didn’t watch The Office this week. I’ve actually stopped watching consistently a couple seasons ago. This was a sad thing for me, because I was a fan from the first season, back when they only had six episodes. I remember in September of 2005, talking with a guy I had only talked to once or twice about how I was hoping the show would be renewed. The guy replied that he thought he caught a new episode the other week. We spent at least twenty minutes just gushing over how much we liked the show. Guess what … that guy and I have been dating now for almost six years. Because we lived three hours apart at the time, a lot of our early relationship was spent on the phone, watching our favorite shows together … The Office was on the top of our list. I know it’s silly to say about a television show, but The Office meant a lot to me back then, so it’s been sad to walk away from it in its not so good years. When I heard Steve Carell was leaving the show, I wanted the show to end there, if only to give the characters a dignified end. There will be a new season, of course, and I doubt I’ll be catching it every week.

Even though I didn’t see this week’s episode, I did discover the song Michael’s coworkers sang to him during his very last Dundie Awards.

This clip kind of represents everything I loved about the show in its heyday. It’s sweet, but never lets us forget how frustrating this man is. The song itself (a parody of Rent‘s “Season of Love”) is a homage to how much Michael loves parody songs. And almost every verse is a look back at some of the best episodes — Creed being creepy Creed and Oscar forgiving Michael for kissing him were perfect. Probably my favorite part was that everyone was smiling … even Angela. All of them wanted to do this for this man that has been frustrating and insufferable … and also lovable. And they’re going to miss him. Of course, in that moment Steve Carrell does what he does best — cry in the funniest way possible. But you know what, I was tearing up, too.

So, there’s going to be at least one season sans Michael Scott. I still don’t think I’m going to watch it regularly, but moments like these remind me why The Office is still up there as one of my favorite shows of all time. And I think I’ll be watching next week to say goodbye to the World’s Best Boss (it says so on his mug).

Clacked by Katie Schenkel
on Apr 23, 2011 @ 18:50 EST5EDT