I'm sure there comes a time in every dedicated fan's life when you start feeling really old. For me, that time is now.
The Office, the first show that I ever fell in love with for its quality instead of familiarity or idle laughs, has become the grumpy octogenarian living on the NBC comedy block.
I first fell for The Office because of its uncommonly funny and tender, though guarded, heart. It was light-years more compelling than Friends or Frasier or any other laugh-track-plagued genericom.\nDuring its first few years of existence, The Office thrived on its newcomer, underdog status - nobody expected the American version of a biting British satire to be a hit when it was first imported stateside.
But with a shockingly effective cast and the best writers in the biz, The Office quickly rose from knockoff to a sharp homage that forged its own American identity.
As the show gradually built an audience, it cemented its status as one of the best-written - and, more importantly, best-planned - comedies on TV. By the fifth season, the show was starting to show signs of age, but some bold and clever plotting allowed it to emerge as the king of comedy done right.
During the past six months, however, the show has gone from inspired to aimless. The cuplrit? Gutless television writing. They may prove us wrong by revealing some master plan soon, but it seems like the writers are either afraid of changing the show or have lost the patience to oversee satisfying plot arcs.
Consider the promotion to co-manager of Jim (John Krasinski). With it came a few funny scenes, but there was never any meaningful development in the show. Then last week, the show teased us with a compelling twist, with Jim's promotion to full-time manager and Michael's (Steve Carell) demotion to salesman. This legitimately excited me: I looked forward to seeing Jim trying to deal with an emasculated Michael who struggles to adjust to his loss of power.
But the change lasted for all of five minutes. By the end of the episode, Jim was demoted back to salesman and Michael was promoted back to manager.
Come on, writers! Give the audience some credit. We've stuck with you this long; we'd surely stick out something that fundamentally altered the dynamic of the show the same way we gleefully did during the admittedly abbreviated days last year when Michael had a four-episode excursion into owning his own company.
I could list a half-dozen other recent, promising ideas that have been undercooked and discarded. There was Michael's romance with Pam's mom. Dwight's alliance with Ryan. Oscar's one-episode flirtation with a warehouse worker.
The Office's growing pains as it enters old age curiously parallel another comedy in a creative rut: How I Met Your Mother.
The CBS show has always been a shining example of classicist sitcom fused with the more-complicated storytelling that a successful post-Sopranos show demands.
The show carefully toed that line all the way through about the third season. The fourth season got a little bit hairy but was ultimately redeemed by a frenetic season conclusion. But this fifth year has featured much of the same timidity to evolve that The Office has had in recent months.
The biggest disappointment has been the caricaturing of Barney (Neil Patrick Harris). After spending a whole year slowly progressing Barney to the point where the womanizer was believably vulnerable to Robin (Cobie Smulder), the writers tossed the enticing relationship out the window in favor of having their toy back.
Barney is a fun character when he is up to his debauchery but he's legen - wait for it - dary when he is treated as a real, growing character. Harris deserves the Emmy nominations he has received for his role, but the writers are letting him down to the point where I'm not sure he will have enough to work with to earn a fourth straight nod.
So I propose this to the writers: Have a big meeting with the producers. Together, set a date when the series finale will air, Lost-style. Map out the major plot arcs and get busy writing the best and funniest episodes the show has seen. Have patience with character and plot development. Make the show shine during its twilight years, and go out with a bang instead of a whimper. And, most of all, let me feel young for just a few years more.
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