The Office

Let's be clear: The Office hasn't been particularly funny since Steve Carell left.

The show had a weird, loping gait during the Will Ferrell/James Spader times - there were some funny, enjoyable bits even though it was clear the real good times were over. The final season has irritated me and made me roll my eyes more than it has made me laugh. Andy Bernard as played by Ed Helms made a terrible, lamentable central character. The whole business of there being trouble in Jim and Pam's marriage was clumsy and seemingly totally out of place. Episode after episode went by without so much as a chuckle. Suzy and I wanted to stop watching but nearly a decade's worth of watching this show and being invested in its characters brought us back week after week.

But the fact is that Steve Carell's performance as Michael Scott was the engine that drove that show. Without him, it went nowhere. What made it great was how he balanced the intensity of Micheal's pettiness, jealousy, lust, and complete lack of common sense or propriety with vulnerability and humanity. Even though he was horrible, he was loveable, and that's pretty hard to pull off.

So the show ended last night Suzy and I watched, and as big season finales go, it was pretty okay. No surprise, the best moment of the entire 75 minute episode, both the funniest and most touching, was the tiny moment when Michael Scott showed back up for a miniscule cameo at Dwight's wedding. I never would have thought that his patented "That's what she said" line could be both hilarious and touching - but it was. I loved that moment as much as any single pivotal moment on any tv show. It was brief, but it made the other 74 minutes worth it.

At its best, The Office was a very hopeful, optimistic show about love - romantic, familial, brotherly, you name it. It seemed to say that even amid the utter banality of daily life, despite our own ridiculous shortcomings, there is love. In a world where the sourness and hatefulness of garbage like Two and a Half Men just keeps going and going, I appreciate a tv show that touts the efficacy of love and friendship while simultaneously being hilarious. As I said, it lost some of its hilarity in the end, but nevertheless, I was sad to see it go.