The Office: WTF?

OK, so I have mentioned before that I am obsessed with the office. And I don't mean 'obsessed' like "oh, I'm obsessed with my new shirt" or "I'm obsessed with Moe's queso." To quote Karen Walker, the word obsessed, used by me when referring to The Office is not "one of those touchy-feely words that people throw around that don't really mean anything... You know, like 'maternal' or 'addiction.'" I am like literally obsessed with it. Do you know how many hours I've spent at work this week surfing the internet for spoilers about the season finale? At least 3. 3 hours that I should have been working or, at a minimum, online shopping, that I spent reading about a TV show. I hope that this makes you understand how serious I am about this. (Yes, I am crazy and should probably seek professional help.)

So anyway, I have all three of the past seasons on DVD and have watched each episode an absolute minimum of 5-10 times a piece. Also, all of this season's episodes are online on NBC.com, which means that a lot of times at the office, I put my headphones on and pretend I'm listening to music when I'm really listening/watching The Office. So with the possible exception of last week's episode, which I have only seen 3 times because it's harder to fake-work when I'm at a client's office, I've seen each of this season's episodes probably 10 times a piece as well. And I can honestly say that the episode tonight was by far the worst one I have ever seen.

Usually, The Office is pretty good about making episodes that mostly exist with the purpose of moving the plot along, but are still funny. The plot-moving storylines are usually the B-plot and then there's other hilarious stuff going on in the A-plot. But tonight, I only laughed like twice. In the intro, which was really funny, and at the very end right before the credits. Maybe I'm expecting too much here? But from a show that has done three full seasons of super funny material I just feel a bit let down and disappointed. I look forward to watching The Office starting the Monday before it's on. It's like the highlight of my workweek. And this week, it was LAME. What a crappy thing to have looked forward to.

The last two episodes of this entirely-too-short season had better be amazing, or I'm going to be pissed. They could make it up to me by finding a way to keep Toby's character on the show even though the title for the season finale episode is "Goodbye Toby." I would forgive them if they could do that for me. Also, I'd like them to bring Jan back, if possible. I'm really into her specific brand of crazy. Don't disappoint me, writers.