The Office (Season 7)

A general improvement over Season 7 works as a beautiful farewell to Michael Scott. One that could've been one of the show's best seasons if they had just stopped there.

Focusing almost entirely on Michael Scott's departure, Season 7 can be split into thirds fairly easily. The first ten episodes have Michael play off some other character in the cast, whether it's Toby during Counseling, his ex-girlfriends during Sex Ed, or Oscar during China. I think it's a great way to reflect on how much he has affected many of the side characters throughout the show. Once Holly arrives in the midseason finale, however, the season becomes amazing.

At this point, Season 7 packs in tons of callbacks and references to past moments in the show. David Brent appears in one episode, we get to see the full version of Threat Level Midnight, Michael finally calls out Todd Packer, and we see the final Dundies ever held. It all builds up to the amazing farewell episode that has Michael say his goodbyes to everyone in the cast. It's the perfect end to the show, or at least, it should have been.

Sadly, once Michael leaves, Season 7 has four more episodes about the office looking for a replacement, and they are not good. It feels like the writing just took a massive step-down, even lower than Season 6, and without Michael, The Office just lacks its energy. The season (or even the series) should have ended with Michael leaving, but these tacked-on last four episodes drag the season down as a whole.

I'm not writing a full review for Seasons 8 & 9, but they weren't great. Season 9 had some good episodes and an excellent last bunch of episodes, but Season 8 was an unfunny slog. I'm not a fan of Robert California or Andy's portrayal, and the lack of Michael Scott removes a lot of the show's energy.

Despite this weak ending, Season 7 does have a lot of strong episodes, especially around the middle:

China: This episode was just plain funny. Michael's dynamic with Oscar always leads to some embarrassment, but the conflict between the two of them was particularly humorous this time around. The subplots about Dwight and Andy were also pretty fun.

Threat Level Midnight: Easily one of the show's best episodes, I adore the home film vibe of Michael Scott's magnum opus of a film. It's consistently hilarious and packs in tons of cute details that demand rewatching. I also highly recommend watching the full version on YouTube.

Garage Sale: The titular garage sale is a fun and cute storyline for most of the episode that contains some fun character interactions, but the real highlight is the beautiful and heartwarming proposal that ends the episode.

Goodbye, Michael: I already mentioned why I love this episode so much. Michael's goodbyes are sweet and every character gets a time to shine. It's funny, sad, and heart-warming in equal measures. A perfect goodbye to one of the best TV characters of all time.

When its focusing on saying goodbye to Michael Scott, Season 7 of The Office is pretty much perfect, with tons of heartwarming callbacks and funny moments. However, the season does also suffer from a slow start, tacked-on ending, and the awful decision to keep the show running after Michael leaves.

3.5/5 Stars

My ranking of the seasons (including 8 & 9) would be:

1. Season 3: One of the best comedy seasons ever. Pretty much every episode is iconic in its own way, and the main storyline about the merger is easily the show's most compelling.
2. Season 2: Season 2 is The Office at its absolute purest. It focuses squarely on the slice of life elements, but makes up for that small scale with consistently great comedy and characterization.
3. Season 4: While it loses a bit of steam after the Writer's Strike, Season 4 still has so many iconic episodes that it's hard to rank it any lower than this.
4. Season 5: A very uneven season with episode quality ranging from super high highs to horribly low lows, but the high points are soaring and the Michael Scott Paper Company arc is fantastic.
5. Season 7: While not super consistent, Season 7 is at its best when it focuses on giving a satisfying farewell to Michael Scott, and it does that excellently.
6. Season 1: Though the pilot is just a poor man's The Office UK, the rest of the season is actually fairly solid and Season 1 otherwise mostly suffers from its short length.
7. Season 6: I'm not a fan from this one. It has its few highlights like the wedding, but the whole Sabre storyline is lacking in stakes and Scott's Tots is my least favorite episode of the show.
8. Season 9: Don't get me wrong, most of this season is still bad, but there were some good episodes here or there, and the final stretch did a great job at bringing the show to a somewhat schmaltzy close.
9. Season 8: This season is awful, one of my least favorites ever. There's not a single good episode, Robert California drives me up the wall, and all of the characters (especially Andy) have basically been ruined.

And my ranking The Office's season finales is:

1. Casino Night: Still one of my favorite finales ever. The premise is fun, every character gets time to shine, and Jim's confession to Pam is an absolutely perfect scene of television.
2. Finale: Perhaps a bit too grandiose for the show's premise, but Finale is a satisfying, emotional, and heartwarming farewell to the entire case of The Office, including Michael Scott.
3. Goodbye, Toby: Goodbye, Toby uses its double-length runtime to stuff itself full with cliffhangers and plot twists. It's as shameless of a sitcom season finale as it gets and I love that about it.
4. The Job: It's predictable that Michael wouldn't get the job, but the show knew this and tossed in a bunch of other curveballs that really made this episode a joy to watch on first viewing.
5. Company Picnic: Probably a bit low-key coming off the Michael Scott Paper Company arc, but that big cliffhanger at the end is worth it alone.
6. Whistleblower: It suffers from the lack of stakes that most of Season 6 has, but Whistleblower is still an above average episode on its own, and I like the promise of Holly's return.
7. Free Family Portrait Studio: This finale resolves all of Season 8's subplots in the most unremarkable and dull way possible. David Wallace coming back and saving Dunder-Mifflin should feel big, but it doesn't. All of this finale is just meh.
8. Hot Girl: Really just suffers from being part of Season 1. All that really happens is that Jim gets a girlfriend, but it's also not like the rest of the season was really building to anything anyway.
9. Search Committee: Creed as boss will always be hilarious, but Search Committee is drawn out, lacks any sort of resolution, and suffers from the misguided decision to continue the show after Michael had left.

Favorite Episode: Casino Night