The Office

The producer of the Office reflects on silly comedy, poignant moments and realistic stuff

After 200 episodes, The Office is done, but its influence is all over comedy—and even reality TV

The truly optimistic among us believe that there is no such thing as an asshole. That is to say, the guy who cut you off in traffic or butted in front of you at Starbucks is probably possessed by some temporary affliction (lateness, cluelessness, hangover) that recedes as quickly as it came. In other words, he was acting like an asshole, and that same guy might well hold the door open for you or even save your life 10 minutes later. Aaron James is no such optimist. In fact, the author spends 214 quite convincing pages arguing that “assholeness” is less inattention than a permanent state of mind, and that assholes are more than numerous enough to be called out in book form.

Why so many researchers and academics are turning their attention to the modern workplace

Once a bit player, Kaling’s the subject of think pieces about what she means for women, for rom-coms, for leads of colour, etc.

A show about a fictional ministry of garbage pokes fun at Afghan politics—and shakes up the TV landscape

How will Steve Carell’s replacement fit in?

What will ‘The Office’ be like without Steve Carell?

Yeah, I got a little misty/teary/bleary at Steve Carell’s last episode of The Office as a regular. I have a respect for Greg Daniels that borders on the superstitious, but it usually pays off; I expected this episode to be good and, except for some of Will Ferrell’s scenes (we may know more about this once he’s written off the show, but it’s hard to know exactly what Ferrell’s been going for, and the tag was really not the kind of thing to convince us that the show can go on without Carell), my expectations were fulfilled. The tricky balance between Michael as he would be in real life vs. Michael the beloved sitcom character was well handled, leaning more to the escapist side of things – which is fine, since the show long ago became the story of people who find a certain refuge in the office, not people who are tormented by having to be there.

I was forwarded this “exclusive” item about the fate of Two and a Half Men post-Sheen, and found that it says… basically nothing. This is not a knock on the writers of the piece, Kim Masters and Lacey Rose, who are writing what they know and, perhaps, all anybody knows at this point. But literally all we really find out about the show is this:

Three of the biggest hits on network TV are dealing with disappearing lead actors

So here’s the cold opening from last night’s The Office: