I have watched every episode of “The Office” in order five times in my life. I cried tears of joy when Jim and Pam got together, I laughed so hard I cried when Angela threw her cat into the ceiling during a fire drill and I cried through the awkwardness of the “Scott’s Tots” episode. There is a lot of buzz flying around about the possibility of rebooting this beautiful show, and as a proud member of the “Office” fan club, I think it is important to note why this reboot should not happen.
Throughout this show, you watch a seemingly ordinary group of co-workers go through some of the most outrageous, unnecessary life events. You watch the ultimate love story of Jim and Pam, the never-ending need to be loved by Michael,and the absurd lifestyle of Dwight. You look into the lives of characters like Angela who loves her cats more than anything else and Andy who has the desire to sing literally everything, and Creed who I don’t have enough space here to talk about. This show gave glimpses into the lives of all of these crazy This show gave glimpses into the lives of all these crazy characters, and with the final season came a satisfying ending to each of their storylines.
Every character had some sort of resolution or final scene where we saw what their future life holds after the show ended. Jim and Darryl leave Dunder Mifflin, Dwight becomes manager, Kevin and Toby get fired, Stanley retires, Creed fakes his death, Andy has a job at Cornell and the list just keeps on going. Each of these characters begin to move on from the ‘documentary’ that was the show.
To bring back this show would mean that there would need to be some type of large event in everyone’s lives that would bring them all back together somehow. I can’t see a reboot where all these people are in different jobs and different places in their lives. I don’t think the show would be successful if these people didn’t all come back to work together again, and I can’t see any way to get each of the core characters back working together.
Another difficult aspect of rebooting this show is that it would definitely need to introduce new characters, and as many “Office” fanatics recall, the new characters in seasons eight and nine were not the greatest additions to the show. They weren’t terrible, but they just weren’t up to the standards in place from the core characters.
Above all of this stands the ultimate question — would Steve Carrell even come back to play Michael for a reboot, and could the show survive without him? My gut tells me he would not. I firmly believe that the show took a huge hit when Michael left, and any talk of a reboot should stop the minute Carrell rejects the role.
I think when considering the reboot of the beautiful piece of art that is “The Office,” there needs to be some serious reflection on Andy’s final remarks of the show when he says, “I wish there was a way to know you’re in the good old days before you’ve actually left them.” This show most definitely experienced the “good old days,” To reboot it would take away from its beauty and conclusion.
