Next year will probably be the last for "The Office," at least the version with Steve Carell.
It's about time. They really can't keep up the pretense that they're being filmed for a documentary for another few years. I don't even want to see the documentary when it's done. Unless there was a camera crew following around the crew who shot Dunder-Mifflin, carefully out of sight behind the crew that shoots the show. As for me, I've been making a documentary for seven years about people watching "The Office." It's all very meta.
At least the show got the opportunity to create its own identity; it was gentler and blander. It never, ever had anything to match the excruciating moments of the British version. Our version is based on sarcasm and irony, and regards Michael Scott with amused affection; theirs was based on repressing, loathing, and embarrassment.
Intensely painful embarrassment:
