thePeanutBloggery

The Office is back with a new episode this Thursday night after five weeks of reruns, and it’s not a minute too soon. As the show heads into the (hopefully rerun-free) final episodes of its third season, I have a suggestion on how to send it out with a bang.

The third season has been consistently funny (“There are four kinds of business: tourism, food service, railroads and sales”) but has struggled for an arc, with many of the episodes feeling more, well, episodic than part of a larger plan. Yes, the very nature of this show is about the small, observed moments and the humor within a mundane workplace life, but this season lacks the drive of the second season, when it felt as though everything led up to Jim’s confession to Pam and subsequent departure. This season has been a little more scattered, but there’s still time for the writers to pay off a lot of the plot threads and go out strong (will Dwight and Angela’s relationship get officially outed? will Jan and Michael make it? probably not).

My suggestion? Give Pam and Jim a chance! This relationship is heading dangerously close to Ross-Rachel/Daphne-Niles territory. It was a huge step to have Jim actually confess his feelings at the end of Season 2 and for Pam to have a season alone to figure out how she really felt about Jim. But she lost a ton of my sympathy when she got back together with Roy. Pam needs to tell Jim how she feels (crying in the hallway with Dwight doesn’t count), Karen needs to leave, and we need to see Pam and Jim together at Dunder Mifflin, as a couple. If it doesn’t work or it doesn’t end up being funny, at least they went for it. The tease is getting a little old. It’s time for the bang.

…that’s what she said.