Everyone knows that The Office went entirely off the rails once Steve Carell, who had played Michael Scott for eight seasons, left the show. However, the series insisted on releasing an eighth and even a ninth season despite this, creating some of the worst seasons of The Office.
However, some fans argue that The Office had jumped the shark many times way before Michael Scott left the series. While Carrell’s absence put the last nail in the coffin, the series’ quality had definitely decreased over the years. Events as early as season 4 were already signaling that the show was stretched beyond its years.
15. The “Stress Relief” Cold Open Takes Things Way Too Far
Funny Enough, “Stress Relief” Has a 9.7 Average on IMDb
Although the cold opening of the “Stress Relief” episode of The Office is one of the most iconic on television, it is also one of the most ridiculous scenes ever written. Dwight creates a very realistic and dangerous fire drill by locking the office doors and creating a small fire. Chaos ensues as everyone panics: Angela gets a cat out of a drawer, Oscar tries to escape through the roof, Kevin breaks a vending machine with a chair, Michael breaks a window, and Stanley gets a heart attack.
This moment is hilarious, of course, simply because nothing goes according to expectations. However, that doesn’t mean it is well-written or consistent with character development and the sitcom’s premise. So far, The Office had focused on relatable situations in corporations that lack common sense. Dwight was supposed to be a stickler for the rules, obnoxiously keeping everyone in line. It doesn’t make sense that this character would violate many office rules and create a ridiculous situation. The whole moment is a cheap way to create humor, but The Office, up to this point, had created comedy with well-thought-out dialogues and situations.
14. Holly and Michael’s Relationship
Holly Arrives on The Office in Season 4, Episode 14, “Goodbye, Toby”
Michael is a very ambivalent character in The Office, creating different emotions and reactions in the audience. However, he should never have had a happy ending. Well-intentioned as he was, Michael often acted like a child rather than a boss, which is the whole premise of the series. Michael was a good salesperson but was ill-prepared to lead a whole office, often putting his employees in uncomfortable and arguably illegal situations.
As people started to sympathize with Michael’s character, the writing made him increasingly likable, even allowing him to have a healthy romantic relationship. Whether Michael deserved redemption in the long term is arguable, but the show didn’t take the time to create organic character development. Soon enough, Michael becomes another well-loved character who gets away with dozens of terrible things… the criticism of corporate America is soon forgotten.
13. Pam and Jim’s Wedding
Pam and Jim Get Married in Season 6, Episode 4, “Niagara: Part 1”
Much like Holly and Michael’s relationship, Pam and Jim’s wedding gives this relationship a focus that it should never have had. Jim and Pam are, of course, relationship goals and one of the most well-liked coupes in sitcoms. It makes sense, thus, that the writers gave them a spotlight, attracting a big chunk of the audience. However, many argue this relationship took the show away from its usual dark humor, and they are right.
There are many sitcoms about friendship and romance, like Friends, but The Office was about something else. It was a mock documentary about a boring corporation with its absurd dynamics. It’s hard to believe that the whole crew would go to Pam and Jim’s wedding, even following them on a trip to Niagara Falls.
12. Dwight Pranking Holly & Making Her Believe Kevin Is Part of a “Special Program”
“Goodbye, Toby” Has a 9.2 Average on IMDb
In the episode “Goodbye, Toby” Holly replaces Toby as HR in Dunder Mifflin. Trying to haze her, Dwight tells Holly that Kevin is part of a special work program, implying that Kevin is a person with a learning disability. This motivates Holly to be especially kind to Kevin and emphasizes Kevin’s childish behavior, the episode’s running gag.
Not only is this joke problematic, but it’s also flanderizing of Kevin’s character and unrealistic in Holly’s case. Writers turned Kevin’s laziness into a lack of intelligence, a usual hack of sitcoms to make easy comedy. Also, since Holly was HR, she would have known of any special work program, so it makes no sense.
11. Michael Driving His Car Into a Lake
Season 4, Episode 2, “Dunder Mifflin Infinity”
In “Dunder Mifflin Infinity,” intimidated by technology, Michael pretends to misread a GPS and drives his car into a lake. A discussion of ageism in the modern era is brought up in an episode about technology that predicts the panic of AI overruling humans. However, Michael taking it to the last consequences is a gross exaggeration that takes the matter to an absurd level.
The real reason The Office jumped the shark way before Michael left the series is that writers stopped taking the show seriously. Yes, The Office is a sitcom, so it’s not supposed to be particularly realistic. However, The Office differentiated itself from other sitcoms by creating humor through irony, awkwardness, and relatable behavior instead of over-the-top scenes.
10. Angela’s Love Triangle
Angela, Andy, and Dwight’s Love Triangle Is a Main Story Arc of Season 5
While Angela and Dwight are one of the weirdest sitcom relationships, they have a surprisingly sweet dynamic. But everything goes downhill when Angela gets engaged to Andy while having a sexual relationship with Dwight. This is one of the first signs that writers were running out of storylines, more so considering the lack of chemistry between Angela and Andy.
Moreover, the odd relationship between Andy and Angela wasn’t even funny. It was hard for the audience to laugh about Andy’s heartbreak while Angela openly cheats on him with Dwight. While The Office is known for creating despicable characters, this arc took it way too far, and it was obvious that the writers were just trying to stretch Dwight and Angela’s dramatic relationship arc.
9. Jim Transferring To The Stamford Office
Jim Transfers to the Stamford Office at the End of the Second Season of The Office
In the early seasons of The Office, when Jim is unable to deal with Pam’s engagement to Roy, he asks Jan to transfer him to another office in Stamford. The show’s third season begins with Jim already working in this office, where he meets Karen and Andy, and creates a romantic relationship with the former.
However, this was a bad decision for many reasons. The first one is that Jim and Pam’s office dynamic is one of people’s favorite parts of the show. Another issue is that it divided the show between Jim’s scenes and Scranton’s scenes. This is one of the first times the show jumped the shark, as it was obvious that they were trying to delay Jim and Pam’s relationship to make The Office last a bit longer.
8. Dunder Mifflin Being Bought By Saber
Season 6, Episode 15, “Sabre”
In the sixth season of The Office, Saber buys Dunder Mifflin. This leads to many changes in the office dynamics, including removing Jim from his co-manager position and adding a new character, Gabe Lewis, who becomes a sort of supervisor of the Scranton branch.
At this point of the show, The Office had already lost its spark. It goes from intelligent jokes challenging the status quo to bizarre and absurd scenes, such as Dwight mutilating a CPR practice manikin. Saber buying Dunder Mifflin seems like one of the last attempts to try and salvage the show, but it didn’t really work.
7. Danny Cordray’s Character
Danny Cordray First Appears in Season 7, Episode 5, “The Sting”
In season 7 of The Office, Danny Cordray is introduced as a very successful seller who constantly creates problems for Dunder Mifflin. Michael decides to deal with the situation by hiring Danny as one of their traveling sales representatives, which makes sense in theory.
However, funny enough, Danny only appears in two episodes and doesn’t become a recurrent character despite working for Dunder Mifflin. His bigger storyline is that he supposedly went on two dates with Pam back when Jim worked in the Stamford branch. This only shows how all over the place the writing of The Office was at that point, leaving loose ends all over the place.
6. Angela Getting Married
Angela Dates Robert Lipton in Season 7
After seven seasons of the audience following Angela and Dwight’s all-over-the-place relationship, the show takes the messy relationship one step further. In the late episodes of the seventh season of The Office, Angela dates and eventually marries in the eighth season state senator Robert Lipton. Moreover, the two of them have a child together, Phillip (although in the ninth season, it’s revealed that Philip is Dwight’s son).
To make matters worse, in the ninth season, it turns out that Robert is gay, and he starts to have an affair with Oscar. At this point, it seemed that The Office wasn’t trying to write compelling storylines anymore; instead, it was just creating constant plot twists and unnecessary drama, using cheap tricks to keep the audience interested.
5. Jim’s Promotion To Co-manager With Michael
Jim Is Promoted to Co-Manager in Season 6, Episode 2, “The Meeting”
In the sixth season of The Office, David Wallace promotes Jim to Regional Co-manager, so he works side by side with Michael Scott. However, just like Jo Bennett points out later on, this is an absurd position. There’s no reason to have two managers running the Scranton branch.
This was obviously an excuse to have Jim and Michael at odds during this season and create situations where Michael becomes petty and insecure. However, not many humorous situations came out of this storyline, making it less and less believable that no one decided to simply fire Michael.
4. Dwight’s Blatant Flanderization
Dwight’s Character Loses Its Uniqueness Throughout the Series
In the first few seasons of The Office, Dwight is an obsessive man who rigorously believes in following the rules and doing a competent job. The central joke of the series was that while Dwight religiously followed Dunder Mifflin’s rules (even if they didn’t make sense), Jim was lazy and thought he was beyond the system.
However, Dwight became delusional, violent, and inconsistent as the show progressed. In future seasons, he isn’t even as concerned about his job. Dwight started getting more and more ridiculous storylines, which completely ruined his character development and signaled that the show should have come to an end way sooner.
3. Jan And Michael Rekindling Their Relationship
Season 3, Episode 23, “The Job”
Jan is one of the worst-written characters in The Office. It’s absurd when Jan and Michael start dating the first time around, but it makes sense in the show’s context. However, the second time, when Jan is fired and stays at home while Michael works, it feels forced and extremely out of character for Jan.
In earlier seasons of The Office, Jan is a no-nonsense, intelligent, feminist woman who can’t even be in the same room as Michael. When they turn her into Michael’s demanding girlfriend, they completely butcher the character just for the sake of a few jokes, signaling that the show was way past its prime.
2. Ryan’s Terrible Character Development
Ryan Is Arrested in Season 4, Episode 14, “Goodbye, Toby”
Ryan has the most bizarre character development in The Office. He went from being an intern at Dunder Mifflin to an employee and Vice President of Sales. However, he was later fired because he was committing fraud. What gets even more unbelievable is that Michael manages to convince David Wallace to hire him again after all of this.
The moment it became obvious that The Office had already jumped the shark was when, after being fired, Ryan became a regular employee in the Scranton branch once again. This absurd storyline is typical of The Office in later seasons and cheapens the show.
1. Michael Creating His Own Paper Company With Pam And Ryan
Season 5, Episode 23, “Michael Scott Paper Company”
In the fifth season of The Office, Michael tries to teach Dunder Mifflin a lesson, and he quits and starts his own paper company. What’s even more absurd is that he recruits Pam and Ryan to the cause. Most of the fifth season sees these three characters while they try to create their own company, led by Michael.
Additionally, Michael manages to become a threat to Dunder Mifflin. The company, not knowing that Michael is on the edge of bankruptcy, makes a deal with Michael and gives him and his colleagues their jobs back. For a series that started out creating relatable and (unfortunately) realistic workplace dynamics, it started to depend on ludicrous plots such as this one, which ruined the essence of The Office.
