The Office: Season Six [Blu-ray]The Office: Season Six [Blu-ray]
Starring: Steve Carell Rainn Wilson John Krasinski Jenna Fischer B.J. Novak Ed Helms
Rating:  List Price: $ 69.98 Price: $ 62.99 |
The Office: Season Six [Blu-ray]The Office: Season Six [Blu-ray]
Starring: Steve Carell Rainn Wilson John Krasinski Jenna Fischer B.J. Novak Ed Helms
Rating: List Price: $ 69.98 Price: $ 62.99 |
Powered by WP Robot
(out of 7 reviews)
Review by Zachary Koenig for The Office: Season Six [Blu-ray]
Rating:
In reviewing the sixth season of “The Office”, there is good news and bad news: On the positive side, the season gave us such landmark episodes as “Niagara Falls” (Jim/Pam wedding) and “The Arrival” (Jim/Pam baby), easily in the top echelon of episodes in show history. On the flip side, though, the show also went through two separate little dry patches that produced some episodes that just didn’t measure up well against earlier efforts.
The theme of “change” runs at the core of the entire season. At the beginning, Dunder-Mifflin employees worry about the long-term stability of their company, then (about half way through the season), the company is actually bought out by Sabre, a printer company headed by Jo Bennett (guest star Kathy Bates), with the crew having to adjust to their new ownership. On a more personal level, the Jim/Pam relationship moves from one of flirtation & fun to more real-life undertones (marriage, parenting, etc.), while two characters (Andy Bernard and new receptionist Erin) become smitten with each other…only to provide some of the most awkwardly hilarious conversations/situations in show history!
In terms of acting, the sixth season was on par with the previous installments. Steve Carrell as Michael Scott is still the glue that binds everything together, and the supporting cast keeps turning in hilarious performances when called upon. The introduction of the Andy/Erin romance was a breath of fresh air for the show, as its innocence harkens back to the early Jim/Pam seasons, but due to Andy’s total and absolute goofiness, it takes forever (but in a good way!) for things to really get off the ground. About the only two things that got a little annoying were the continued Dwight/Angela battles that never seem to end, and Bates’ new character, who doesn’t seem to add much comedy to the show whatsoever.
So, despite the fact that the episodes were a bit uneven in terms of overall quality/hilarity, I cannot drop this season below five stars due to the extraordinary content of the really good episodes. Basically, the season started off a bit slow, hit its stride during/after the Jim/Pam wedding, then leveled off again after the baby episode, only to limp to the finish line. Also, the final scene hints at the possible return of a fan-favorite character, which could easily rejuvenate the proceedings for the seventh season next fall.
Review by William T. Gittings for The Office: Season Six [Blu-ray]
Rating:
Well it was bound to happen. All great sitcoms reach that point where the writers have just ran the series into the ground and this is the season that does it. First is the co-manager plot, then Darrel landing a job out of the warehouse and into the Office, then Sabre. David Wallace was my favorite minor character (aside from Creed) and since Dunder Mifflin has been bought out we won’t be seeing him again. Personally I thought the season finale for Season 5, the office olympics or whatever and Jim getting the news that Pam is pregnant would’ve been a fantastic way to end a series. But the Sabre plot and all has ruined my interest in the series, even though it does introduce Kathy Bates as a new minor character.
Review by Flap Jackson for The Office: Season Six [Blu-ray]
Rating:
The Office was one of the seminal comedies of the decade. Starting off slow with an underrated 1st season, then coming into its own and hitting its peak of creativity in the 2nd season. But since then, the quality of the comedy & the storylines have started to degrade. First it started off slow, each season progressively getting worse than the last, until this season. It actually quite fine for the first half of the season, coming up with one of its best episodes with some of its best moments yet (Niagara), but as soon as the show came back from Christmas break, it fell head-first off a cliff.
Episode Highlights Include:
Niagara
The Lover
Murder
The Delivery
What happens in the 2nd half of the season? Well, Sabre happens. It did give us the sometimes funny character of Gabe, and it did start well-enough with a Christian Slater cameo, but those were the only good/memorable parts about it. Granted, I wasn’t any fan of Kathy Bates to begin with, but she is simply annoying and underused here. The writers simply don’t know what to do with her, and Kathy Bates can’t bring anything new to a poorly-written character. Every moment of Kathy Bates on screen is a moment you will want back because it will be unfunny & utterly wasted in the worst way possible. Every move she makes. Every thing she says. Just, simply awful.
Granted, I understand why the writers did it, because they felt like the economy has to have an impact on our favorite company in Dunder-Mifflin. Just think about it for a second. They killed off Dunder-Mifflin. I have a great T-shirt that advertises my love of the show with the Dunder-Mifflin logo. And they’re just going to kill it off because of the economy? There were probably ways in which to make this story to work, but the writers choose NONE of them.
Then there’s the characters. Oh, how I just want to slap every writer for this travesty. The writers have always struggled with Michael Scott. Sometimes he’s a playful man-child who’s immature, sometimes he’s the serious boss not afraid to get onto his employees, or actually show why he’s in the job, or that he has actual salesmanship. However, the writers stick with the immature Michael for much of the season, and it’s getting to the point where enough is enough. The man is becoming a parody of himself. He still goes for the damaged women, and he still proceeds to screw it up with every one of them, then has an affair with a married woman. Just please, stop. The only episode where Michael even resembles his old self is one that Steve Carell directed himself. The case is the same for Dwight. Dwight works in a very specific box. Taken too far, it’s an insane jerk. This is the mode he spends most of the season in. Dwight has always been a character best suited for being the receiving end of a joke, since the guy needs to be taken down a peg every once in a while. Of course, there are one, maybe two, possibly three moments of this the whole season. So frustrating!
As for the highlights, Jim & Pam are still as great as ever, if a bit underused. Also, Erin comes into her own as a character. She’s given a wacky backstory, she’s given a nice relationship with Andy, and she’s just great with everything she does. She’s like the opposite of Kathy Bates. Every scene that Erin is in is made better by her presence. Her personality just radiates sunshine and goodness.
Overall, as a die-hard Office fan, this season was frustrating with brief glimpses of goodness. The well has been run dry, the ideas are stale, the characters are in a rut. Oh sweet release, I now pray for a graceful ending to the show. Of course, looking back on Niagara, I would actually be really satisfied with that as a series finale. But since the series will go on for at least a year and a half after that, it will just be the ending in my mind. Steve Carell and the rest of the cast simply don’t need to be subjected to this anymore. It’s time to move on.
Review by goozemann for The Office: Season Six [Blu-ray]
Rating:
I’ll have to disagree with some of the other reviews here. I think that The Office was the best comedy since Seinfeld. Notice I said “was”, for unfortunately it is now on the brink of decline. Let me elaborate. The subject matter has gone where no comedy should ever go, that being “wedding” and “baby” episodes. That usually spells the death of a great comedy. And I don’t consider “Friends” or “ONe Day at a Time” classic comedies. Notice Seinfeld never went there. Cheers never went there with Sam and Diane. That’s because, in general, no matter how hard they try, those topics are just not funny. Office Stud Jim gets office hottie Pam, knocks her up, and she has a baby. Uh, is that funny? No, you see it every day all around you. It would have been funnier to have Pam reject Jim again, and somehow wind up dating Michael, or even Oscar, hell even Creed. The “baby” and “wedding” episodes usually lead to the more serious “family issue” episodes where the comedy tries to address “serious” issues, ala what All in the Family started to do. What next, the “Pam has a miscarriage” episode? It never works, and it essentially signals the death of the show. Keep the show silly and over the top. That’s what made Seinfeld so great. And Michael winds up dating every woman he is introduced to? I wish I lived in that world. Did the show get new writers or something?
Ah well, it was a good run, and the early season episodes are damn classics.
Review by A. Savona for The Office: Season Six [Blu-ray]
Rating:
What once was a groundbreaking comedy – the first of its kind since Seinfeld – has come crashing down to a well below average waste of thirty minutes on TV. The problem with Season 6 in particular is a drastic change in the formula (a change which began in Seasons 4 and 5) that made the early seasons great. Gone is the subtle, awkward humor with superbly developed, individualistic characters and extraordinarily clever story lines. The quality of both have been diffused into a sort of bland, uninteresting mush. This show just isn’t funny at all anymore.
Ryan went from being an awkwardly clever preppy outsider, looking in, to an artistic hippie insider with no cleverness or humor of any kind. Angela’s character has been ruined as she has gone from harsh to… well, something indefinable. Who is her character? She is neither her former harsh nor chaste persona. Her character, like all the others, has no conviction or definition. The same goes for Oscar and Kevin – both indefinable. Meredith is now a completely wasted background figure, as is Creed, and Stanley has gone from aloof and disrespectful to tolerating (and even enjoying) his co-workers, including Michael. Stanley was funny when he couldn’t stand Michael and kissed up to him only at review (and few other targeted) times, when he needed something. Now he likes Michael. That isn’t funny, at all.
More than just problems with the characters, or the writing, the chemistry and whole of the show just isn’t funny anymore. Each and every episode disappoints, even if there is an occasional – and I mean occasional – muted glimpse of the show’s former glory. Those moments are so few and far between that it’s really not worth watching anymore. The Office used to be the talk of my office. Every Friday morning was only complete after a discussion of what we loved about the show. We couldn’t believe how funny and creative the episodes were. Just when we thought the writers couldn’t be more creative, they outdid themselves! Now, almost no one I know watches The Office. If my office and that of my friends’ is any indication, this show is on its very last leg.
I hope someone is smart enough to take the original concept of The Office and re-create it, but the current NBC version is so far gone that it probably can’t be saved.