‘The Office’ May Continue to Lie There, Struggling to Breathe, In a Reboot

My initial draft of this post compared “The Office” to my now-dead childhood dog, Kiara. The message I was going for was that at one point, while Kiara was in severe pain, a veterinarian gave my mom and me two options: we could either extend her life ever-so-slightly and her final days would be spent in agony, but she’d be alive, or we could “put her down” peacefully — similar choices that Greg Daniels, NBC, and Co. have for “The Office.” We chose the latter; they aren’t. But then things started to get TOO real, and I deleted what I had.

The point remains, however: why can’t someone, whether it be Daniels or NBC or Creed Bratton or whomever, do the right thing and let “The Office,” now an unfunny, inconsistent shell of its former self, die with some semblance of dignity? I guess that would make too much sense, because according to Deadline:

Word is that “The Office” executive producer Greg Daniels, who originally developed the American version of the cult British comedy, is mulling a reboot of the series, now in its eighth season. Daniels is expected to meet with NBC brass to lay out his idea for “The Office 2.0,” which I hear would feature existing characters as well as new ones.

I hear the main cast may want next season to be [their] last while NBC is leaning toward not closing the door to one additional season. I hear no major decisions will be made until NBC brass review their crop of pilots for next season. (Via)

Because ABC’s “Scrubs” was so good? Rainn Wilson is likely leaving for his spin-off; John Krasinski, Jenna Fischer, and Ed Helms don’t have contracts for next season; James Spader and Mindy Kaling are definitely gone; and the formerly great, now stale show hasn’t found its fitting in the post-Michael Scott era — someone should say, “We need to end this,” no matter the show’s decent (for NBC) ratings. But that’s not gonna happen.

Plus, an unfunny John Stamos gay joke was cut from one of their promos, which says pretty much everything you need to know about the state of “The Office.” Well, that, and the whole dead dog thing.