Finally finished "The Office" (USA version): Parting is such sweet sweet sorrow

I originally ignored this epic TV series because I didn't think the first mini-season was very good and like a lot of people, I was so attached to the British version of the show that I was always going to be unimpressed with the USA remaking it. For some reason I encountered a lull of series to watch at some point and figured i would load it up to our Plex server just to have something to do. It took a little while for me to get invested in the series but once I got around a full season into the story and characters, I was absolutely hooked.

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I probably said it before but I feel as though The Office is actually a bit TOO engaging. If I went to bed with the intention of just watching one or two 22 minute episodes, I would always end up staying awake for hours after I should have gone to sleep and even then my mind would be too engaged to switch off. Therefore I stopped watching the show in bed because this show is done so well that accidentally falling asleep mid episode simply isn't going to happen. They also do a fantastic job of ending each episode on a cliffhanger of sorts so that you feel compelled to watch "just one more."

There will be spoilers ahead so if you want to watch this show, and I really recommend that you do, then do not continue

I knew that season 9 was the last season so I was taking my sweet time getting through all of them. As we got into the 20's I knew that I was soon going to reach the end and when it came time for the final episode, which is the only one they have that was meant for a 1-hour time-slot on network television, I decided that I would end my night and watch this one in bed.

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While the rest of season 9 was kind of working towards the finale, we still had a lot of loose ends to tie up in a single episode. The show's creators said that early on they didn't want to focus on an endgame for each individual character in a sort of anthology sense because they have never done that in the show before. Each episode focused on everyone in the office and not just one character so they thought it would go against everything that they had spent nearly a decade creating to do it that way.

So in the last episode of the final season, we see a lot of things happening for many of the main characters. This is most notable for Dwight, who for once we get to see not as the butt of the jokes of everyone else, but as a sort of person that is extremely dedicated as he finally gets his dream of becoming the regional manager of Dunder Mifflin. While we spent 9 years taking delight in Jim and others undermining him, it was nice to see everyone joining forces to stand behind him and recognize that he actually IS leadership material. When we consider the hapless people that actually had been in charge prior to him, he does make sense as the manager.

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Getting a montage of Jim and Pam was always nice because even though there are no official main characters in the show, I think everyone can agree that they were always focused on a great deal more than others. Even though that is the case, I was kind of happy to see that it was Dwight, not the others, who was focused on the most as far as wrapping things up are concerned.

There were a lot of touching moments in the finale but some of them got to me more than others.

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Michael Scott never respected Dwight very much yet Dwight looked up to him like a father figure and would do anything for him. To see Steve Carell come back for this episode, even though it was just for a short while, was extremely emotional. I read that the actors themselves had a hard time keeping it together because Steve was rather unceremoniously removed from the cast in season 7 after contract disputes that everyone insists wasn't about money, but let's be real here, it was probably about money.

I am not at all ashamed to say that I got emotional and even misty-eyed multiple times during the 1-hour finale.

One line in particular hit me right in the feels

I wish there was a way to know you were in the "good ol' days" ..... before you actually left them.

And I suppose that is true not just in a fictional TV show, but also in life and that is perhaps why this finale was so heartfelt by so many including me. This isn't just the end of an office family over the span of 9 years but it is also a reflection of life in general... about how the mundane-appearing aspects of life can actually end up defining people's lives and when I look back on my own life, some of the things that appeared to be annoying at the time, actually defined my life immensely. This had me welling up a bit and damn you Office for getting the onion ninjas so close to me at 9pm last night!

The Office grand finale was an absolutely perfect ending to one of my favorite series of all time and I am now a bit disappointed that there are no more to watch. If I had to choose my favorite sitcoms of all time, this one might be the very top of the list. There just so much to love about this show and for them to end it on their own terms rather than being phased out by studio executives is just amazing.

If you made it this far I apologize for spoiling anything, but there was a warning at the beginning after all.

_{All episodes are available on Peacock and if you are not in the US most seasons are available on Netflix. For whatever reason they are not available to US customers on Netflix}