parker63

If they could declare next year to be "The Office: The Final Season" the writers can pre-plan the series finale story arc. Bring their respective "A" games to the table, and deliver a wrap-up that knocks it out of the park. Maybe by knowing for certain how it's all going to end for the characters and the writers, they have a legacy to shoot for, and only have X amount of episodes to do it in...perhaps it will reignite the creative and truly funny fires again. Right now, they are doing "OK" but it's pretty obvious that they are running out of gas.

Goat3001

Completely agree with this and I hope that is how it plays out.

Gives them a chance to write in episodes for characters that left... like Jan, David, Karen and Roy. And of course they'll do their best to bring Michael back for the finale, which I'm sure they were planning anyway.

Plus it allows them to finally put a book end on the series. My guess is it would end with Jim taking another job that would require him and Pam to move. The typical sitcom finale set up.

madcougar

I would think that Michael's wedding would be a no brainer for one of the last few episodes.

Goat3001

Good point. Didn't even think of that. Could be one of the last few episodes and Michael offers Jim a job at the wedding. Jim contemplates it for a few episodes before taking the job. I can see them going either way with that though since the show does follow the "cliche path" and then makes a big left turn and does something new.

riley_dude

I read they may be rebooting it next year because salaries are so high.

madcougar

So did anyone else who's read through this thread.

RUSF18

Maybe not brilliant but at one point it was absolutely the pinnacle when it comes to sitcoms, especially when you factor in what else was on at the time.

The easiest answer to why some of us still watch is really simple: DVRs. For me, if the DVR didn't exist I would have been done a very long time ago. But it's very easy to just set the regular recording and get to every episode eventually. It's always the last thing I watch when I'm catching up on the week, and if I don't get to it before the end of the weekend, it stays at the back of the list.