Alright! Today I am listing my Top 10 The Office episodes. The Office is a special show in a lot of ways. For one, it's rewatchability is unmatched. For two, Steve Carrell is genuinely hilarious as Michael Scott, and for three, the atmosphere is so cozy. It's not the norm for a comedy show to have a "Cozy" feel, but I feel like it fits here.
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10. Season 9, Episode 24/25: Finale
I absolutely love The Office's finale, aptly titled "Finale." It was one of the best episodes of the show. After two seasons of more or less B-list episodes, The Office hit the ball out of the park with their last episode. It features a ton of great laughs, some real emotion, and a plethora of older character cameos (Michael Scott, David Wallace, Mose, Carol Stills).
Running in at 52 minutes long, Finale was set several years after the show's ending and made for some great pay-offs and resolutions to nearly everything that the show had been setting up for nearly a decade.
9. Season 4, Episodes 3/4: Dunder Mifflin Infinity
While it may work better as two YouTube clips, one of which being Michael Scott driving into a lake and the other being Michael Scott and Dwight Schrute forcefully taking a gift basket away from an ex-client, Dunder Mifflin Infinity is a very solid episode overall. The first half is typical Office fair - An upper-level guy shows up, announces some changes, clashes with Michael Scott, and leaves. The difference here is that it's Ryan, which leads to some hilarious reactions from Steve Carell and Mindy Kaling.
And apparently, critics panned Michael Scott driving into a lake? I don't know what they're thinking. Sure, it's an example of a TV show character becoming a baseline caricature, but it's still hilarious.
8. Season 3, Episode 17: Business School
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| "May your hats fly as high as your dreams." |
Business School has perhaps, the sweetest moment in The Office. After being humiliated by Ryan Howard in front of a large group of college students, a beaten Michael Scott is the only one to show up to Pam's art show and buys her Dunder Mifflin painting, which then hangs in the office until the end of the series.
It's a very heartfelt episode, but it doesn't skimp out on the laughs either. Michael Scott's speech and building frustration at the college students who repeatedly tell him that Dunder Mifflin will go under in the age of the internet, as well as the b-plot of a bat in the office (A scarily realistic portrayal of things that fly in the workplace). And the fact that Joss Whedon directed this episode is just a fun bit of trivia.
7. Season 7, Episode 17: Threat Level Midnight
Perhaps one of the best things about Threat Level Midnight is the allusion to it in the season two episode (The Client) when the office workers read a draft of Michael Scott's self-made movie, Threat Level Midnight, a James Bond-inspired spy thriller with subtle political undertones and a deeper meaning to resonate with modern audiences.
It was nice to see The Office catch up on that great story thread. The result is even better - A cheesy homemade movie with a ton of action and all the symptoms of a first time director. It's nice to see the auteurs can still be amateurs. And the detail of consistency here is insane! We see so many people from past seasons - Jan, Karen, Roy, Pam's mom Helene, and Todd Packer, who I usually hate, but was actually really funny here. Even the main cast's hair is in accordance with the earlier seasons!
6. Season 2, Episode 12: The Injury
The Injury was one of the episodes that I had playing while writing this post up, so that should say something. It's written by Mindy Kaling, whose touch turns things into comedy gold. This episode revolves around Michael Scott accidentally burning his foot in a foreman grill when he wakes up. It's a very Michael Scott thing to do, and the reasons behind it are plausible (He starts cooking bacon early so he can wake up to the smell of freshly cooked bacon).
The Injury also shines in the portrayal of Dwight. During most of the series, Dwight ranges from a minor antagonist to a misguided lackey to a cartoon farmer. This is one of the few, if one time, that Dwight shows a sweet side, completely free from anything malicious. It was a nice twist on the regular formula.
5. Season 5, Episode 24: Heavy Competition
One of two of my favorite episodes to take place in the Michael Scott Paper Company era, Heavy Competition signified the middle episode in the saga. After getting MSPC on its feet, Michael Scott begins to battle his vicious ex Dunder Mifflin for clients. This is paired with a B-plot in which Andy tries to help Jim get out of what he deems a one-sided relationship, which climaxes in Jim giving us one of the most famous memes of all time.
Heavy Competition is a rare Office episode in which both the humor and the plot sound solid. A lot of funny episodes (Dwight Christmas) have completely outlandish plots, but this one holds true. I'm also a huge fan of whenever Michael Scott is portrayed as competent, so when his color-coded index system completely backfires on the untrained Dwight, it's a great payoff. He cut his losses and it endears us to him.
4. Season 5, Episode 25: Broke
Broke was the finale of the Michael Scott Paper Company, and after a six episode build-up, Michael Scott and Charles Miner's (Idris Elba) personal conflict was coming to a close. Like I mentioned in the last episode, I love it when Michael Scott is portrayed as competent, and this episode actually has a pretty cool moment when he threatens the leaders of Dunder Mifflin into giving his job back.
This episode also fully delivers on the jokes. You know the "Well well well, how the turn tables..." meme? That was from this episode. And Jim's subtle manipulation of making Charles Miner distrust Dwight was genius. Jim's manipulation tactics are always hilarious.
3. Season 1, Episode 2: Diversity Day
Next up we have the second episode of the show, Diversity Day. This was back when the background characters were semi-competent and Michael Scott was overweight and balding through movie magic. After a copy and pasted pilot episode from the British series, we get a completely original and gut bustlingly hilarious original episode.
Be it Michael Scott refusing to call the black Diversity Day instructor "Mr. Brown," one of the best lines of The Office ("Abraham Lincoln once said that if you are a racist, I will attack you with the North."), a callback to Chris Rock's routine, or a soul-destroyingly cringe section during Michael Scott's very racist Indian stereotype.
2. Season 4, Episode 13: Dinner Party
Dinner Party was The Office's cringe factor set to 15, with the only other episode coming close being Scott's Tots (Which barely didn't make the list). The basic premise is that Michael Scott's abusive relationship with Jan Levinson is put to the ultimate strain when they try to host a dinner party with Jim, Pam, Andy, Angela, and eventually Dwight and his former babysitter. This is an episode that involuntarily gives Michael Scott a lot more depth to his character through his pain. And we're laughing at it.
Everything about this episode is expertly done "So embarrassing it hurts me." In fact, Dinner Party is often seen as the best or one of the best episodes of The Office for this reason. The acting is top-notch, Steve Carrel's monologues about his vasectomies is perfect, and the plasma screen TVs are broken.
1. Season 5, Episodes 14/15 Stress Relief
Stress Relief is a stone-cold classic Office episode. It features several of the series' most memorable moments: The chaotic fire drill, stress relief training, a complete failure in CPR, the roast of Michael Scott, and the ever-quotable "Boom! Roasted" scene. I mean, that's nearly 19 minutes of non-stop comedy. Some of the funniest moments to ever air on television are in these episodes.
Not only do these 40 minutes feature some of the best moments on TV, but also the most ingenious prank ever done in the office: Dwight's fire drill. Those five minutes alone make this episode the best. The chaos that ensues, Kevin raiding the vending machine, and the revelation that Angela keeps a cat in the office and that she proceeds to throw it through the ceiling. Absolutely hilarious top-notch comedy.
Stress Relief is not only the best episode of The Office, but also one of the best episodes of television.
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