Summary
The entertainment industry is currently in the midst of the age of remakes and reboots, where media that has been deemed nostalgic enough to return by those who loved it when it originally came out is dragged out of the vault and revamped for a new audience, usually with underwhelming results. While some people enjoy the return to TV shows and movie franchises that they loved years ago and think it’s exciting to see the universe expanded, others see it as a totally unnecessary move that ruins the sanctity of the original story.
With that in mind, it wasn’t much of a surprise that when one of the most popular shows in the world announced that a reboot is in the works, it produced some mixed reactions. That’s right, news has recently broken thata reboot ofThe Officeis in the works, with original showrunner Greg Daniels attached. This begs the question - is any of this necessary? Or even wanted? Though it’s one of the most beloved shows of the past few decades, dredging it up in an attempt to revive the magic seems like a doomed prospect right from the start.
What Is The Office About?
The Officeis a mockumentary-style sitcom that follows the daily lives of office workers at a paper company in Scranton, Pennsylvania. Though they have mundane lives, the job can be anything but, with a host of quirky characters that keep office life interesting,led by the manager Michael Scott. Though he is spirited and usually has the best of intentions, he lacks a lot of self-awareness, which leads to him getting himself and others into some wacky situations.The Officestarted airing in 2005 and ran for nine seasons, ending in 2013. It is based on the British sitcom of the same name helmed by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, as that show was a success and the American version wanted to add their own spin to the story.
Is There Going To Be A Reboot of The Office?
Currently, there are talks of rebootingThe Officewith original showrunner Greg Daniels attached. There is no news on who, if anyone, would be reprising their roles in this reboot, but several cast members, including John Krasinski and Mindy Kaling, have expressed interest in the past in returning to their characters. Since talks are just in the early stages, it’s not clear whether this new show would be a revival of the original show and follow the same characters or whether it would be a total reboot that follows an entirely new cast. The only hint towards which direction the show might be leaning in isan interview Daniels did with Collider in 2022, where he said, “I can’t tell whether fans would want more of it, and when I say more of it, I don’t think it would be the same characters[…] I think it would just be sort of like an extension of the universe, you know what I mean, like the way [The]Mandalorianis like an extension ofStar Wars”.
It seems like a no-brainer, financially, to bring back a show that had such a big cultural impact. Quotes and scenes fromThe Officehave become widely known and used memes, and merch with references to the show will always be popular. However, story-wise, it doesn’t feel necessary in any way. If they go the route of a revival, there’s really nowhere new that they could take the characters.Their stories were wrapped up well in the last season, and even by then it felt like the writing room was running low on ideas of how these characters could possibly progress anymore. It seems unlikely that there’s anything they could do with the characters this many years later that would be at all new or interesting.
If they go the route of a total reboot, which is what the earlier quote from Greg Daniels seems to be implying, it also feels completely unnecessary. If they’re going to follow an entirely new set of characters, why not make an entirely new show that’s unconnected toThe Office? Setting it in the same universedoesn’t add anything to the story; it’s not like it took place in a fantasy setting where there was more of the world to be explored. Tying a show toThe Officethat really has no connections to the original sitcom is just going to feel like a hollow cash grab, and people are going to catch onto that pretty quickly.
People also may not react well to a version ofThe Officewithout the belovedOfficecharacters. As was proven in the later episodes of the series when Michael (ostensibly the main character of the story)leaves the show, the show doesn’t work quite as well without him, and it’s unlikely that they’d be able to get Steve Carrell back for a reboot. They would just run into the same problem that they faced post-Season 7 of the original show. Though they technically can tell the story without him, it doesn’t work quite as well, especially when Jim and Pam’s story had reached its crescendo and kind of plateaued.
While some die-hard fans will be more receptive to the idea, a lot of people will see any sort of reboot or revival as something that’s going to taint the sanctity of the original show.The Officeended when it needed to, and there’s absolutely no reason to resurrect it from the dead when it lives on in infamy anyway, just as popular as it was when it aired (if not more so). Though this is just another example of studio relying too heavily on the power of nostalgia, and it certainly isn’t the first of its kind (nor will it be the last), it’s time for these higher-ups to learn to let sleeping dogs lie, and not mess with something that is already considered a classic.
NEXT:Animal Crossing: New Horizons Player Recreates Iconic Scene from The Office
