AV CLUB site commenter on the final episode of the American OFFICE.

PolarBears                                                                                      

The thing I dislike most about The Office's later seasons is not the dip in quality, but rather, the backlash from the fans. The thing is, I don't blame them. It was sheer loyalty that kept me going through Season 8; hell, I thought about dropping the show more often than not. But here I am; I've watched all 200 or so episodes, and I still will miss it.
The finale had its share of think pieces, but it didn't quite garner the fanfare it deserved. It's essentially come full circle from that small, forgotten show back in 2005; "It should've ended here or there!" and "I haven't watched in forever!" dominate conversations about the current state of The Office, and well, those people are right. But what saddens me is that no one seems to care as it limps off into the sunset. Sure, you have your die-hards and your occasional casual viewers, but we've let these last few seasons tarnish the reputation of the show. It's only natural. The truth is, however, that for a time, The Office was one of the most brilliant things on TV.
It gave us a sweet, genuine, and downright beautiful relationship with Jim and Pam. It gave us fleshed out, complex, and hilarious characters. It gave us Michael Scott. It gave us a wonderful cast (watching the retrospective, I was struck by how much love the cast members had for each other. It's the case for most casts, but man, these are some wonderful people). It gave us a window into the monotony and absurdity of office life, something many of us can relate to. It gave us a plethora of incredibly uncomfortable situations. Most importantly, it gave us some of the most hilarious TV moments, and episodes, of all time. And astonishingly, it lasted 9 seasons, and was able to bring back some of the things we loved the most about the show in this final season. So yes, there were incredible highs, and disastrous lows, but in the end, my favorite moments of this show were, in the words of Michael Scott,
"All of them. I loved them all. Every single one of them."
The Office took an ordinary concept, and it turned it into its own kind of ordinary. And there's a lot of beauty in ordinary things. Isn't that kind of the point?

Post-mortem to the 2012 SAG Awards.

http://hollywood-elsewhere.com/2012/01/tired_blood.php

After last night, I'm prognosticating THE HELP as winner of the Best Picture Academy Award for a simple reason: it's an uplifting (haven't seen it, but taking its fans' viewpoint into consideration) commercial hit, which will be seen by more people than THE ARTIST (which I did see, and it will probably be too strange/esoteric and "why aren't they talking" for non-big-city audiences).

Was also sad for Steve Carell to lose yet another award opportunity for playing Michael Scott on the US version of THE OFFICE.  Guessing that the uneven quality of Season 7 (which has persisted into the current episodes of the show) might have been a big factor.

http://www.deadline.com/2012/01/labor-law-expert-criticizes-sag-aftra-as-the-merger-that-solves-nothing/
And, as for the SAG/AFTRA merger (a fait accompli partially accomplished by AFTRA underbidding SAG on certain TV projects), it's a bad idea that was a long-ago bad idea when I was more active in SAG in the 90s (working as background actor/stand-in) and the membership-at-large frequently voted it down despite the tireless efforts of people like ex-SAG President Richard Masur to force it into reality.

But a recession economy is doing the unfortunate trick of making SAG actors sign onto the merger of an actors' union with a union that represents a lot of radio/television employees (anchorpeople, etc.) who are not actors.

All I can say is good luck trying to make all the merged actors generally happy with what could result (remembering all too well SAG's acquiring of jurisdiction over background actors in 1992, leading to the demise of the Screen Extras Guild and, temporarily, causing lower per-day rates because SAG wanted to "get the jurisdiction.").