The Office Season 8
Overview
Michael Scott is gone, so what is The Office without him? Season 8 is the show trying to answer that, and the results are — let's be fair — uneven, but not without charm. Andy Bernard gets the manager's chair and spends the season desperate to prove Robert California wrong about him, while James Spader swans through as Robert himself: rich, unsettling, weirdly magnetic, and clearly smarter than everyone in the building. The staff heads to Florida mid-season for a Sabre store launch that turns into a slow-motion disaster, and Catherine Tate arrives as Nellie Bertram, a whirlwind who simply takes what she wants. Jim and Pam adjust to a second baby, Dwight keeps being Dwight, and Erin and Andy circle each other in the show's most frustrating will-they-won't-they. Longtime fans tend to rank this one near the bottom, and a few episodes do feel like a band playing without its lead singer. But there's real sweetness in watching these people hold the place together anyway — and Ed Helms gives Andy a neediness that sneaks up on you.
