5. The Office Michael Leaves
The US version of The Office had a rocky start, falling early into the trap every American adaptation faces, too similar a product seems like a senseless reshoot and too different loses the purpose of it being an adaptation. Season two and three, however, firmly cemented its style and character dynamics in their own way and it went from strength to strength. It also had its fair share of classic moments. Pam and Jims wedding is awesomely silly and romantic and I genuinely love Michael and Holly ending up together. But once Michael and Holly get engaged, Michael announces he is leaving. The next couple of episodes are something of a retrospective (though thankfully not resorting to a clip show) of Michaels relationships with his co-workers, them even writing a song for him working out how many minutes hes worked there for (9,986,000 which is lovingly followed by thats like watching Die Hard 80,000 times). When it comes time for the big goodbye, however, Michael chooses to leave a day before his official last day. The office jokes theyll give him a proper goodbye tomorrow and Michael takes one last look at them before silently leaving forever. Its a tremendously emotional exit because Michael is so often inserting himself into other peoples business and wanting to be the centre of attention. Often, obviously, this is inappropriate and comedic but now the attention turns to Michael as he leaves, he shuns the spotlight and ducks out early. Michael even reminds us, as it was so easy to forget while watching the show, that the whole thing is a documentary being filmed, so he naturally takes off his microphone. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZ-a1csRWhQ The last image we have is that of Pam hunting Michael down before he gets on his plane, them hugging and Pam watching the plane take off.