The Office: Every Season Ranked Worst To Best

On the surface, the concept of a sitcom set in the dreary, mundane setting of an office sounds as tiresome to watch as it does to work on. This is certainly partly true of the original, British iteration of The Office, with much of its deadpan humour and abrasive David Brent character proving to be a little too depressing for viewers overseas.

So the American TV executives did exactly what they always do. They remade it for Americanized households, with the resulting difference being a surprisingly amicable show that both audiences, American and British, would come to hold close to their hearts.

Although the initial season was ineffectual (as you'll come to be informed later), the unprecedented quality of everything that came after propelled The Office to something more grandiose than its extremely basic setting should allow.

Of course though, nothing is perfect and nothing lasts forever and The Office is certainly no exception to this rule whatsoever. So we're ranking the seasons that come closest to perfection and the ones that feel like abject depression in the form of Television. With the seasons ranked worst to best, some will leave you impressed and some seasons, well, you'll probably detest.

At this point what can you say about season 9? That it's the last season? That it's the most forgettable season in any show ever? That Dwight should've been promoted much earlier? Apologies for the spoiler, but you've had a few years at this point (which is exactly what the network should've said to those captaining this sinking ship of a show).

Season 9 is a total hodgepodge of trial and error, a Frankenstein's monster of a season of television, with so many artificial parts coming together that it becomes a shadow of itself. It feels like a hybrid of what came before, with big events done irritatingly halfheartedly and lifelessly. It shows that the bones were there, but the flesh had definitely decayed at this point.

If additional characters in prior seasons such as Robert California and Nelly shook up the formula in a non-complimentary way, then there's not much that can be said about Pete and Clark (if anyone remembers them). The very forced duo are essentially the next Jim and Dwight, but when Pete's romance with Erin blossoms and it's foreshadowed that they could become the new Jim and Pam, you realised the writers were desperately trying to breathe new life into something they should've taken off life support long ago.

Although it has its saving graces, such as that perfect finale which brings Steve Carrell back into his role as Michael Scott one last time, Erin finally completing her character arc as she finally stumbles onto her parents and the long awaited marriage of Dwight and Angela being brought to fruition, it's otherwise surrounded by lows.