Late Office

A lot of The Office fans lose their shit about the show continuing after Michael Scott left. The feeling is understandable considering how great a character he was, but I'd submit that while a lot of it wasn't great - season 8 in particular was bad - it was still better than most shows, and certainly very watchable. There were some bad lengthy plot lines - Athlead, the boom mic guy, Tallahassee (tho tbh none of these is much worse than Season 6's "co-managers" nonsense) - and desperately trying to make the show all about Andy nearly killed the show off before they finally scrapped the idea heading into the final half of the last season. and in considering each episode I've come to realize that a lot of episodes are bad not because there's no funny stuff, and certainly we still love the characters anyway, but rather because a lot of the stuff they do is just head-shakingly implausible. A work bus? Drugging Stanley to slide him down the stairs? "Let's all go to Gettysburg!" And on and on and on.

I was very tough in my remarks below, but also keep in mind there's really not one of these I wouldn't be happy to re-watch at any time. I may roll my eyes and bitch at parts, but they're still watchable.

Season 8

Number of outright good episodes: 1

Number of downright bad episodes: 14

THE LIST - perfectly fine
THE INCENTIVE - not good
LOTTO - very bad
GARDEN PARTY - really good
SPOOKED - unwatchable, but the cards with dicks is funny
DOOMSDAY - fine
PAM’S REPLACEMENT - bad but Dwight with the old man in the pharmacy is hilarious
GETTYSBURG - thoroughly implausible
MRS. CALIFORNIA - terrible, one of the worst
CHRISTMAS WISHES - terrible, worst Christmas episode by a mile
TRIVIA - okay
POOL PARTY - bad
JURY DUTY - one of the most forgettable episodes, if not the most forgettable
SPECIAL PROJECT - bad, kicked off the whole wtf Tallahassee plot line
TALLAHASSEE -  bad but Dwight fighting through appendicitis is pretty funny
AFTER HOURS - bad and implausible
TEST THE STORE - bad
LAST DAY IN FLORIDA - bad but good to see Jim try to save Dwight
GET THE GIRL - one of the worst
WELCOME PARTY - magician stuff is really funny
ANGRY ANDY - immediately forgettable
FUNDRAISER - bad
TURF WAR - not good but it’s always good to see Jim & Dwight teaming up together for any reason
FREE FAMILY PORTRAIT STUDIO - blech

Season 9

Number of outright good episodes: 11

Number of downright bad episodes: 8

NEW GUYS - love this, mostly due to the introduction of Clark (Young Dwight)
ROY’S WEDDING - really good
ANDY’S ANCESTRY - meh
WORK BUS - wildly implausible but the Jim/Dwight and Andy/Nellie moments are really good
HERE COMES TREBLE - really good
THE BOAT - bad
THE WHALE - the Dwight/Jan stuff is great
THE TARGET - some of the Chris Gethard stuff is among the best comedy bits throughout the entire series
DWIGHT CHRISTMAS - GREAT episode!
LICE - bad
SUIT WAREHOUSE - LOVE this one, wanted more Dwight/Clark together
CUSTOMER LOYALTY - bad: the prefect storm of the stupid Jim/Philly stuff and the boom mic guy, neither of which I gave a shit about
JUNIOR SALESMAN - fun having new faces, Dwight’s weird friends, milling about
VANDALISM - terrible
COUPLES DISCOUNT - terrible
MOVING ON - the Dwight aunt stuff is bad but the Bob Odenkirk stuff is pure delight
THE FARM - weird but actually pretty funny
PROMOS - OKAY, STARTS THE FINAL TURN TOWARDS A FEW REALLY GREAT EPISODES AT THE END (sorry caps not retyping)
STAIRMAGEDDON - stupidly implausible
PAPER AIRPLANE - no clue how this even got made
LIVIN THE DREAM - fantastic episode, lot of great stuff for Dwight packed in
A.A.R.M. - great penultimate double episode,
FINALE - one of the best sitcom finales of all time, really wraps things up nicely and if you’re not fighting waterworks at the end you’r not human. This one has it all.