This seems to be a good week for The Office fans as the Scranton wrap party took place this past weekend with many of the cast members attending the event. Then there was the news yesterday that Steve Carell would be back for the finale. Now it turns out that NBC has finally decided to super-size the series finale and give it 15 extra minutes.
An hour-long retrospective will air before the finale while the final episode starts at 9pm. The penultimate episode airing this week will be an hour-long as well. There had been a long petition going on to expand the length of the finale ever since creator Greg Daniels has stated how he would like the finale to be longer, given the amount of footage they have. It had reached more than 20,000 signatures and I suppose NBC had no choice but to listen to the fans.
I don’t know how much of a role Steve Carell is meant to have in the finale, but perhaps the extra time could also mean a greater role for his character, Michael Scott. I don’t want the finale to be completely bogged down by the character arcs and story-lines, so an extra 15 minutes provides plenty of time for some more of the great comedy that we’ve come to expect from the show.
The extra time also ensures that each character will get to have a proper goodbye and send-off without being overshadowed by the others. Although I’m not sure how big you can go with certain characters, such as Creed. Regardless, the show has always done an excellent job when it comes to big moments, and I expect no less for a finale. Thank the over-lords at NBC that they’re giving us a little bit more time to hang on to it before it leaves us for good.
Are you excited that The Office is getting a super-sized finale? Sound off in the comments below.