The Office - Season 5

The Office's latest and longest season was pretty consistently good throughout, though it felt like it was funnier later on when less time was spent dwelling on relationship woes and more time just trying to be funny. Jim and Pam are more or less set by this point, so now a lot of the weight for that stuff is on Michael's shoulders as he continues to have crummy luck. There was a resolution to the Dwight-Andy-Angela arc that was both satisfying and pretty funny, finally putting that to bed too, and the continued rivalry yet growing respect between the two men is interesting. I don't know what the long term plan is for the show, but there is a sixth season coming and I'm looking forward to the continuing escapades of Dunder Mifflin's Scranton branch in this troubling economy.

There were are a couple really good guest stints by The Wire alums Amy Ryan and Idris Elba, the former of which exponentially increases the cringe-worthiness of Michael thinking he's funny and the latter providing an actual obstacle to Jim for the first time in his career. The storyline where tension with corporate causes Michael to start his own company was pretty fun, and provided one of the best episodes as he and Dwight engaged in some corporate cloak and dagger. Dwight really had some great moments this season, like the time he started a fire in an attempt to test his coworkers' survival skills and the rare moments where he and Jim have a common goal. The show's really too wacky to be believable at this point, but I've always watched it for its more outlandish moments, and it continues to be one of the better comedies on television.