The thing rewatchability is mostly a gimmick for me. Because whenever I sit for another watch of an already watched movie/series, I feel like there's still thousand more films out there which I haven't seen yet and its better to watch those than watching the same thing twice. The Office is a proud exception to this statement. As you might have guessed, this is a thing I hold dearly in my heart. So I will not be critically reviewing but rather take an analytical look on the show. So welcome to "The Office-- Not A Review" and we are definitely not gonna be talking about neither the British version nor the Japanese version and obviously excluding Season 8 & 9. (Better to talk about platinum than refurbished gold)
The Office combines everything I want in a sitcom. Again, that's also a personal opinion. It is hilarious, too damn quick, barely wastes any screen time, quirky humor and astounding jokes. But there's a lot of depth to it too. Character development is what lacks in most sitcoms but The Office doesn't suffer from it. Characters develop deep meaningful relationships that have ups and down and give the overall show a bit more purpose. Writers studied these characters very beautifully. They seem like normal people living in the world around us rather than some actors trying hard to make us laugh.
More than that though, The Office is directed in an amazing way. The movement of camera and position can contribute so much to comedic tone of the scene. Its "mockumentary" style makes it unique on its own and the perfect reaction shot of jokes enhances the joke for viewers as well as serving as a joke on its own. You can almost tell that the directors spent a handful amount of time in setting up these perfect shots
The vast majority of TV comedy kind of follows the same formula. Exposition, set-up of the joke and then the joke and laugh track which sometimes follows with a quirky comeback of another character. The Office just takes this formula and kicks it out to the garbage can. Its comedy isn't joke-driven but more like driven around the world and its characters and much like real world, these give and takes ain't always have to be funny. It can be extremely awkward and uncomfortable too. The Office also embraces the cringe and makes use of irony in amazing way. Although, earlier cringe comedy like curb your enthusiasm existed, The Office went over the top with it. The foreshadowing of comedy and easter eggs gives The Office an upper hand over the other sitcoms. Last but not the least, The Office influenced a lot of shows to get rid of the laugh track.
The Office was ahead of its time. In an era where stereotypical and adorkable misogynistic jokes were peak comedy, The Office managed to become humorous and funnier than those without using those cheap jokes, props to the writers. Several great sitcoms have aired since then but none has reached the creative peak The Office once did. During those early seasons, creators penned compelling storytelling and maximized the humor about a regular American workplace. So even though the later seasons couldn't live up to the groundbreaking explorations of early seasons, what The Office lives up and manages to stay relevant even 15 years after its inception and gain popularity in the foreseeable future generations is nothing short of outstanding and TV comedy at its peak. That's exactly how The Office changed American TV comedy forever.