The Office – Season 8 Episodes Ranked

I went into Season 8 of The Office fully aware that many fans consider it to be the worst season of the show. Their warnings were appreciated.

Before I begin the monumental task of ranking all 24 lacklustre episodes, you can check out some of my related blog posts below:

24 – Gettysburg

Rating: D

Andy decides to take the office to “Gettysburg” to inspire and motivate or something like that. It would’ve been nice if the writers had thought of a step two for that plot.

Elsewhere Pam fakes labour, the office come up with innovations, Gabe acts as Lincoln, and Dwight is sure there was a battle of Schrute Farms. It’s all boring, and I never came close to laughing.

23 – Fundraiser

Rating: D+

This might be an unpopular opinion (although I think most Office fans dislike all Season 8 episodes fairly equally), but “Fundraiser” was the exact opposite of what I wanted from this show.

Andy adopts dogs and does the classic sitcom trope of crashing a public event, and Dwight accidentally bids on items thinking it’s a “guess the price” game – a plot they did beat-for-beat with Joey on Friends!

22 – Get the Girl

Rating: D+

For the cold open of “Get the Girl”, the office watches a balloon slowly deflate and touch the ground. How the mighty have fallen …

Andy leaves for Florida to woo Erin and Nellie instates herself as the Scranton manager in his absence. I was wondering why so many Office fans disliked Nellie as a character, but after this episode I understood.

21 – Lotto

Rating: C-

As soon as the warehouse left because they won the lottery in “Lotto”, I knew I was going to dislike this episode.

Darryl has a personal crisis, Dwight / Jim / Erin and Kevin all work in the warehouse now that the real workers have gone, none of it is very interesting.

20 – Christmas Wishes

Rating: C-

“Christmas Wishes” is the worst Office Christmas episode, and it’s not even close.

Andy brings his girlfriend to the party but still has feelings for Erin, Robert California is divorced and unhinged, and Jim and Dwight perform generic pranks on one another.

19 – Angry Andy

Rating: C-

You’d think that the writers would be past Andy’s anger management issues by Season 8, but we’re still scraping the bottom of the barrel.

Andy is outed as impotent and gets fired (so not a great day for him), and Ryan wants Kelly now that she’s dating Pam’s paediatrician. Where’s the comedy in premises like those?

18 – Test the Store

Rating: C-

I wasn’t a fan of the Florida arc near the end of Season 8, and “Test the Store” – the supposed climax of that story – wasn’t worthwhile in the slightest.

The Florida crew all fake roles to run a seamless store and Jim has to come up clutch for the speech, but the best part is probably Andy getting punched by a little girl. I say “best” – it didn’t exactly wow me.

17 – Welcome Party

Rating: C-

A bizarre episode of cringe comedy.

Andy breaks up with his girlfriend in front of her family, and the office plan to prank Nellie for her party until Jim learns of a past tragedy. Awkward stuff.

16 – Last Day in Florida

Rating: C-

“Last Day in Florida” had the pieces in place for a good episode, but it didn’t quite pan out.

Erin works for an old lady in Florida, Toby and Darryl fight over girl scout cookies, Dwight plants a boobytrapped treasure box, and the best part is Jim stopping Dwight from getting fired.

15 – Free Family Portrait Studio

Rating: C-

As episodes go, “Free Family Portrait Studio” is bog-standard. As finales go, I was very disappointed.

Andy pretends to be a cleaner until David Wallace buys Dunder Mifflin, Dwight steals a baby diaper to get a DNA test, and the office take some family photos – Creed’s and Ryan’s were the funniest.

14 – Pool Party

Rating: C-

Yep, ten episodes in and we’re still on the sub-par “C-” grades. Season 8 is just as bad as people said …

Jim tries and fails to leave the party early, Erin tries and fails to use Dwight to seduce Andy, and Robert California swims naked. Weird.

13 – Trivia

Rating: C

After a decent cold open where the office try to remain silent for as long as possible, we get two average plotlines running in tandem.

Dwight interviews for a corporate job with Gabe and eventually Robert, and the office partake in some trivia to win the jackpot to buy paper to beat the growth target. You can guess exactly how both plotlines end within about thirty seconds.

12 – Jury Duty

Rating: C

Andy dances for the office, Jim fakes Jury Duty, and everyone wonders if Dwight is the real father of Angela’s baby. Standard stuff.

11 – Turf War

Rating: C

Weirdly, “Turf War” feels like one of the most dynamic episodes of Season 8 – in other words, things actually happen for once. That doesn’t make it automatically interesting, however.

Robert drunkenly closes a branch and declares himself the “Lizard King”, Jim and Dwight fend off a disgruntled ex-salesman, and Andy banks the client for himself.

10 – Tallahassee

Rating: C

There’s a great cold open where Jim fakes his death, but then the rest of “Tallahassee” sort of dwindles.

We meet Nellie and Todd Packer (*shudder*) again, Dwight has appendicitis, Florida Stanley is a different man, and back in the office Andy works at reception.

9 – The Incentive

Rating: C

As the second episode of the season, “The Incentive” had the perfect opportunity to set Andy up as a new kind of manager. The writers didn’t take it.

He’s still as hapless as Michael Scott by incentivising a tattoo, but not in as fun a way. Robert also demands strict growth from the office, and Kevin chooses to speak in a syllabic way to save breath and brain-power.

8 – Spooked

Rating: C+

Like everything else Season 8 touches, its Halloween episode “Spooked” is a shadow of the previous holiday episodes. Strangely, though, I didn’t have as terrible a time with is as I thought I would.

Dwight’s dangerous costumes were funny, Pam swears she saw a ghost, and Erin gets the chance to throw her own party.

7 – After Hours

Rating: C+

There are many high stakes plotlines running concurrently in “After Hours”, all of them focusing on failed romance – I like it when writers tie an episode’s theme together like that.

Val’s boyfriend comes in while the office stay late and beefs with Darryl, Kathy wants Jim, Ryan wants Erin, and Dwight stops Packer from getting with Nellie.

6 – Doomsday

Rating: C+

Andy sings his “Closing Time” song, five mistakes means all the questionable emails will be forwarded to Robert California, and both Gabe and Darryl like the new warehouse worker Val.

The best part of “Doomsday” is probably Jim attempting to play squash with Robert to stall for time and eventually deleted the emails directly from his phone.

5 – Mrs. California

Rating: C+

I like the upfront stakes of “Mrs. California” – Robert’s wife wants a job and Andy was supposed to say no, but he caves and lets her work. Chaos ensues.

Dwight has a standing desk and helps Darryl get fitter with a makeshift gym, and the best part of the episode is Jim trying to hide from Robert.

4 – Special Project

Rating: C+

Dwight heads and gets to select a team for his “Special Project” in Florida, and I like the subversion of his choices getting overturned immediately.

Darryl misinterprets a valentines gift from Val, Jim enters an unwanted text conversation with Robert California, and Florida Stanley shows hints of his personality moving forwards.

3 – Garden Party

Rating: C+

We’ve reached the top three episodes, and we’re still talking about C-Tier offerings. Yikes …

The defaced billboards cold open is a little broad for my tastes, and the Josh Groban cameo felt kinda weird, but the “Garden Party” itself and Jim making an entire book to fool Dwight were funny. The scene of Dwight announcing Jim’s name every time he went back and forth was a highlight of the season.

2 – The List

Rating: B-

I had low expectations going into the Season 8 premier, so maybe that’s why “The List” felt like a solid opening episode.

Andy is the manager now, Robert California makes himself the new Sabre CEO, Pam and Angela are pregnant, and everyone freaks out over Robert’s two lists of names. The only bit of the episode I didn’t like was the planking – an outdated internet reference that I’m sure was even cringier for viewers at the time.

1 – Pam’s Replacement

Rating: B-

The best episode of the season, and yet “Pam’s Replacement” still only managed a “B-” score. If that’s not an indication of the season’s quality as a whole, I don’t know what is.

There are two good plotlines for the first and only time this season – Robert taking over Andy / Darryl / Kevin’s band is funny, and Jim not admitting that Kathy is hot leads to some of the best jokes of the season.

Season Rating: D

Boring. So boring. I was worried about what The Office would be like after Michael’s departure, but I wasn’t expecting a season devoid of fun and laughter like this. At least the supporting cast made the experience tolerable.

Let’s look at the stats for the season as a whole:

• 2B (8%)
• 19C (79%)
• 3D (13%)

And the stats for the series so far:

• 12A (7%)
• 75B (46%)
• 70C (43%)
• 5D (3%)

Aaaand that’s my list! You can check out some of my latest blog posts below: