The Office – All 9 Seasons Ranked

Now that I’ve had some time to reminisce in the many weeks after finishing The Office, I can finally give my definitive ranking on all nine seasons. The quality is mixed to say the least.

I’ll also throw in my favourite, least favourite, most underrated and most overrated episode of each season for the fun of it.

Before we begin, you can check out some of my related blog posts below:

Bad

9 – Season 8

• Best – Pam’s Replacement
• Worst – Gettysburg
• Underrated – Pam’s Replacement
• Overrated – Lotto

I’d heard the general consensus that Season 8 of The Office is universally lambasted, but I wasn’t expecting it to be so darn boring across the board.

The only episode that made me chuckle was “Pam’s Replacement”, as otherwise we got snooze-fests like “Gettysburg” or straight up jumping-the-shark plotlines like in “Lotto”.

Meh

8 – Season 9

• Best – Finale
• Worst – The Farm
• Underrated – Lice
• Overrated – Work Bus

Part of me hoped that Season 9 would correct the mistakes of the previous season and jump up in quality, but for the first twenty episodes it was more of the same mediocrity.

It definitely picked up in the final three episodes, and “Finale” remains one of the best episodes of the whole show, but it’s a shame you have to trudge through 400 minutes of filler to get there.

OK

7 – Season 1

• Best – Basketball
• Worst – Pilot
• Underrated – The Alliance
• Overrated – Health Care

The first seasons of comedy shows tend to be an unfair representation of the style of humour to come, and nowhere is the gulf in quality more egregious than between Season 1 and 2 of The Office.

Michael is more unlikeable than he should be, the humour is way too awkward on multiple occasions, and it’s only episodes like “Basketball” and “Diversity Day” that still hold up.

What Season 1 does better than 8 and 9, however, is that it’s mercifully short – only six episodes of test-runs to get through compared to twenty-three inexcusable fillers!

6 – Season 6

• Best – Niagara
• Worst – The Banker
• Underrated – The Chump
• Overrated – St. Patricks Day

Season 5 was a slight dip in quality (we’ll get to that in a bit), but Season 6 was the first time I started getting worried.

The new characters don’t make much of an impact, most episodes fly by without anything meaningful happening, and the Sabre arc leads to one of the most boring finales in the series.

At least gems like “Niagara”, “The Chump” and “Happy Hour” provide the laughs.

Good

5 – Season 7

• Best – Goodbye, Michael
• Worst – Christening
• Underrated – The Sting
• Overrated – The Search

Season 7 was a slight step up from Season 6, but only because the episodes leading up to “Goodbye, Michael” were so emotional.

Despite fantastic episodes like “Garage Sale”, “Threat Level Midnight” and “Michael’s Last Dundies”, there are still sub-par efforts like “The Search” and especially “Christening” that prove the writers were running out of steam.

4 – Season 5

• Best – Stress Relief
• Worst – Moroccan Christmas
• Underrated – Café Disco
• Overrated – Moroccan Christmas

There’s an argument to be made that Season 5 is still within the confines of the “Golden Age” of the series, but I think the show was starting to lose a bit of its magic by this point.

“Stress Relief” is the clear stand-out and remains my favourite episode, but some episodes like “Moroccan Christmas” and the whole “New Boss” arc almost ruined the season … but then the “Michael Scott Paper Company” arc swooped in to save the day.

Great

3 – Season 4

• Best – Dinner Party
• Worst – Survivor Man
• Underrated – Money
• Overrated – Nights Out

While the shortened season length due to the 2008 Writers’ Strike meant that Season 4 didn’t necessarily capture its full potential, I still had a blast with almost every episode.

I’ll never forget the sheer chaos of “Dinner Party”, the character-focused comedy of “Money”, or the season finale “Goodbye, Toby” … but I wish I could forget some of the slower episodes like “Survivor Man” or “Nights Out”.

Amazing

2 – Season 3

• Best – Business School
• Worst – Diwali
• Underrated – The Negotiation
• Overrated – A Benihana Christmas

Season 3 was comfortably within the “Golden Age” of The Office, which allowed the writers and actors the freedom to explore exciting and hilarious storylines.

The odd episodes like “Diwali” and “The Merger” slow the momentum, but classics like “Business School”, “Beach Games” and “The Negotiation” put us right back on track. And maybe this is a hot take, but Jim and Karen made a good pair!

1 – Season 2

• Best – Casino Night
• Worst – Christmas Party
• Underrated – Conflict Resolution
• Overrated – Halloween

The showrunners needed to make some big changes in between Season 1 and Season 2, and they couldn’t have done a better job. Shifting the antagonists from Michael to Corporate was an inspired choice, and focusing more heavily on the Jim / Pam relationship created some of the best moments in the series.

Even my least favourite episode “Christmas Party” isn’t that bad, and most of the rest are certified bangers – “The Dundies” is a great course-correction, “Conflict Resolution” pits the cast against each other, “The Injury” is a non-stop comedy masterclass, and “Casino Night” is the ultimate season finale.

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