Professionalism is.

The Office S1E1: ‘Downsize’ — What makes a show perfect, and why this one was

This piece is part of a series on The Office (UK), running up to the 20th anniversary of its finale this Christmas. Don’t miss out by following me on Medium. The piece also originally appeared on my Substack, Artless. Subscribe to that here.

Film review social media site for the unemployed, Letterboxd, has a star-rating system. On it I’m loath to give too many films the full-whack five, not because I’m stingy. To me a full score means perfect. But also perfect doesn’t mean it’s better than anything else. Only that you can’t think of what you’d amend — nothing missing in the film that should’ve been there, nothing there that shouldn’t be — to make it better. Perfection in art isn’t what is most but what is just right. It’s in this sense that The Office is a perfect TV show.

Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant’s decision to end it after thirteen episodes (including the finale which aired in two parts) is mostly admired as a canny way to make sure they didn’t outstay their welcome, didn’t give themselves time to mess up. But the length of the show is also what means it can be perfect.1 Till a story ends it doesn’t have a shape you can judge; and while shows that aren’t still-running soaps or abruptly cancelled have endings of their…