BLASPHEMY! YOU SHUT YOUR WHORE MOUTH!

NO! TO EACH MY OWN!!! OBEY MY OPINON!!!!!

I've haven't watched a second of Couples.

You haven't missed anything.

Yep. I watch it because I always have. Nostalgia. It's not very good. Although when it does have the rare good week, it's generally a really good episode.

I still laugh at The Office, not like I used to, but I will watch out of Loyalty, and I want to see Michael Scott's swansong.

I think the office is another example of why you don't bring couples together on TV shows, because once you do, they stop being interesting. Jim and Pam used to be the heart of that show.

You had to bring Jim and Pam together on that show, even if it took out the component of the chase. Most TV shows, even great ones, are only really good for 3-4 years. After that, you just hope for good isolated episodes.

Yeah, The Office ideally would have ended after season 3. Jim asking Pam out was a perfect way to end the series since we'd have the happy ending without all the boring perfect relationship stuff that followed. To make it really work, you'd have Michael get the promotion instead of Ryan, which would be a hilariously ironic ending (total buffoon flukes his way into a big corporate job) and would make sense anyway since Ryan only got the promotion to set up future storylines.

I really wish American TV followed the British model. Only 6 or 7 episodes per season for as many seasons as the creators feel like doing it. I mean, the real reason cable shows have been so incredible is that the seasons are shorter and fueled by creativity rather than demand for a certain number of episodes. Mad Men, Breaking Bad, The Wire, The Larry Sanders Show, Curb Your Enthusiasm and Flight of the Conchords all do/did seasons that are much shorter than on network TV and -- not coincidentally -- all have a much higher hit rate than the average network show, too.

I've always thought 13 episode seasons are the best. 6 episodes seems too short (I watch several BBC series...) and 20-24 seems too long. Although some shows do pull it off.

13 does seem to be the magic number for American TV. Maybe the networks will catch on and split the season in half, with one slate of shows in the fall and another slate in the spring?

They basically already do that. Splitting 20-24 episode seasons into two separate entities. Like with The Event coming back in two weeks with a 2 hour reboot.

(I know that wasn't what you meant, but that's what american TV would do with your idea, rather than have a fall set of shows and a spring set of shows)

I think USA may be getting it right, with shorter seasons broken in halves. They're avoiding the trap that SciFi fell into with Battlestar Galactica (20+ episode seasons broken in half with months-long gaps in between - they lost viewers steadily over the entire run of the series).

I believe The Office to be at its best when the writers balance the characters of the show. For example, I thought the PDA episode was up to the quality of the season two/three episodes. Michael and Holly were hilarious, but, not overbearing, Kevin was on his game, and the Jim and Pam sideplot was definitely humorous.

When comparing that episode to Threat Level Midnight, (An episode of which I had huge expectations.) The episode ended up spending way too much time on Michael and all of the characters became mere caricatures of themselves. The episode also suffers from the same fate if it focuses too much on Dwight, or Jim/Pam.

However, I will be a loyal follower of the show until the bitter end, and, I am still leaving out a faint glimmer of hope that it may find a new wind after Michael's departure.

Wait, what?

It is. I couldn't get into it last season. Not sure why, but I really like it this time.