29 comments

  1. Is it gonna be a feature-length documentary that will be “aired”? Kinda thought that from the “ten years in the making” bit.

    It would be funny that they watch the first six episodes, are so embarrassed by the show etc. and then the last line of the finale is “Oh ****, it’s been picked up for a second season!”

  2. Maybe this will be, like, a two-hour special that airs either directly or a week before the finale. What we’ve seen has been, obviously, a real world TV show, but this could be the in-universe documentary they’ve obviously been filming for 8 years. Either way, I’m intrigued.

  3. This is getting so meta… My brain is exploding! (In a good way!)

    [ from tanster: i know. they broke our brains! ;) ]

  4. I’m beginning to think this explains why the finale is May 16th, although it was originally reported (unofficially) as May 9th. Perhaps NBC needs room for a clip show/TV movie of the finished product?

    I’m more curious as to what the main plot(s) of the documentary will be. Will it be Michael’s search for a wife and kids (among other adventures and misadventures)? The Jim/Pam/Roy love triangle? How significant will Dwight (and Angela and Kevin and Stanley and Oscar and Andy and Erin and everyone else) be? How much can they really fit into a film-length documentary? Basically, what’s the point of the documentary?

  5. How are they going to do the title sequence?? Does this mean we will have “Dwight K. Schrute” “Jim Halpert” instead of “Rainn Wilson” “John Krasinski” on the title sequence?? Ah!! I’ve been looking forward to this since I started watching it! I just hope they spread it over a few episodes so they can get plenty of material in, instead of having to fit all of it in one episode.

  6. This gave me the chills when I saw it! Such a weird feeling seeing this all come to an end…

  7. My first thought was that we were supposed to assume that Oscar had secretly been working on the series the whole time. Interesting to hear everyone else’s thoughts!

  8. I take it that this means the airing of the documentary and the local minor celebrity arc will begin in May? If so, isn’t that cutting things close, cramming too much into too small a space? Seems like there have been a couple of episodes that could’ve been done differently or even rewritten to get to that point sooner. There are 8 shows left; the finale will be an hour, but I can’t imagine the rest or even a couple will be that length. I’m starting to fear we’re going to have a lot crammed into a few episodes. Which could mean unsatisfying arc endings and a finished product that isn’t all that it could’ve been. Hope I’m wrong. But they sure are cutting it close. Also: the more I think about Pam, the more I believe she’s staying true to herself. Meaning, she doesn’t like change and the few times she tried it she always ran back to what she perceived as safe. Except when she finally left Roy, ostensibly for Jim. And that was the best decision she ever made. Hopefully that’s what’ll happen concerning Philly. After all, she did want to know more about Philly Jim.

  9. Wait a minute, I just noticed that that says “Ten years in the making”… the crew hasn’t even been filming for eight years (if you count from the pilot episode as zero)… so that means they were commissioned or whatever two years before. Why two years between beginning production and beginning filming?

  10. This is confuzzling. So what is this documentary that they’ve been airing for years already? Technically haven’t they been watching it on nbc all this time? :p

  11. I’m just hoping that the documentary isn’t an excuse to turn the season finale into a clip show…

  12. I’m hoping they actually include the “documentary” on the DVD release. The last few DVD’s have been so weak with extras that this would totally make up for it!

  13. I took this to mean that the show we’ve been seeing all along is finally airing in “their world”. Meaning that in their world, the footage from 2005 is finally airing in 2013 along with the entire story of these people.

    It will show the Dunder Mifflin staff what we’ve seen all along, including people’s interviews with the camera and especially the things that only certain people were privy to. I can see it rocking their world because all of a sudden, they know what other people have said about them.

    Plus, they’re now “celebrities”.

  14. I’m curious as to why they made it ten years in the making. Are they going to add more footage when they finally air the documentary? Not that it matters. Ten sounds a bit more official than eight I guess.

  15. 10 years in the making.. if they’ve been filming for 9 years, then maybe may of next year would be the tenth year of their production.. possibly a release of a documentary like observation of this small work place.

  16. The ad does not mention that it is a documentary…. What if it turns out this whole “ten” years has been scripted? Kind of far fetched, but just a thought…

  17. Guys, to clear it up to those who don’t understand. In THEIR World (Jim, Dwight, Michael, Pam, Oscar etc) The Office has NOT aired on television.

    All that this is telling us is that the show is about to air in their world.

    Some of you are asking will we get to see this documentary. We already have, it’s what we’ve been watching for 9 years.

  18. “The ad does not mention that it is a documentary…. What if it turns out this whole “ten” years has been scripted? Kind of far fetched, but just a thought…”

    That idea has crossed my mind too.

  19. “10 years in the making” probably an homage to The Office the show not the documentary that is about to air in their Scranton. This show was a product of 10 years maybe even more with all that goes into putting a show on air.

  20. You guys…..

    These people have been living their lives, this is a show about an office that is being filmed for a documentary. It is why the curtains have been slowly rising why we saw Brian and more of the camera crew. We get to see everything because it is a tv show and they are not breaking that wall. The camera crew we saw isn’t the actual crew (well certainly not Chris D.) It isn’t that complex but I can see where you might get stuck.

    What I hope is answered by the documentary crew is: Why a paper company and why this office out of all of the businesses? Did someone know Michael Scott or someone within and that is why Dunder Mifflin was chosen?

  21. Based on interviews with writers and actors, I can’t help but see this issue with Jim and Pam get drawn out (with some good moments, obviously) but they’ll be met with some kind of deadline to meet. A decision will have to be made. And finally, we HAVE to see the characters watch a moment from the first season, and Jim and Pam will reconcile in some way.

    Hearing Greg Daniels say that the end of the Jim/Pam story will be “true to the characters of Jim and Pam” just makes this ending inevitable in my eyes. I don’t know about the rest of the story lines, though. There’s a lot of context there.

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