Another year has come and gone, and despite rumors that a revival of The Office was in discussion, all the year has to show for it is a Saturday Night Live joke and a brunch photo of the cast. Still, hope is kept alive that the cast of one of the modern era's most popular shows will come back. While a revival could be nice, I'm personally thinking a one-off Christmas special is the only way to go in terms of bringing these characters back to the small screen.
It's time for The Office fans to be honest, the chances of a revival are getting slimmer with each passing year. The show's main cast continues to be successful and ensnared in other projects, which obviously limits their availability for a full-length season similar to what the show was back in the day. The amount of scheduling it would take to get the cast's schedules cleared seems like a daunting enough task for a mini-series, let alone a full-length season.
If a revival did happen, it would probably have to happen in a way similar to Arrested Development Season 4, which was famously criticized for being unable to pull its cast together for scenes. While this concept may work better with the show being shot in a documentary format, unless a revival could get a majority of the cast back together in one room for most its episodes, it doesn't feel worth doing.
This is why a one-off special is really the best course of action for a reunion of The Office. It makes it more feasible that the main characters everyone wants to see will be present to shoot at the same time, and makes the odds better they'll recreate the chemistry they once shared. It also prevents the classic comedy from overstaying its welcome and degrade the fond memory most have of it more-so than some of the post-Steve Carell episodes.
Once one is committed to a one-off special of The Office, the decision to make it a holiday party themed episode is rather obvious. For starters, fans are going to go ballistic upon learning of a reunion special to begin with, so why not amplify that feeling with announcing it during the holidays? Additionally, NBC would likely air it at a time where television shows are going on break, which may entice even the wary fans to tune in.
Plus, The Office holiday party specials rank among some of the best episodes the show has done. Who among us hasn't thought of Jim's teapot or Michael's video iPod during a round of "Yankee Swap" in recent years? Far less people have probably attempted a Pennsylvanian Dutch Christmas I'm sure, but if someone has decided to terrorize their loved ones with a visit from Belsnickel, let's just hope they had the foresight to leave out some of the other traditions.
There was always lots of laughs to be had during The Office Christmas specials, and still a lot more laughs to be had should the gang get together for another holiday party. Speaking of which, a holiday party is kind of the perfect excuse to drag the show's characters back from their respective paths at the end of the series, especially if it's requested by everyone's favorite character and Christmas lover, Michael Scott.
If there was ever someone who would get the hair-brained scheme to break himself and do everything he could to pull his old coworkers back together, Michael is the one to do it. Of course, his expectations for the event would be over the moon, and fans can probably already visualize the lengths he'd go to in order to get everyone (sans Toby) to attend. That alone would be great to see, even if the party is a drag.
Though, let's be honest, no holiday party ever lived up to Michael's standards. Either he'd be disappointed that bringing everyone back together doesn't feel as wild and crazy as it used to (which could be a very meta joke towards the revival concept) or he'd take things over the line and make a fool out of himself. Of course, his coworkers could never leave Michael disappointed, so they'd do their best to make the most of the situation.
Additionally, one of the beautiful things about Michael Scott's character is there's always some deeper reason behind his most outlandish schemes. While The Office probably wouldn't dive too deeply into a story, there's an opportunity to tackle something emotional there that could tug at the heartstrings of those who love the show. Whatever that reason may be would be up to Greg Daniels and his team to figure out, provided they'd even approach this as a Michael Scott idea.
Another scenario could just be the documentary team wanting to pull the cast together again due to "audience demand". The concept worked out well enough for The Office finale, and much like was the case with The Staircase and Making A Murderer, a documentary team meeting back up years later to make a follow up is fairly common. What if they were making a true-crime documentary on the Scranton Strangler and could only get interviews with everyone around Christmas?
It only takes a little brainstorming to make this idea work, so imagine what the people who made the show so great could come up with? Sure, it might be better off to just let sleeping dogs lie and let The Office continue to be the show folks binge on Netflix or cable as opposed to finding newer things to enjoy, but in the age of reboots and revivals, a return will probably happen sooner or later.
Unfortunately, there are no plans or even rumors regarding a new holiday episode of The Office, but fans can still enjoy the series' old ones via Netflix. For a look at other things happening on television in the coming weeks or the first half of 2019, be sure to visit our fall and midseason premiere guides.
