Photo: Chris Haston/? NBCUniversal, Inc.
There’s a formula for season eight of The Office. Robert California informs Andy that he must solve some problem, and Andy asks the office for ideas. Whatever strategy they concoct causes some high jinks that morph into a separate story arc. And at the end of the episode, though the original problem remains unsolved, California reappears to deliver an inspiring, if not coldly abrasive monologue.
“Doomsday†isn’t as apocalyptically dull as last week’s episode. In fact, it is quite funny and has some genuine stakes. The problem is none of this matters when the ending just sort of happens. Like California said, the office is prone to error, and in this episode, no one bothered to fix it.