Current Events > Why did the completely ruin Andy at the end of the Office?

(+) Yeah! (+)

They just drive him right into the dirt and make him horrible.
---

They did that with the entire show around Season 7ish..

flanderization.
---

leverageblargh posted...

All of his actions made complete sense considering the character's history.

---

leverageblargh posted...

All of his actions made complete sense considering the character's history.

Not really. They just had him randomly leave his job to try and be a star. He was never obsessed with fame before.
---

Andy was literally always an awful character. Hes literally the Ted Mosby of the office

He was shit ever since season 4, he was best as a fratboy douche in season 3

He just got extra focus because of the hangover later on
---

Andy was total shit always

He was fun as the douche with anger management issues

Then as a doormat cuck

But as someone above pointed out he was given increased focus because of the Hangover and at that point it's clear the writers had no clue what to do with him so they tried a bunch of random shit
---

I wanted him to marry Erin. I was mad how it ended

One silver lining of those later season is gabe

His stupid lines make me laugh the most of any later season stuff
---

Zikten posted...

I wanted him to marry Erin. I was mad how it ended

That would have just been another Jim and Pam type. I think it was better they didn't end up together.
---

CruelBuffalo posted...

Andy was literally always an awful character. Hes literally the Ted Mosby of the office

U FUCKING WOT M8
---

Zikten posted...

I wanted him to marry Erin. I was mad how it ended

Im glad he didnt end up with her. Lol I legit hated Andy scenes.

i always viewed the office as being about how the local manager, despite being nuts, could be much worse.

michael was a self-centered buffoon, but he cared about his employees. jan was a malevolent powermonger, david wallace pure greed, jo a slave driver, robert california a manipulator and shyster, etc

they made andy into 'new michael' and did okay with it at first

but then with his unavailability they had to write him off, and i almost think the writers got mad and decided he'd be their final villain, which was a poor choice
---

Darkman124 posted...

i always viewed the office as being about how the local manager, despite being nuts, could be much worse.

michael was a self-centered buffoon, but he cared about his employees. jan was a malevolent powermonger, david wallace pure greed, jo a slave driver, robert california a manipulator and shyster, etc

they made andy into 'new michael' and did okay with it at first

but then with his unavailability they had to write him off, and i almost think the writers got mad and decided he'd be their final villain, which was a poor choice

He cared about them, at times. Most of the times he lied and cheated them out of stuff.

The bonus/surplus?
Santa Clause?
Merediths wedding?
Lol all the events after hitting Meredith with his car?

Its more about him wanting to be liked than the caring part. I mean hes not an evil sociopath (like when he came to Pams art show) just emotionally immature.

CruelBuffalo posted...

Its more about him wanting to be liked than the caring part. I mean hes not an evil sociopath (like when he came to Pams art show) just emotionally immature.

that is a good summary

but the point is they live in a world where evil sociopaths frequently rise to the top

he sucks but he could be a LOT worse.
---

@Darkman124 posted...

i always viewed the office as being about how the local manager, despite being nuts, could be much worse.

michael was a self-centered buffoon, but he cared about his employees. jan was a malevolent powermonger, david wallace pure greed, jo a slave driver, robert california a manipulator and shyster, etc

I have two items of note:
1) They show this the most with Charles Miner. They made him the complete opposite of michael in just about every way. And he fails. They do this to show in a very subtle way that Michael is not a bad boss. He definitely does a lot of things that he shouldn't (fuck, that's what the whole show is based off), but at the end of the day, he's almost always successful (except when he fires tony gardner when he's about to quit). He's a successful manager and a good(ish) employee. At least by the end of the show.
2) David Wallace is not a "greed" character. He's the ultimate straight-man of the show. Every business decision he makes is very shrewd. At first Jim/Ryan were the straight men of the show, but even they fall into indulging the wacky alternate reality that is the Scranton branch of Dunder Mifflin. (they later ruin Wallace w/ Suck It, but whatever, bad writing and all. And they later save him.) Wallace is definitely one of my, and many other fans of the show's favorite side characters.
---

you're right, i was thinking of promoted-ryan when i was writing the greed character

david wallace being best friends with jim is meant to telegraph to the reader that he's the "good one."
---

Anyway, to answer tc, they likely wanted to make the show more of an ensemble piece when Steve Carell, ala the later seasons of Scrubs. However, they had already either sucked all of the funny out of their one note side characters (how many times can we laugh at Phyllis being a sensitive grandma one moment and a stone cold bitch the next), or completely ruined them and ran the character into the ground (Kevin), and they hadn't built up enough new side characters to make more of an ensemble (this explains the introduction of Pete and Clark in season 9). So they had to make someone the new Michael.

Jim wouldn't be funny as the new michael. He's funny in context with stupid shit going around him, as he's kind of a straight man. They chose not to go with dwight, even if he would've been the funniest (probably because in-universe they had already shoe-horned him away from it, is my guess). So they go with Andy, a pretty unoffensive, vanilla character who had a few quirks (his anger issue) they could play off of later. This is, imo why the show is flat-out boring in the 8th season.

Then in the 9th season, they succeed in making the show more of an ensemble piece, and Ed Helms went to go film The Hangover 3, which left them with an absence. I imagine they thought the idea of conflict of erin having a new romantic interest in Pete could be funny with the return of Andy (idk they went with this, they already did it with gabe, which was hilarious because gabe is a fucking awkward stick [Gabe is my favorite side-character in the show]). So they fail in the conflict by just making Andy a huuuge prick. And then when he wants to go into Acting/being famous at the end of the show, I blame that on plain old poor writing. It was obvious they would finally make Dwight Regional Manager, so they had to do something with andy. So they made him go to lala land because they didn't plan well enough to give him a reason to do anything else. At least at the end they save him by giving him a respectable life with a respectable job with a respectable perspective on life (this can be attributed to many of the original writers coming back to do the Finale.).

In short - bad writing.
---

Darkman124 posted...

david wallace being best friends with jim is meant to telegraph to the reader that he's the "good one."

That's the most obvious piece. But to me the biggest moment in showing that Wallace is a good business man and an actual human being (vs just being a character), is in The Deposition when after Michael finds out Wallace was never seriously considering him for the promotion, but still sticks up for Dunder Mifflin, David Wallace shows extreme gratitude and humility in his response to Michael. Honestly one of the best acting/directing moments in the whole show, imo.
---

And I don't think anyone would argue that the writing for most of the last two seasons is bad, but in case they do:

You can chalk every questionable decision they make in the later part of the show to bad writing because of this: They try to make you feel bad for Nelly, someone who just TOOK SOMEBODY'S JOB, and succeed SOLEY BECAUSE SHE WAS A GIRL WITH TITS, and the manager was out of the office for ONE DAY. HAVE THESE PEOPLE NEVER HEARD OF PTO? And how do they make you feel bad for her? Oh, she had a boyfriend who broke up with her? DEAR GOD NO, LET ME WEEP FOR THIS POOR, POOR PERSON.

Jesus Christ I hate her, and I hate the writers for trying to make me feel bad for her.
---

Andys bad moves revolves around Erin. Hes also the one that brought David back and saved the entire office.
---

Drpooplol posted...

They try to make you feel bad for Nelly

yeah, agreed, that was a deeply foolish choice. also agreed re: wallace in the deposition. it did a great job contrasting jan with him.

i was glad the finale did seasons 1-7 justice.
---

Andy was busy (actor) so they had to write him off

But they loved Erin and wanted a romance plot

So they needed to make him an ass so you wouldnt feel bad when she (technicallyiirc) cheated
---

Other than the last few episodes. I think season 9 might be my least favorite season.
---

Why did they put Nelly, the worst character ever, on the show?
---