Christian Renzi
The Office is one of those shows that’s been insanely popular since it premiered in the US in 2005. A big part of that has to do with the fact that it has been on Netflix now for nearly a decade. There are so many people, myself included, that have just been continually watching the show since it came out. I never get tired of it. I’ll probably watch a few episodes tonight before bed. Having said that, it wouldn’t feel right for an article written by me to not have a few complaints in it. So here we go.
The Erin and Andy relationship is one of the worst story arcs in the entire show. It becomes even more unbearable on each rewatch because you are reminded just how long they forced this awful romance down our throats. This started in the fifth season when Erin is first introduced and it pretty much lasts until the 9th season of the show. Seriously, that’s four seasons of Erin and Andy romance that I really could do without.
Let’s talk about each of the characters individually and from there maybe we can truly discover why this plot line is so atrocious why I actually avoid episodes where it plays a big role in the story.
Andy Bernard
We first meet Andrew Bernard in the first episode of season three, Gay Witch Hunt. The episode itself is fantastic, as is the entire season. Season three Andy is perhaps him at his best, and also him at his most annoying. He’s annoying in a good way at this point. Later on in the show he will become annoying in a horrible, unwatchable, character ruining way.
Andy is Jim’s coworker at the Stamford branch. He has an anger problem and also enjoys A capella. One of Andy’s best scenes in that season takes place during a game of Call of Duty when Andy discovers that Jim has been using a sniper rifle causing him to yell out, “The game is over. I’m going to kill you for real.” It’s hilarious and obnoxious.
Eventually the Stamford branch closes and Andy, with a few other coworkers who all either are fired or quit, find themselves working at the Scranton branch. This is when the last of angry Andy shows himself. Following a prank where Jim throws Andy’s phone in the ceiling, causing Andy to go crazy and punch a hole in the wall, he is forced to check into anger management.
Season four Andy is still relatively likable. He begins dating Dwight's ex - girlfriend, Angela. By the finale of that season the two are engaged, even though it is revealed that Angela is cheating on Andy with Dwight. This causes Andy to be more of a sympathetic character going into season five. The whole office knows that Angela is cheating on Andy, who has just been desperately searching for love his whole life. Eventually Andy finds out and there is a great episode of Dwight and Andy having a duel to see who wins Angela. By the end of the fight neither of them want her. It’s the end of the Andy and Angela romance and the beginning of the downfall of the Andy character.
Erin
Erin’s real name is Kelly. It’s only talked about in one episode. To avoid confusion between Erin and Kelly Capore, Charles Minor decides to call receptionist Kelly by her middle name, Erin.
By the way, can we talk about how terrible this green screen is?
Look, Erin has her moments. She’s written to be one of those characters that is so dumb that you’re supposed to think it’s cute. She’s like a golden retriever. They attempt to add depth to her later on in the series when they reveal that she grew up in a foster home and never met her real parents. I guess I was supposed to feel bad for her? I don’t know. She just never seemed like a believable character to me. She’s almost like a female Kevin. At times they are written to be so astronomically dumb that it just surpasses all sense of reality.
The later seasons all kind of blend together in my head but I believe their romance begins sometime around the middle of the 5th season. By that time Jim and Pam had been together for two seasons and the magic of the “will they, won’t they?” plot was gone. To make up for it the writers created a new one and they literally chose the two worst characters to do it with.
I honestly can’t really write much more about Erin because I tuned out her storyline.
Why the Erin and Andy relationship doesn’t work.
The reason the Pam and Jim storyline worked so well is because they seemed like real people. They had the ability to turn the goofiness off and have actual serious heartwarming moments (see the end of Casino Night). Erin on the other hand was such a characterture right off the bat that it left zero breathing room for any believable depth. By the time they decided to talk about her backstory more, she had been so annoyingly dumb that I couldn’t tell if she could feel any emotion other than confusion.
Look! Characters with actual chemistry that we care about!
Andy who had started out as a pretty great character turned into this sad, under confident mess. The writers had amnesia with Andy. He goes from being loved by his parents, who we first see in the finale of season four, to being despised by them when two different actors, including that creep from 7th Heaven, play his parents.
The writers decide they need to recreate the classic Jim and Pam story and shove it down our throats for four seasons. Some of the worst moments include:
The Happy Hour episode where Andy and Erin think they need to keep their relationship so secret so Andy is an asshole to her for an entire night.
The Sweeney Todd episode where Andy tries desperately to get Erin to come to his play.
Basically any episode when Gabe and Erin are dating and Andy is jealous. This is awful for a number of reasons, including the fact that an Erin and Gabe romance is even worse than a Andy and Erin romance.
The end of season 8 when Andy drives to Florida to win Erin back. This episode is so bad I’ve never made it through the whole thing. There is some horrendous old lady actor who is just god awful.
But do you want to know what the most agreious thing the writers did with this romance? They ended it in an awful way in the last season of the show.
In the 9th season of The Office pretty much every character is terrible at some point. Andy, by far is the most terrible. He’s even worse than Nelly who is not just one of the worst characters in The Office, she’s one of the worst characters in the history of television. So here’s what happened.
Ed Helms had to leave the show for a little bit to go film a third Hangover movie. Why did they make three of those movies? I have no idea. So instead of writing his character off the show in some sorta logical way, they decide that Andy will leave on a boat trip with his brother after his family goes bankrupt. He forgets to invite Erin and she’s really upset about it. Oh, and the brother is played by Josh Groban for some reason.
Pictured here is Ed Helms phoning it in after wrapping up Hangover 3.
Meanwhile back at the office, Erin is beginning to have feelings for a new character named, Pete. I had to look that up because he was so forgettable. Pete is basically a discounted version of early season Jim. THEY LITERALLY STARTED ANOTHER ROMANCE WITH ERIN IN THE LAST SEASON OF THE SHOW.
So naturally when Andy returns from filming the third Hangover movie Erin dumps him. Andy looks like a huge asshole and his character is ruined forever. He leaves Dunder Mifflin and goes to pursue acting or something? At one point he’s on a show that is like American Idol but for A capella? It’s hard to remember, all the awful stuff blends together.
So what’s the moral of the story here? Don’t force a romance down your audience's throat. Just because it works sometimes (Jim and Pam) doesn’t mean it’s going to work every time. For it to really work your characters need chemistry and unfortunately Erin and Andy had zero.
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