Why BJ Novak left the office

Fair or not, Michael Scott’s retreat (Steve Karel) from the “office” In the 7th season, there is a dividing line between what many fans consider a “good office” and “bad office”. But after that, there was another big departure: Ryan (BJ Novak) left the series at the beginning of the 9th season, as well as his girlfriend Kelly Kapur (Mindy Kaling).

Unlike Michael, however, Ryan and Kelly left with a lot of fanfare. In one minute they were in the show, and the next minute they were not, and all their staff just went to life as usual. When surveyed further Podcast “Chair Expert” In 2021, Novak explained his reasons to leave the show both the actor and the writer. The main essence was that after eight seasons it was exhausted:

“I was burned out, Hiyi (Kaling) left. Carl went out. And they wanted a new shower and they asked if I wanted to do it and I couldn’t imagine it. And I couldn’t imagine as just hanging around him Without that.

How Why Clating left the series? This departure was simpler: the actor-writer creates his own Sitki “Mendy project”, and she had no longer working on the “office” because of this. When she left, she also brought with her some veterans of the “office”, including Novak himself as a executive producer “Mindy Project”.

So, how did the “office” wrote Ryan and Kelly? Well, Kelly left with his groom Ravi (Sendhil Ramamurth), which is starting a new job at the University of Miami in Ohio. . Her. In principle, Ryan’s departure is designed to emphasize his most selfish, self -destructive and deceptive qualities, so it is easy not to miss him when he left. He returns to the finals of the series again, in which he reunters Kelly and abandon his newborn baby to escape with her. This is an epilogue that once again reminds the audience that Ryan and Kelly are deeply unfriendly.

The everyday handling of the glass is clear: it was never such a major presence in the series. However, the back number, a little strange that Ryan’s departure was written so specifically. After all, the pilot episode for the “office” creates Ryan as the main character. Similarly, he Pam (Jen Fisher) and Jim (John Krasinski) act as three main “ordinary” characters in the cast of the weirdo during the first season.

Despite the fact that Ryan was originally treated, the series gradually cleared its darker layers. Having spent 1 season as a clown victim Michael, the episode at the beginning of the 2 season “Fire” calmly shows that Ryan has its arrogant, selfish qualities when he expresses interest in starting his own business. This dark side becomes even more pronounced through his toxic relationship with Kelly, which begins in the second half of the season 2. The guy who brings her.

Up to 3 Ryan season was reduced by significance, with Andy (Ed Helmes as a pursuit of actor) Replacing it as the fifth largest show after Michael, Pam, Jim and Dwight (Rhine Wilson). However, the show constantly checks Ryan to find out how in his business, and every time we see it, he becomes a little worse. By the end of the 3rd season, it was clear that Ryan is shallow, self -proclaimed jerk, but it implies a quiet, realistic way. Only in the 4th season, when he becomes the vice -president of the northeast sales – which makes it the main accounting in the department of Dunder Milflin – he feels free to make his true colors show. Indeed, the 4 season is Ryan just angry; When arrested, fired and humiliated in the finals of the season, no viewer will feel bad for him.

In many ways, Ryan reminds me of John Levinson (Melora Hardin) – another hero who started normally and compassionate before comedically perverted into a strangeness for several seasons of the “office”. (Ironically fate, the spiral she also led directly to The best episode “office”, aka “Dinner”.) Like Ryan, I think the arc was written in the first four seasons before immersed in a disappointing multiplication area. The difference is that the multiplication version it received only once a year in the next seasons, while Ryan regularly hung in Dunder Miflin for four seasons.

In the following seasons, it is unpleasant that everything feels insignificant about it; We watch the guy whose life has fallen apart in the devastating (if completely applied), but the show does not prevent him from offering a ransom. Instead, he continues to beat him when he sank, constantly characterizing him so that he realizes that he deserves it. “In the office” there was a show that became kinder and more optimistic as the series continued, but while the rest of the shows got more humanity, Ryan was given less.

From 5 to season 8, Ryan was considered at best, and in the worst case the penalty bag, before as long as he left for the benefit, many spectators gladly saw him. It is a shame because I think that let Ryan will seriously fight how his life collapsed, it could have been interesting. Instead of the endless, depressing directions that the writers of the series have taken in the last few seasons Ryan, I would like them to give him a shot into significant growth in character. Ryan could still leave at the beginning of the 9th season, but he did not need to go as a total joke.