Jenna Fischer Says This Hot Take About The Office Is Totally Wrong

Ask most fans of "The Office" and they'll tell you that the show gets worse as it goes on, even though I use "worse" here as a relative term — because even the lowest lows of "The Office" are still decent television. Star Jenna Fischer totally disagrees with that assessment, though. In fact, Fischer, who played Pam Beesly-Halpert for the entire nine season run, thinks the show is just great from start to finish.

During an appearance on David Spade and Dana Carvey's podcast "Fly on the Wall," Fischer said that, as she revisits "The Office" alongside her friend and co-star Angela Kinsey — who appeared on the series as accountant Angela Martin and co-hosts "Office Ladies," a rewatch podcast, with Fischer — she feels like it's all good.

"My biggest takeaway from having rewatched it was that it's really good the whole time," she said bluntly, clearly referring to the idea that the show's quality declined after Steve Carell, who starred as Michael Scott until season 7, left the series behind.

"I think there was this lore, especially among the cast and the creatives, that maybe we hit our peak in season 3 or season 4," Fischer continued. "And also this belief that the two seasons after Steve left, we were just treading water and maybe they weren't as good. But when I watched everything, some of my favorite episodes were in seasons 8 and 9 after Steve had left. There were still these amazing storylines."

"Amazing" might be a little bit of a stretch (there are, to be honest, a lot of rough episodes in seasons 8 and 9 of "The Office"), especially when you consider just how good some of the pre-season 7 episodes of the series were. When it comes to that, though, Fischer was honest about where her allegiances lie ... and shouted out one of the show's most cringeworthy and beloved installments.

While I respect Jenna Fischer's take on this, I also respectfully disagree; even though I'm a defender of episodes in season 6 like "Niagara," the one where Pam and Jim Halpert (John Krasinski) finally tie the knot in Canada, I do think the show majorly spins its wheels in the wake of Steve Carell's season 7 departure. I'll return to that in just a second, but it's undeniable that in seasons 2 through 6 of "The Office," the show was mostly firing on all cylinders thanks to episodes like "The Injury" and "Casino Night" in season 2, "Beach Games" in season 3, and especially "Dinner Party" in season 4, which is probably the episode that most fans would rank as the show's best.

"I have to say now, when I look back, some of my favorite episodes were also in seasons 4 through 6," Fischer said after acknowledging that she, too, thinks "Dinner Party" is the all-time best episode of "The Office." Still, she feels that critical acknowledgement started to peter out at a certain point, which was discouraging: "But yeah, I think some of the award nominations stopped after season 3. So, I think maybe we got in our heads and thought, 'Oh, I guess we're not creating as great.'"

I'll take a moment here to acknowledge that it is ridiculous and perhaps even illegal (?) that Carell never won an Emmy for playing Michael Scott, and Fischer isn't wrong that the series got less attention from awards shows as it went on. Still, there's no question that, as I already said, the series highlights happen mostly in the earlier seasons. I will also freely admit that the series finale fully sticks the landing (and Carell even returns), but the journey to that two-part episode can be ... rocky. With all that said, Fischer acknowledged there is one aspect of "The Office" that irks her sometimes.

While speaking to Dana Carvey and David Spade, Jenna Fischer said there's one major thing about "The Office" that's hard for her to rewatch, but it has absolutely nothing to do with Steve Carell's exit and the streak of episodes that followed. No, it's actually her own performance, which apparently causes some pretty strong reactions (both good and bad).

"Sometimes I watch it and I'm like, 'I'll never do work that good again. Sh**, that was great,'" Fischer admitted. "But then there's other scenes where I just cringe, where I'm like, 'Oh, God, I remember how I struggled with that and I couldn't do it, and now here it is for everyone to see, and I guess I just have to move on.' So, I've had both reactions."

Fischer, to her credit, is pretty freakin' perfect as Pam Beesly, who begins the series engaged to a clown named Roy (David Denman) even as she casually flirts with Dunder-Mifflin paper salesman Jim Halpert from behind her desk, where she works as the branch's receptionist. Throughout the show, the meek, mild-mannered Pam grows a backbone, and by the time Carell and Michael leave "The Office," Pam has fully come into her own, taking risks at work (well, as many risks as you can take in the relatively low-stakes world of paper sales in Scranton, Pennsylvania), starting a family with Jim, and taking control of her own future. Fischer's performance as Pam is always emotionally honest and earnest, making Pam feel like a person you could meet out in the real world — so, if she's going to rag on any aspect of "The Office," I don't think her performance should be on the table.

"The Office," including super-sized episodes for hardcore fans, is available to stream exclusively on Peacock.