'The Office' is still worth watching

But that may be only partly true. Under the Spader-Helms watch, "The Office" has at times become a strange show filled with awkward silences and bizarre non sequiturs leavened only by Jim's (John Krasinski) baleful glance at the camera. The best episodes of the eighth season -- "Spooked," "Pam's Replacement" and "Doomsday" -- rank with the best of any season; the others are character studies that tend to be more interesting than actually funny.

Over those, this portrait of Andy has been filled out: Smart (but we knew that already), deeply insecure, father-fixated, approval-seeking, empathetic and utterly incapable of leadership. While California is a cipher given to self-styled Jedi-warriorisms like "how dare we let fear into our livelihoods, our relationships," he rules by silence, or by questions -- the scariest kind of leadership.