Steve Carell  began hinting at leaving NBC’s “The Office” in April.  Since confirmed, the upcoming seventh season will be his last.  This was a wise choice, as last year’s mediocre, unmemorable sixth season proved “The Office” is running out of steam.

            Carell is leaving “The Office” for a successful movie career.  Two of his most recent movies, Date Night and Despicable Me, were box office successes, according to http://boxofficemojo.com. 

            Producers of “The Office,” meanwhile, have plans to continue on without Carell, according to http://ign.com.  This is a mistake.  The show will now miss a perfect cue to exit, and will instead be hurt by the loss of both a talented actor and its main character.

            Even with Carell, “The Office” has been dropping in quality.  After both an excellent fifth season and a hilarious opening episode, the sixth season quickly floundered.  Many episodes focused too much on the story and not enough on humor, and some episodes did not work on either level, like Koi Pond, where the entire plot hinged on Michael’s embarrassment at falling in a koi pond.

            The sixth season’s overarching stories had funny moments, but they were not as good as those of previous seasons.  Jim becoming the boss had funny moments, but the fifth season’s Michael Scott Paper Company storyline was much funnier.  The malfunctioning Sabre printer storyline at the end of the season was dull and what was supposed to be a big problem felt contrived.

            One of the biggest problems in the sixth season was the use of Jim and Pam.  The wedding and baby episodes were commendable, but soon after Jim and Pam were pushed to the side in favor of new couples.  The writers should have given them something new to do instead of trying to capture the same spark with new people like Andy and Erin, who were too weird to relate to.

            The spark is what was really missing in the sixth season.  By the end of the season, the episodes were so dry it was hard to care what the characters were doing.

            However, the sixth season did have some merits.  Many episodes made great use of the series’ supporting cast of minor characters, and a lot of the season’s humor came from them.  The main actors gave good performances as well, when given good material.

            Overall though, the sixth season was weak.  The series is showing its age; at this point, “The Office” has passed its prime.  Carell is smart to make his defect to movies now, before the show gets any worse.