The best episodes of The Office are Casino Night, Goodbye, Michael, Dinner Party, The Deposition and Threat Level Midnight, ranked from first to fifth. Steve Carell’s Michael Scott drives four of the five, and Jim’s confession to Pam in Casino Night sits at number one.
Updated October 24, 2026.
Every morning, most of us go through the same routine and walk into the same place where we’ll spend most of our waking hours: the office. It isn’t fun to think about how much time and stress we put into daily routines we’d rather skip. But that’s how our society works: fair work in exchange for fair pay. Anyone who has sat through a Monday meeting that could have been an email knows the feeling.
What happens at the office isn’t always harmless, though. Because it’s such a social place, it’s more than somewhere we hand over our work. It’s also where lasting relationships form, boring moments turn into big laughs, and all the ups and downs of life play out in plain view. We’re human, after all, and we stubbornly turn even the dullest places into a home.
Nowhere is that shown with more love than in NBC’s hit comedy, “The Office.” It ran from March 24, 2005, to May 16, 2013, and it wasn’t an original idea: Greg Daniels adapted it from the BBC series created by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant. The British version of “The Office” is meaner and more sarcastic, and it’s rooted in British culture. The American version is lighter and has a gentle optimism. It tells viewers that even in empty-looking places, you can find fulfillment, and life can surprise you with real depth.
With that in mind, we’re going to look at the top five episodes of “The Office,” counting down. I am a big Carell fan, and Carell plays the lead, Michael Scott, the bumbling regional manager of Dunder Mifflin. So I lean toward episodes built around Michael Scott, and I will not apologize for that.
For more from the same era of television, see the best sitcoms of the 2000s, or go further back with the best sitcoms of the 1980s.
Best episodes of The Office at a glance
| Rank | Episode | Aired | Writer | U.S. viewers |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Casino Night (S2) | May 11, 2006 | Steve Carell | 7.7 million |
| 2 | Goodbye, Michael (S7) | April 28, 2011 | Greg Daniels | 8.4 million |
| 3 | Dinner Party (S4) | April 10, 2008 | Gene Stupnitsky and Lee Eisenberg | About 9.2 million |
| 4 | The Deposition (S4) | November 15, 2007 | Lester Lewis | About 8.9 million |
| 5 | Threat Level Midnight (S7) | February 17, 2011 | B. J. Novak | 6.41 million |
5. Threat Level Midnight (Season 7, Episode 17)
Michael Scott is an odd man with a long list of supposed talents he feels he has to share with the world, or at the very least, his co-workers. Throughout the first six seasons, we hear hints that Michael is writing a movie script, tied to his big dreams of making a feature film. His experiments in entertainment pay off with the show-stopper, “Threat Level Midnight,” starring Michael Scott as special agent Michael Scarn. Scott decides to show the finished film to the whole office, in a doomed attempt to prove he’s a born filmmaker.
The result is, by all accounts, a joke on how Michael sees himself. He takes the film completely seriously, of course. The comedy comes from how sincerely he believes it’s great. It’s a childish but hilarious production, made by a man who never got over his teenage dreams. Most people have worked for a boss who thought he was funnier than he really was, and Michael takes that to the extreme.
One scene in particular shows how silly “Threat Level Midnight” gets: a bar full of people breaking into a song and dance called “The Scarn.” On the surface, “The Scarn” is really an ode to how childlike Michael Scott is. That’s how he sees the world: a friendly place where he can make friends fast with a goofy dance. Michael is a sentimental guy who gets carried away romanticizing even the smallest things, and he badly wants a world with himself at the center, surrounded by adoration.
Carell proposed the idea, B. J. Novak wrote it and Tucker Gates directed. More than half the episode is footage from the movie, which the crew colorized in post-production to look cheaper than the show’s usual picture. It aired February 17, 2011, to 6.41 million viewers, the smallest audience of my five picks, and IGN gave it 9 out of 10.
The turn in the middle is what earns the spot. Jim can’t stop giggling, Holly can’t treat the film with the seriousness Michael wants, and Michael angrily stops the screening and takes the tape away. But in this scene, we see a small turning point in Michael’s character.
He steps outside and admits to Holly that the film is bad but that people are having fun. He looks at his film and sees how silly it is, and how it belongs to his past life, a life without Holly. In that brief moment, Michael can laugh at who he used to be but no longer is. He grows up right in front of us, and happily goes back to the conference room, where an eager audience waits to laugh some more at a film even he now admits is goofy.
Michael Scott grows out of Michael Scarn. A new regional manager is born. Let’s all dance to “The Scarn” to celebrate.
4. The Deposition (Season 4, Episode 12)
Jan, Michael’s lawsuit-happy girlfriend, sues Dunder Mifflin for wrongful termination and calls Michael as a witness. At the end of the previous season, Jan lost her job at corporate, mostly because of the odd behavior she had been showing openly for several months. Jan, for instance, had gotten noticeable breast enhancement surgery, started up a badly thought-out relationship with Michael again, and her work was suffering as a result.
True to its name, this episode gives us a bird’s-eye view of the deposition that comes before the formal court case in Jan’s suit. If any fans were holding out hope for Michael and Jan’s relationship, this episode gives a blunt look at its chances, though it does so in the usual hilarious way.
Lester Lewis wrote the episode, his first script for the show, and Julian Farino directed. About 8.9 million people watched on November 15, 2007. It was the last new episode before the 2007-08 writers strike, and IGN’s Travis Fickett called it the best of the season and one of the best of the series.
One great exchange shows Michael Scott at his most Michael. Asked how long he has known Jan and whether he was directly under her the entire time, he can’t help giving in to his silly sense of humor, in the worst possible setting, and out comes “That’s what she said.” The lawyers take the line literally and spend several confused exchanges trying to work out who said what. Since “That’s what she said” is usually Michael’s ultimate joke, it makes the moment even more fitting.
Michael keeps blundering his way through the deposition, hurting Jan’s case and draining all the credibility out of her lawsuit. Jan, cold-blooded in her hunger for a big enough settlement from Dunder Mifflin, hands in Michael’s private diary as evidence, which she brought without his permission, to answer evidence of their relationship before they told corporate. When their relationship started becomes key to her case. She betrays Michael’s trust on purpose, to get what she wants out of spite. She’s scheming, she’s no quirky romantic, like Michael.
Jan’s case, sadly, falls apart mostly because Michael says he doesn’t feel Dunder Mifflin has a pattern of disrespecting its employees. That sets up the end of Jan’s relationship with Michael, which is actually good for Michael’s own well-being. The Michael-Jan pairing started in confusion, lust, and mixed feelings. It ends with the same mix in the next episode, “Dinner Party,” where we see most clearly how little Jan can control her emotions.
3. Dinner Party (Season 4, Episode 13)
After months of asking, Michael finally gets Jim and Pam to accept an invitation to supper at his condo. It is pure comedy, as all the shaky threads holding Michael and Jan’s weak relationship together finally rip apart for good. Gene Stupnitsky and Lee Eisenberg wrote it, Paul Feig directed, and it was the first new episode after the writers strike, airing April 10, 2008.
The dinner is just a cover for Jan, an excuse for Michael to pitch his “rich” friends, Jim and Andy, an “investment opportunity” in her candle business. Her candles are awful, though she seems to love them. Michael gives Jim and Pam a polite tour of the condo, including, among other things: Michael’s bed, a small bench he sleeps on at night next to Jan’s bed; a “flat screen” television, a $200 plasma, that is painfully small; and a video camera on a tripod by the bed, presumably put there to record Michael and Jan’s wild romantic life. It is twisted and awkward.
Then, who should show up but Andy and Angela, another couple from the Dunder Mifflin office! Andy, ever the gentleman, offers a flower to “his flower,” Angela, who swipes it away and asks, annoyed and frustrated: “What should I do with this?” Later, things get worse, as Dwight shows up without an invitation, a rough-looking female companion, his former babysitter, at his side. Everyone meekly accepts the intrusion and the dinner weakly gets going, with stiff and forced conversation.
Anyone who has been stuck at a dinner while the hosts bicker knows the urge to stare at your plate and wish you were anywhere else. Michael and Jan’s relationship is laid completely bare, its hollow shell on full display. It’s controlling, manipulative, and very one-sided. One scene sums up the unhealthy nature of their affair quickly, as Michael describes the physical toll of three vasectomies, done at Jan’s demand as she kept changing her mind about having children. All of this happens in front of an audience that can’t look away but is slightly horrified.
The evening goes on with more and more open fighting between Michael and Jan. Michael, for instance, hangs a fluorescent beer sign in the dining room, a light that Jan hates. Jan puts on a recording of a song by her former assistant Hunter, whom we suspect was a former romantic partner as well. She also, in a fit of rage, grabs a Dundie trophy and throws it at Michael’s flat screen television. It is the most obvious meltdown you could ask for. Michael, giving in, leaves for the night with Dwight, while Jan tries to pick up the pieces of a relationship that is now dead.
So the Michael-Jan fling comes to a painful, final end.
Feig won the 2008 Directors Guild award for comedy directing for this episode, and the writers earned an Emmy nomination. IGN’s Travis Fickett scored it 8.9 out of 10 and called it hysterical and difficult to watch at the same time. The A.V. Club gave it an A. Most of it was shot on the condo set the show first used for “Office Olympics.” Few other episodes in the series are this uncomfortable on purpose.
2. Goodbye, Michael (Season 7, Episode 22)
Season 7 was Carell’s last as Michael Scott, who left while the show was still hugely popular. The departure was confirmed on June 28, 2010, after he first mentioned it in a BBC Radio interview. Greg Daniels wrote this episode and Feig directed it. It aired April 28, 2011, to about 8.4 million viewers, the biggest audience of the season.
“Goodbye, Michael” really is a swan song, for both the character of Michael Scott and the actor who played him with such kindness and surprising depth. By Season 7, Michael is no longer a boyish clown doing whatever he feels like. He has grown up, he’s engaged to Holly, and he’s built a life beyond the edges of Scranton. Where many of his employees once felt resentment and frustration toward him, there is now something warm that feels a lot like love.
Michael, of course, is nervous about leaving. He’s torn about leaving behind his familiar, family-like surroundings, so he lies about exactly when he’s going. He doesn’t want to say goodbye. He’s scared and unsure. Most of us have put off a goodbye because we couldn’t face it, so that part is easy to relate to. Two scenes in particular show the emotion behind his leaving.
In the first, Jim sees that Michael’s behavior means he’s lying, and that he’s leaving right away, not later. He confronts Michael in his office, shaking his head knowingly, and the two agree to save the goodbyes for lunch the next day. Michael starts to cry, and Jim, holding back tears of his own, tells him he was the best boss he ever had. That exchange is the emotional center of the episode.
John Krasinski, the actor playing Jim, reportedly teared up for real during this exchange. Like the entire crew, he was really saying goodbye to an entire era, the drumbeat of his life for years.
In the show, by this point, Jim has grown very fond of Michael. For a while, they were co-managers together. Michael was at Jim’s wedding. Michael had secretly known about Jim’s deep feelings for Pam for years. Michael had celebrated with him when Jim’s daughter, Cece, was born. Michael isn’t so much a father figure to Jim, or a boss, as a steady, annoyingly loyal friend.
The second scene is Michael’s goodbye to Pam, his former receptionist. At the airport Michael asks the camera crew to tell him if the “documentary” ever airs, hands over his microphone with one last “That’s what she said,” and strolls off to his gate. Suddenly, out of nowhere, a shoeless Pam runs toward him and hugs him twice. There is no sound, only silence. The mics are turned off. We see a brief exchange and Michael wanders off to his future, to the unknown. It’s beautiful. The scene was filmed at LA/Ontario International Airport, standing in for the Scranton airport.
Pam recounts their conversation afterward: Michael wasn’t sad. He was full of hope about Colorado, he was hoping to get an upgrade as a rewards member, and he was just really excited to get home and see Holly.
Critics loved it. IGN scored it 9 out of 10, The A.V. Club gave it an A, and Time’s James Poniewozik named it the second-best TV episode of 2011. Daniels earned an Emmy nomination for the script.
Goodbye, Michael.
1. Casino Night (Season 2, Episode 22)
Casino Night closed season two on May 11, 2006. Carell wrote it, his first writing credit on the show, and Ken Kwapis directed. About 7.7 million people watched. IGN gave it 10 out of 10, and Carell won the Writers Guild award for episodic comedy for the script. The season it ended won the Emmy for Outstanding Comedy Series in 2006.
The finale juggles a lot of storylines across the cast. Michael tries to walk a fine line between two women he’s interested in, Carol, his real estate broker, and Jan, his harsh boss. Dwight, always Michael’s guardian, promises to keep watch on both women during the evening, and to report their movements to Michael right away. Kevin, the heavyset, slow-thinking accountant, stumbles along trying to play like an elite poker player.
Creed enjoys his open habit of stealing, swiping things for fun while the party grinds on. Phyllis happily wins several hands of poker, saying “Look, I have all the clovers,” to a confused Kevin. Ryan and Kelly carry on their shaky, immature romance. Roy, Pam’s fiancé, says he will book Kevin’s band, “Scrantonicity,” for his wedding to Pam.
Under it all, though, Jim can’t decide whether to reveal his real feelings for Pam. Opening up honestly would be a huge gamble. For two seasons, we as an audience had watched the clear chemistry between Jim and Pam, waiting desperately for him to take the leap, which Pam’s fiancé, Roy, had blocked until now. If you’ve ever had a crush on a friend who was already taken, you know how long that kind of waiting can feel.
Jim, though, braces himself. He seems to make a silent promise to himself: either Pam returns his feelings, or he’s leaving Scranton for a new job in Stamford. In the parking lot he tells Pam he is in love with her.
The dice are thrown. The cards are shown. Finally, after two seasons, the truth comes out, awkwardly. Pam, though she must have known Jim’s feelings all along, still reels. She is, after all, an engaged woman. Confused and rattled, she says no to Jim out loud and talks about their friendship. She does, however, leave the door open to a relationship in the future: later, after a phone call with her mother, Jim kisses her and she kisses back before the episode ends.
Jim’s confession sets the tone for the next several seasons of “The Office,” which deal with Jim’s stubbornness in going back to Pam, and Pam’s own self-discovery. Each character’s arc is drawn so naturally that it only seems right that the two eventually come together. “The Office” might have been built on the antics of Michael Scott, but it was made solid by the heartwarming relationship between Jim and Pam.
Best Episodes of The Office FAQ
What are the best episodes of The Office?
This list picks Casino Night, Goodbye, Michael, Dinner Party, The Deposition and Threat Level Midnight. Casino Night ranks first because Jim confesses to Pam and Steve Carell won a Writers Guild award for writing it. Critics also rate Goodbye, Michael highly, and Time named it the second-best TV episode of 2011.
When did Steve Carell leave The Office?
Season 7 was his last as Michael Scott. His departure was confirmed on June 28, 2010, after he first mentioned it in a BBC Radio interview. His final scenes aired in Goodbye, Michael on April 28, 2011, which drew about 8.4 million viewers and was the most-watched episode of that season.
How many episodes of The Office are there?
The American series has 201 episodes across nine seasons on NBC, from March 24, 2005, to May 16, 2013. Season one had six episodes, and the later seasons ran between 19 and 28. The most-watched episode, Stress Relief, drew 22.9 million viewers, according to the series page on Wikipedia.