Office Ladies Is an Insider Retrospective on a Comedy Favorite

Earwolf

A new wave of fans of The Office has crashed upon us: the show is being rediscovered by a younger generation, and that’s impressive. It somehow captured lighting in a bottle with its simple concept of a mockumentary following the daily lives of a paper company, and six years after the series finale, two of the show’s actors—Jenna Fischer and Angela Kensey—have launched the Office Ladies podcast. Fans know Jenna as Pam and Angela as, well, Angela from the show. Both hosts watch one episode of The Office at a time in chronological order and give some behind-the-scenes tidbits, or “fast facts” as Jenna likes to call them.

The best part of this podcast is the beautiful friendship among the cast members. It’s no secret that Jenna and Angela met and became best friends during the filming of the show. However, they also have guests on the podcast, all of whom were involved with the show. From writers to actors, the hosts love their guests. It may seem forced at first, but it seems that The Office “family” has a unique bond. Many of us don’t have the privilege of meeting our best friends at work, and it’s hard to keep a relationship with someone when you are both have moved on in their careers. To hear the hosts and guests gush one another melts your heart.

Sadly, to put it simply, the show is overproduced. The first couple of episodes are very stiff—they were obviously reading from a script, and there wasn’t enough space for the hosts to speak outside of those lines. Office Ladies is also full of advertisements; it’s understandable that podcasts need to be funded somehow, and if you aren’t crowdfunding, you have to advertise, but it feels like more ads than your average podcast. At the very least, they do ask for their listeners to take a survey to see what kinds of advertisements they would be interested in learning about.

Whether you have never heard of The Office or you are a hardcore fan, this podcast speaks to everyone. It’s different from most “themed” podcasts in that you don’t necessarily need to have knowledge of the subject the hosts are about to discuss. They are go through each episode step by step with behind-the-scenes facts, give their opinions, and answer fan questions. It’s chock-full of information for beginners and longtime fans in a way that I feel like speaks to everyone.

It’s really hard to say anything truly negative about this podcast. Unless you just hate The Office, there is hardly a reason not to enjoy Office Ladies. The audio is professional, it’s edited quite well, and hearing from other people involved with the show is always a treat. The hosts seem so excited to share their experience with a beloved show, and it just makes it hard to not smile when they are talking. This is one of the best podcasts that I have listened to this year, and it’s worth anyone’s time.