There is no character that best epitomizes the “The Office’s” fall from grace than Catherine Tate’s Nellie. The show has been bad for awhile, but the introduction of her character took it from really bad to plain goddamn awful. She’s an aimless character with no emotional center who has been terribly written from the very beginning, like a clueless Ricky Gervais character that’s taken a mallet to the cranium. It’s a shame, too, because Catherine Tate herself is a gifted British actress who won a lot of people over during her stint on “Doctor Who.”
So of course Nellie — who walked in and took over as branch manager of Dunder Mifflin only to be pushed out when David Wallace bought out the company in the season finale — will be returning next season as a series regular, according to The AV Club. This, I suppose, is how they’re replacing Mindy Kaling, which is kind of like replacing a bag of M&Ms with a bag of chocolate covered dead baby fingers. I actually feel like the head scramble Tate’s character received at the end of her “Doctor Who” arc has stuck well into her run on “The Office.” Indeed, the next season of “The Office” is going to be unbearable, but I’ll watch every episode. I can’t seem to let it go.
