Community

[Reply #240 on:]

Fred Willard as Pierce was pretty inspired. Here's hoping he gets the role now that Chase is gone![/kindofjoking]

[Reply #241 on:]

The fake opening was hilarious as a sort of means of mocking everyone who was worried that it'd be a different show now.

But then they kept going back to it... it was just...

I laughed at "Gay balls! Nailed it!", though. It had some nice moments, but yeah, "trying too hard" is pretty much the perfect way to describe most of it.

[Reply #242 on:]

I didn't think the episode was anything special, but I thought it was good enough and felt enough like the Community I know that it eased all the worries I had over the break (and I did really like the way they mocked those worries in the opener). If the writer who said they were trying too hard for this episode (which I agree with) was telling the truth, then I have good feelings for the rest of this season.

Overall, I'm just happy it's back. I really love the cast of this show and am happy to get to spend some more time with them.

[Reply #243 on:]

Here was the writer (Andy Bobrow) quote:

What sticks out to you to as being too ambitious as far as moments in the opener go?

In the episode, we're doing an Abed fantasy sequence, a movie parody, animation, recasting Pierce, the multi-cam trick, Abed descending into a psychotic break, a movie parody, Dean in a dress, establishing Troy and Britta's relationship – which we didn't do very well. It just ends up being sort of a free-standing scene – trying to do a C-story with Shirley and Annie. When I look at that whole mess, I guess I can say, on the positive side, it's amazing that we worked it all together because there's so much going on. Then, I [feel] we shouldn't have done that much stuff. When I look at it, the critiques that I'm anticipating are "This is a sign of new showrunners trying desperately to assure die-hard fans that we're still gonna be the same." Especially, that we threw in animation. We tried to do an Abed's descent into madness [story] that admittedly doesn't work half as well as Abed's Christmas madness story. Maybe the review that I'm anticipating is there's a hint of desperation in the season opener. There's too many tricks and because of that, we're robbing from actual storytelling.

If we did it over again, I wouldn't have done a Troy/Britta story or a Shirley/Annie story. I would have lumped everyone into The Hunger Games, and just done those two stories. Some version of people competing to get into a class, paired with Abed seeing the world differently in multi-camera. It would have just made it two stories instead of five [LAUGHS].

[Reply #244 on:]

Remember that Community convention I mentioned and no one cared about? Well it was super fun I met a bunch of cast members including Britta and Shirley.

and I got Dan Harmon's email after telling him I had a pilot I wrote.

:3

[Reply #245 on:]

That's actually doppelganger Dan Harmon.  Don't let him know where you live.

:3

[Reply #246 on:]

Yeah I'm pretty excited about it.

[Reply #247 on:]

Pretty good episode tonight, I always like when annie takes on a different personality

[Reply #248 on:]

I thought Annie's story was weird. Mostly because I don't get what they're trying to do with her, they keep pairing her with Jeff even though they're isn't any kind of relationship happening between them.

Although two funny moments that happened while watching with my roommate and friend.
1. The closing tag with Luke Perry had him say something about sleeping with his grandma. I turned to my friend and said, "Oh a lesson in changing history from Mr. I'm-my-own-grandpa!"
2. My roommate, who isn't that familiar with the show was asking about Troy/Britta sleeping together (because it was weird how last week they were just holding hands and this episode they've been sleeping together for a while). She referred to them as the blonde girl and the black guy, and without thinking I turned and said, "Oh you mean Troy and Abed?"

[Reply #249 on:]

I enjoyed the episode quite a bit. It definitely seems that even though Dan Harmon's gone, the writers who give the show its distinctive flavor have stuck around.

[Reply #250 on:]

Mmmm Britta!

Ok, they go to the study room finally... for about 10 seconds, I miss the dean interrupting with crazy news dangit!

She referred to them as the blonde girl and the black guy, and without thinking I turned and said, "Oh you mean Troy and Abed?"

Silly Spacedal, Brown Jamie Lee Curtis has dark hair!

[Reply #251 on:]

I'm kind of glad they've limited the dean's antics, it can get kind of stale after a while

[Reply #252 on:]

He had a few overly silly moments this episode, the "what will I wear" joke used again, and using a fancy costume outside the context of the college doesn't make sense (it only works in the study room)!

Ze Germans were a bit cringeworthy, but I liked the bit where other students are trying to use the study room, Garrett is great, my favourite side character.

[Reply #253 on:]

I met Garrett at the convention. He has a wife which is weird to think about.

[Reply #254 on:]

Did you get him to scream "CRISIS ALERT!"

[Reply #255 on:]

Everyone got him to scream "CRISIS ALERT!!!".

[Reply #256 on:]

Jeffs dad is also Castles dad... that guy is really typecast.

[Reply #257 on:]

The last two eps have been unspectacular, but they feel more like the show and less like another show wearing Community's skinned face as a mask. So I'm pretty happy with them

[Reply #258 on:]

the workaholics step brother was pretty over the top, but it was still a good episode

[Reply #259 on:]

Heh, I loved Adam from Workaholics being in it, but I also love Workaholics so I might be biased. He definitely wasn't as good as he could have been.

[Reply #260 on:]

So I emailed Dan Harmon on Saturday. Super anxious to hear back from him.

[Reply #261 on:]

I enjoyed the latest episode, specifically Troy and Annie investigating:


"Something about this trout farm was starting to smell... wrong"

[Reply #262 on:]

this was a good episode. My only real complaint is that it seems they're making Pierce more overtly racist and I know that was the main reason Chevy Chase left the show

[Reply #263 on:]

I mean, it was probably the best episode of season 4 so far, but I wouldn't say it was a good episode.

[Reply #264 on:]

EDIT: [angryroommaterant]

Jeff's story made me sad tonight. I hope something comes of it.

[Reply #265 on:]

Very solid episode this week. Good concept and a great way to end Troy and Britta's relationship (which was inevitable to me). Troy and Abed's impressions of each other were pretty good, and Dean impersonating Jeff was hysterical. Also, I thought the stinger was really funny. Apparently they should definitely let Jim Rash (Dean) write more episodes.

The two episodes before it weren't too great, unfortunately. The puppet one would have been a lot better without the songs that weren't funny enough to justify how obnoxious they were, and the Christmas episode was just kind of boring, which was surprising.

That said, the two episodes before those ones I actually really liked, both were consistently funny. Abed's romance plot in the Sophie B. Hawkins dance episode was pretty enjoyable. And I thought all of the subplots were good in the other episode, with Troy and Shirley in the gym class and the wealthy kid the school tries to impress. Dean telling Magnitude he was never to say "pop-pop" again was hilarious. Also, long live the Delta Cubes!

So basically this season hasn't been anywhere as solid as anything that came before it, but it's still been good enough to make me glad the series has continued. It's pretty stupid how short the season is though.

[Reply #266 on:]

I was a little worried when I heard the plot, but it was pulled off very well

[Reply #267 on:]

Oh man, the origins story was pretty great, Magnitudes origin story!
I wish they had Leonard and Garrett in there too.

[Reply #268 on:]

Season 4 (and possibly show) finale was pretty good, the darkest timeline returns!
NBC has announce cancellations of 5 other shows but not Community yet! which is a little bit hopeful.

Evil Troy and Evil Abed in the moooorning!

[Reply #269 on:]

Oh man, the origins story was pretty great, Magnitudes origin story!
I wish they had Leonard and Garrett in there too.

I really enjoyed this episode and I appreciate most of the connections they made, but the fact that they were all at Yogurts Burgh at the same time was a bit much. Same with the fact that many of them spoke of Sr. Chang but noone seemed to recognize him when they first started taking his classes. But oh well, that's just me being nit-picky.

Season 4 (and possibly show) finale was pretty good, the darkest timeline returns!
NBC has announce cancellations of 5 other shows but not Community yet! which is a little bit hopeful.

Evil Troy and Evil Abed in the moooorning!

Also a great episode. It took me a little while to remember the darkest timeline Greendale 7's plot to destroy their prime timeline counterparts. Remembering this just made the whole affair more satisfying.

I'm worried about the fate of this show. Even if the show continues (which seems possible), it will probably be treated as a second-rate show by NBC, the same way that Comedy Central treated Futurama. As a result, Futurama dropped a bit in quality because they could not employ their staffers as much as they could before.

[Reply #270 on:]

Season 5 renewal!


Also these GoT/Community house sigils are fun.

[Reply #271 on:]

Oh Chief, you've made me the happiest little girl!

Show spoiler

Also, whoever made those house sigils seems to think that Shirley's last name is Jackson, not Bennett.

[Reply #272 on:]

Season 5 renewal at this point, I'm meh. This season wasn't super great.

[Reply #273 on:]

It was fine, hopefully those rumours of Dan Harmon coming back (now that Chevy is gone) are true... but probably not.

[Reply #274 on:]

I doubt Harmon will come back, especially since season 5 will also have a reduced 13 episode run. Season 4 was a little hit and miss, especially the few episodes they had to explain Pierce's absence and also how a lot of them were out of order.

[Reply #275 on:]

I thought season 4 was awful. The only episode that felt remotely up to Community's standards was the one where they did body-swap comedies like Freaky Friday. Everything else was just unfunny and, usually, horribly and messily written.

But Dan Harmon has been officially offered the job on season 5, so now it's just a case of whether or not he'll accept - and he has said that he would accept if he was offered in the past. I guess it just comes down to what the exact deal that they're offering him is.

If he comes back, hopefully they can make season 5 (likely, the final season) a special send-off - though, it's a shame that Chevy will be gone from now on.

[Reply #276 on:]

He tweeted some stuff about returning but nothing confirming his return, here's hoping:

"Returning to Community, Day One: Hiring of directors hindered by an apparent promise from Sony to Jason Alexander. My deal: not yet closed."

Edit:
Aaaand. he's back
https://twitter.com/danharmon/status/340859201922412544

[Reply #277 on:]

wow, this really came as a surprise to me, but a pleasant one at that

[Reply #278 on:]

NBC is starting to build a track record of ousting their showrunners then bringing them back one year later. (Team Coco for Life!) Granted, Community/Dan Harmon was Sony's doing, but there are rumors that NBC told Sony to fire him.


Plus this:

Dan Harmon Says Sony Wants Him To Do The DVD Commentary Track For Season 4 Of ‘Community’

Perhaps the most intriguing news: “Sony said they’re very interested in recording me watching it as a commentary track” for the Season 4 DVD set, he said. His co-host for the evening, Rob Schrab, asked if the DVD commentary could also include a visual in the corner of the screen of Harmon’s facial expressions as he watches the season he was aced out of.

“I think I can do anything,” Harmon responded. “It would move Season 4 DVDs, for sure. But I’ll be checking it out soon, and then I’ll figure out what we’re doing for Season 5.”

I'm not really expecting this to happen (or if it does happen, I'm not expecting to see it survive and hit store shelves), but clearly Community's behind-the-scenes are not predictable. Mr. Harmon did publicly display Chevy Chase's rude voicemails in front of his family, so he may be willing to go along with this.

[Reply #279 on:]

Apparently Garrett was on Conan, you go Garrett!