Community, the tv show

after they've been really good at both in the past...not really

lol

i have an extremely low tolerance in picking shows to watch but when i find one i like, i cant imagine just stopping caring. the only one i've really given up on is how i met your mother. even if it drops off a little in quality or places to go, usually i'll stick it out.

eh, I found enough things to laugh at/enjoy in this episode that I didn't particularly mind/care that it was largely played straight

still lolling at Britta's "oh whatever, just take some of this crap and some of this junk and here's your stupid centerpiece"

i looked and realized that there was 7 minutes left of an episode that had already felt like an hour and turned it off, happily.

Too bad. You missed the credits gag, which apart from being the funniest, most complex, and most layered joke the show has ever done, also focused and expanded on the intense neuroses of one of the characters to such an intense degree that I literally wept. It's no exaggeration to say that you will find every episode from this point forward to be utterly impenetrable without the understanding that this gag brought.

lol

hahahaha

you will find every episode from this point forward to be utterly impenetrable

just like the rest of america amirite

just to clarify, i don't mind when community plays straight. the only episodes that really had me clawing my face was the "model un"/"detective chang" two-fer, which just went too far down the Family Guy path for my taste

I basically have zero time for complaints and critiques someone who couldn't make it through the whole thirty minutes of the thing they're critiquing. Even my ADD ass thinks that's pretty sad.

You missed the credits gag, which apart from being the funniest, most complex, and most layered joke the show has ever done, also focused and expanded on the intense neuroses of one of the characters to such an intense degree that I literally wept.

Peel back some of the layers for us, please.

I wept just reading your description.

(Goddamnit, I have to stop ILXORing on a phone. It's making me look like I don't understand basic sentence construction.)

Peel back some of the layers for us, please.

― the girl from spirea x (f. hazel), Friday, 16 March 2012 17:20 (14 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

ice cream
more ice cream
a cone
more ice cream
another cone
a drip tray
the table the machine is on
the floor
the concrete layer
dirt
crust
upper mantle
mantle
outer core
inner core
god

The ice cream looked like poop.

One thing I think a lot of people are missing is that this ep wasn't supposed to be some big comeback or anything, it's just the next one in the queue. It was probably all put together before the hiatus and was supposed to run in January. As January shows go, it was very January indeed.

last night I was all 'yay community's back'
I show up itt to be all 'omg you guys it's back yay' only to find it barely alive and vivisected
just like old times
love you guys so much

god the problem here is that people actually listen to dan harmon when he talks. he's a stupid person who is apparently obsessed with character development and themes and circle formulas, and he never stops talking about them so everyone comes to expect those areas of the show to be strong points, and they aren't. the show fails there, but it doesn't matter because the show itself does not care about those things, it cares about funny jokes and clever concepts and "worldbuilding", and that's all it needs to be good at. because it's a sitcom! todd vanderwerff can write way too many words about how brilliant the writers are with each character's growth, but everyone knows that that shit doesn't actually resonate and it's not why the show succeeds.

that is true, except for where it is false

Holy shit, they did REALLY well in the ratings bcuz Big Bang Theory wasn't on: a 2.2 in the demo!

literally two minutes later...

hey. dan's not stupid

thank you!

oh, wait...

;_;

Anyone who thinks Dan Harmon is a stupid showrunner deserves awful television forever.

Funniness aside (I liked it & laughed throughout, but sure there have been better episodes), this ep was surprisingly accessible -- a nice comfy sitcom plot and then a kind of "taster" for each character's comedic strengths. NBC's been doing good promotion for the show for the last two weeks, so I think it was a good ep for potential new viewers to catch. That's enough to suppress my inner urge to worry about whether or not the show's in its prime/better than Parks and Rec or whatever.

http://www.tvline.com/2012/03/ratings-missing-premiere-community/#more-311765

NBC’s Community returned from its too-long hiatus to 4.9 million total viewers and a demo rating of 2.2, delivering increases of 36 and 47 percent over the comedy’s most recent outing (on Dec. 8 ) and a 14-month, non-sports time slot demo high for NBC.

i'm interested to hear from some of the big proponents of the show (afaict, deric and vegemitegrrl in particular) if you see any weaknesses/flaws in this show. i promise i am not going to be a dick about your responses, i am just curious.

The biggest flaw/weakness is that there are too many main characters.

You see some of the same type of character bloat/water-treading in BBT these days, where now that they have seven characters to revolve around, it seems like someone is likely to get shafted in a given episode (ironically for BBT, the character this has been happening to the most often is... Leonard, although Raj is a close second in that he's already at a disadvantage because he was secondary from the get-go and now he's the only one not in a couple).

Community has similar issues juggling all of its characters and making sure they all get their due, although it does a better job of doling out storylines around the group in order so the level of neglect isn't as high; still, you had Shirley receding into the background up until last season's mixology episode where she got a strong B-story that brought her out as more than just "the two-faced Christian one". (The foosball episode that rekindled the Shirley/Jeff pairing also helped tremendously.)

Aside from that, I think it's a dependably reliable situation comedy with unmistakable flashes of brilliance and one of the better ensemble casts currently on prime-time television; oftentimes I think the cast chemistry elevates the scripts.

^ otm, especially re: character juggling. Chang seems to be awkwardly shoehorned into Wacky Situations this season. The whole security guard thing isn't hitting for me, and much of it seems forced. I vastly preferred it when he was a snarky dick who hated his job, and elevated scenes with little more than an "Aww, snap!"; now he's a snarkless dick who aspires to do well at his job.

ugh this thread. (not everyone, or even anyone specific, mind)

fwiw this episode was supposed to be two or three episodes later, they just moved it back for this "premiere" i guess in the hopes of giving everyone the best rundown of "what it's all about/who everyone is" for potential new viewers. will drop back down when BBT comes back obv but it can lose probably 30% in the demo and be safe imo.

(in some ways BBT is in a worse spot because it seems like they are only ever willing to make big paradigm shifts in character relationships at the end of the season, so they introduce all of these scenarios/situations with a lot of potential for long-term lols and then hit the reset button and fall back on making Penny sing "Soft Kitty" again)

xp i don't think dan harmon is a bad showrunner and i think he's a very funny person, just that the show works fine without succeeding in all the areas he spends all his time talking about. and i find him annoying and stupid but that's more of a personal qualm i guess.

http://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/s720x720/427635_10150599762411596_681036595_9690410_304321202_n.jpg

I know it's stupid but I'm kind of worried that there will now be Chuck-levels of Subway plugs. Or am I just being paranoid?

product placement in comedies isn't nearly as bothersome w/ comedies as with dramas because it just gives them a lot of chances to make apologetic jokes about it

the Subway plugs on Chuck consistently cracked me up, they were so blatant

then I think about how a subsection of this board talks about Subway and I crack up again

to be fair I got so annoyed with Chuck before I gave up on it completely that the Subway stuff just got on my nerves.

Subway didn't come off well in last night's episode, though, crushing Shirley's dreams and all. I was actually surprised that they paid for the placement.

yeah i laughed pretty hard when i thought about Subway references on "Community" re: ilx

'Ironic' plugging is one of the most annoying things ever.

I still lol at the 30 Rock Snapple thing from the 4th or 5th episode. Or at least Baldwin's turn to the side "God knows I do."

'Ironic' plugging is one of the most annoying things ever.

― Emperor Cos Dashit (Adam Bruneau), Friday, March 16, 2012 4:56 PM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

if they JUST do it with a bet-hedging wink it's lame, but i think it can be done well if the joke goes a little further than that (30 Rock, Wayne's World, etc.)

the thing that killed me about Chuck was how it just seemed like overnight all of the characters just started eating Subway 24/7

lol subway

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ayIJan54KrY

You know, now that community actual had a great ratings night, I'd rather this show get huge, bloated and weak through six seasons and a movie, than just have its door shut after three underappreciated seasons. We already have an Arrested Development. I'm actually kind of curious what lengths would be taken to keep these folks together after four years of community college.

i never knew bbt wasn't on. makes sense they went with that episode and i'm happy to see a big ratings boost.

ditto

also i was fine with the episode. i actually want to see more shirley episodes! malcolm jamal warner was great!

Loved the marriage proposal dance/song etc

My two fave deliveries last night were "That's me!" and "Walk away, man."

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/syndication-community-comedy-central-the-middle-hallmark-300123

Comedy Central has good news for Greendale fans.

The cable network has picked up syndication rights to NBC's Dan Harmon cult comedy Community, the network announced Wednesday, inking a multiyear deal with the studio behind the Joel McHale-starrer, Sony Pictures Television.

The series, which returns Thursday to NBC after being left off its midseason schedule, will launch repeats of the first three seasons of the series beginning in the fall of 2013.