Community, the tv show

totally agree that this felt underbaked and missing a third act - doubly bummed because the first D&D episode is probably my favourite half hour of community, and I think the format is smart enough to be revisited, just not as it was this time around (though, on rescreening the first D&D episode the other day, yes, it's the episode where Pierce is broken so he cannot be fixed).

I enjoyed this ep. My gf had never seen the first, so we watched that one before this, and I really did think that one was a great example of using genre jokes as a way to highlight character interaction.

https://scontent-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn2/t1.0-9/s640x640/1488686_10152301645868184_1921312675_n.jpg

i laughed at a lot in this episode - some of the best abed and dean bits of the season - but making the plots revolve around hickey is a real cousin oliver thing to do.

not even a dis on breaking bad dude - you just can't take a long-running show centered around a group dynamic and make it all about the new guy until he's actually part of that dynamic.

but that's what they sorta did with Fat Neil!

nah that episode was pretty central in the pierce arc of the season

hickey's been around for ten or so episodes and had several plots working around him and his relationship with members of the group

yeah, that's quite a bit for a cousin oliver, and then to have one where he works out his shit with his son while actors who've been on the show five years watch, it's a bit much. again, i laughed plenty, but focusing your attention so aggressively on The New Guy is a danger zone.

clay otm, plus this episode gave lots of opportunities for everyone to shout things and generally be funny, but I admit I could be overly generous with that

like, the plot was literally "new guy has cliche beef with son, everybody helps new guy" with only dean's boner for jeff getting any attention as far as the ongoing group dynamic goes. lots of funny shit, but that's pretty thin and uninvolving for a community episode.

Yeah, it was a funny episode, but the beef between David Cross and Hickey was so slim and vague I didn't care, and also the episode seemed to be missing a third act.

Why does it matter for how long Hickey has been part of the group? He's a human being, they help him. We invest in him because of the writing, the performance, and because, again, he's a human being.

It seems pretty 'be less like real life, more like a tv-show' to me.

harmon had said it's his least fav. ep. this season

Ugh how hard is it to grasp that someone can find an episode funny but still note that focusing episodes of a long running show on a new character has traditional pitfalls to the degree that its one of the better known "TV tropes"

Also he's not a human being he's a sitcom character it's not sociopathy to suggest audience members might care less about his ish

I still don't think Hickey is as well-drawn a character as any of the others (compare him to, say, S1 Pierce), which may be why building an entire episode around him was a) necessary and b) still felt a bit off in terms of tone.

Like he's a slightly odd character, he worked brilliantly with Abed but the fit with Annie didn't work at all.

Still prefer him to Pierce x1000

Pierce had *a lot* of genuinely hilarious one-liners though.

like that goofy post-credits scene where he's arguing with his family over a cemetery plot was more character revealing than most episodes Pierce was in

Hickey is way more well-drawn than Fat Neil, as Nhex pointed out.

People upset at the plotting of this last episode, did you see the one with the stolen books? The one that made very little sense by it's own internal logic? Where they find the books and then start threatening each other if they snitch and then halfway through just decide not to care about them anymore? They do this every other show, it's pretty much embedded in the show. TV/movie/pop culture conventions often win out over the characters' motivations making sense.

The study-group trying to do something past their own interests has been a common theme of the show. Really, if Community is a show about the joy of 'community', then it has to be pretty open to new people. Otherwise, it just seems awful. I've written upthread that I think they should replace all the characters, ER-style, and just keep the show at Greendale forever. I love the new dynamics.

(also the human being stuff was a reference. Hickey is most definitely a Human Being, though he doesn't seem too proud of it)

I kinda wondered if episodes centered on the ensemble being goofy would be brought up as proof it's normal for an episode to be centered on a new character while the ensemble acts goofy. I thought its already been noted that the last d&d was really more about pierce than fat Neil though.

In a sense, the comparison point for fat Neil would be hickey's son, not hickey

Meanwhile, six seasons and a movie...?

Chris Elliot!

I know! Definitely excited about that.

OK, looking forward to this now:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2N8wLKC7bw#t=47

New D&D episode was funny, obv not as funny as the original. Loved the goblin interrogation scene. Also kind of loving the tacit metacommentary on the writers not knowing what to do with Shirley, though obv it's better when they actually do something with her (which is why I loved the ultimately nonsensical textbook story from the previous episode)

glimpses of Shirley's dark past are usually pretty good

Where they find the books and then start threatening each other if they snitch and then halfway through just decide not to care about them anymore?

They quit caring when they found out the books were worthless! I mean, it wasn't one of my favorite episodes either, but the internal logic made sense to me - if a bit silly.

It was a fantastic sight gag but how did Shirley overpower and tie up both Britta and Hickey? I mean obv the answer is "who cares" but that was the logic leap for me

Her kids are always off camera and help her out whenever she needs to do something like that.

I actually loved that there was no explanation for that bit at all, like she did it by sheer magic

Well like I said, it was awesome

Or fantastic, which is what I actually said

I have watched the first 3.5 seasons in the past two weeks. And it's good. But the SOPHIE B. HAWKINS dance is my favorite thing p. much ever. Sophie B. for life.

Was it on last week? Can't find a torrent.

Nope. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Community_episodes#Season_5_.282014.29)

yeah they skipped last week due to march madness

to me and chap that sounds like "due to fevered whim"

you are correct

show about college kids playing gi joe characters postponed for show about college kids throwing orange balls around

thought this was fun. premise was kind of a stretch, it's obv they just wanted to have fun lampooning shitty an 80's toy tie-in cartoon and needed an excuse, but I'd be lying if I said I cared. Hearing Cobra Commander say "I LOVED HIM!" made me guffaw.

also loved the fake commercials

That was awful right? Or is it just because I never watched/played with GI Joe?

Thought this was hilarious. I never saw an entire GI Joe episode, but I remember the ads and the PSAs -- who knows, maybe I would've hated it if I didn't have any reference points.

i watched an insane amount of gi joe, owned a ton of the toys, and was a devoted reader of the comics so i enjoyed it but i breathed a sigh of relief that there was at least a framing device. laughed at every 'i have 3 kids' but that's the second time at least this season they've gone meta w/ shirley on that front and maybe it's time to actually fix the problem instead of just acknowledging it. agreed it's probably a low for a harmon episode, this is the best version of what ppl who hate community think community is like. that a comparison to robot chicken came to mind is a bad sign. that i actually prefer the robot chicken short i'm thinking of is something i'm gonna have to assume is indicative of something wrong w/ me and not community.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DW3dg9VURMU

Or is it just because I never watched/played with GI Joe?

Me neither, but I watched enough toy tie-in cartoons in the 80s to 100% get all the jokes (this must be the most squarely aimed at my generation episode yet of a show which is generally aimed very squarely at my generation indeed).

The coda got the most laughs out of me. Very clever.

Maybe they still make cartoons like that, I dunno. The only kids' cartoons I watch are the ones that are actually for grown-ups.