Community, the tv show

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.

i'm just surprised they actually shelled out for a GI Joe license and it was approved!

love that Robot Chicken bit btw. FUMBLES!

The best joke was when everyone was expressing shock that Jeff was 40 and Shirley was all "well we all knew that" because of the implicit callback to the foosball episode.

the suppressive fire thing made me LOL cos I was always the asshole kid who was bummed at watching cartoons cos "how intense can being shot at be when the bullets never hit anybody".

esp when I could just play Double Dragon and dome people with baseball bats

*watching these types of cartoons, that should say

This was entertaining. I never cared about GI Joe as a kid cos army stuff was too mundane, I was into wizards and dragons and ghosts. Also talking cat people and giant robots made of lions.

Really great production job on this! They even had accurate film grain and other animation artifacts! But I really couldn't get into the story. Maybe I missed lots of past references to Jeff's alcoholism, but the whole real world premise felt like it came from out of nowhere, and was there to lend weight to a pretty flimsy premise. Is this the first time Jeff has drank himself into the hospital? Feels like his drinking has never interfered in any other way, and now it's suddenly he's trying to kill himself w scotch. Maybe I'm wrong.

GI Joe was not mundane army stuff lol

he was taking weird anti-aging drugs he bought from a street vendor or something, not just alcohol. but yeah, flimsy. the ads were the most hilarious part, so spot on.

i thought this was p fun! and I liked that it was really simple and flimsy... that's what made it work with the cartoon, even the wrap up in the hospital was super-cheesy and dorky like a cartoon wrapup. the psa at the end was great.

hat-muffs dude was my favorite

balls otm, esp 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.

hat muffs -- was that just throwaway odd/silly, or reffing something specific?

The double-level meta to Jeff's character reducing Shirley to a caricature because he doesn't want to acknowledge that they are peers along with the show not knowing what to do with Shirley almost saves it.

Sometimes this show is like going to see a band that has an obviously great taste in music and not a song goes by that doesn't remind you of something you love but in the end the cleverness of their influences doesn't really add up to anything memorable.

I guess *zing* meta commentary right there, I've falled into DH's plan all along, and besides I'm his target audience, been watching since the beginning. Just feels like sometimes he gets careless about hiding the seams.

the premise was a bit flimsy so I wouldn't put this in my upper echelon of Community episodes, but it brought the LOLs.

also I'm glad to see feminist/pseudo-political Britta back in full force...after how they mangled her a bit last year.

Did it bring the lols? For me it was just an example of a concept overwhelming the jokes. But then I felt the same way with the animated xmas ep. But yeah, there were very few jokes in this ep, no? Less than usual.