Community, the tv show

Abed's line about not happening to turn on the radio right as the news report came on was A+++, as was Troy's hand motions and lip-synching.

I only picked up on the fact that Abed and Troy were dressed up as Inspector Spacetime and the Constable after the fact.

Used "fact" twice - ha.

"You just Britta'd Britta'd!"

I just found out about Drunken Histories like yesterday, and the first Britta story was weirdly like that, or whatever.

I really want to go back to season 1 and see if Britta was this hopeless even then; I remember her being opinionated but not completely hopeless early in the show (which, sadly, made her less interesting).

no she definitely got more hapless and sympathetic, at the beginning she was kind of sarcastic and obnoxious like a lady jeff

On the season 1 DVD commentaries, Dan Harmon talks about how worried they were about how underdeveloped Britta was at the beginning.

Troy and Abed, sewn together.

I know there was baseball, but damn a 1.4 is pretty low.

i just remembered the michele norris/erroll morris joke - "don't worry, they address it"

hahahaha

I love Britta so much

me too

isn't it Nichelle norris?

http://www.npr.org/people/2100974/michele-norris

I loved that in Shirley's story everyone was dressed like grunge kids.

yeah, britta pouring "WEED" all over herself and jeff saying "now that's my idea of a pot bong!"

"We interrupt your death metal to bring you a heavy announcement."

Warren Piece

^^^^ all time lolz

wonder how many bottle eps they'll need to make up for all that SFX

werewolf and vampire were the only fancy fx rly? and that sort of thing is usually done by Ch101 ppl. everything else was just costumes/makeup iirc, and despite so many stories, most of them used the same set

flying frying pan and flying knife/sandwiches

troy and abed referencing monkeybone was inspired

"TEACH ME... TO READ!"

The sheer density of the gags in the last two episodes has been astonishing. Feel like it's okay to admit that the first two and a half eps were slightly below par because the last two have been as good if not better than the show has ever been.

"Which of you girls can count to 30?"

Shirley is super underappreciated, I think.

Shirley seemed to get more play than most of the other characters last year because Harmon was consciously trying to flesh out her character but she's been used pretty sparingly so far this year. This does however mean that line-for-line she's probably the funniest character right now, simply because everything she says starts of so sweet and has this hilarious judgmental sting in the tail. Also she REALLY hates Britta right now.

Also... "GAY MARRIAGE!"

The sheer density of the gags in the last two episodes has been astonishing. Feel like it's okay to admit that the first two and a half eps were slightly below par because the last two have been as good if not better than the show has ever been.

More than most shows, you can feel the writers prioritizing certain eps and putting others on autopilot; there are rarely "pretty good" Community episodes, only "decent" and "amazing".

wait what is the difference between "pretty good" and "decent"

the # of streets ahead.

CALLED OUT FOR TALKING OUT OF MY ASS:

"Pretty good" is the ep where Jeff plays nude pool and White Abed makes his appearance. "Decent" is the Todd ep from three weeks back.

I dunno, I've been watching bits of season one, before the focus became more conceptual, and I feel like there's a really long run of "pretty good" eps, bits where it's all just chemistry and hanging out framed by some vague half-assed plot. Things changed, obv. I'm not complaining - Community, at its bare minimum still carries me along plenty, but I just felt like noting the diff.

nude pool was great imo

yeah i would put nude pool as classic, or semi-classic

Yeah - yer prob. right. A better choice, waaaay after the fact, for "pretty good" is the ep where Britta tells Jeff "You gotta bang that kid's mom!" and Troy And Abed try to enact every college cliche.

all time for "College Cut-Ups 2: Panty Raid Academy"

I like that we've established that they're all clinically mental in some way - one big, codependent, dysfunctional family. All their quirks are a little more believable when you allow them real diagnoses. I like that the humor has picked up over the last two episodes. I wish there was more believable drama going on. I mean, I just want something fresh. Give Troy or Abed a significant other. Go ahead and hook up Jeff with Annie. I need some real character development instead of the same old.

I think this might be the last season for Community soley based on the bleek network ratings mentioned in this thread. At this point I don't see how the show will last unless it has Michael Scott guest star or something like that.

NBC doesn't have a lot of other stuff doing better and Community's studio will likely lobby for a fourth season to reach the syndication 100 goal.

They've kept "Chuck" around for like 20 seasons despite its dismal ratings.

At some point there's got to be a clearing out. Community has such a tiny audience it doesn't have much hope for being a big syndication smash, plus they would need another season and a bit to make it to 100. The studio would have to take on a much larger portion of the costs, I reckon, and I'm not sure they'd be willing to do it. The real, ever-present danger is if NBC decides to totally overhaul at some point. Whitney was up against the baseball - predictably, I guess - but if that sort of thing works for them they might head into that direction. Especially if The Office is on its last legs.

maybe it'll stay, maybe it'll go, kind of feels like a drag to dwell on the question though

umm who are the people watching community though? kids w/ tumblrs more likely to buy expensive shit than whoever watches mike & molly.

Even if everyone who watches it is in the demo, it's still not very many.

Really liked that one!

are there (m)any shows picking up that demo in high numbers though?

Community would be huge on British TV I reckon. Can see a lot of Europe taking to it as well.

on other networks, yeah. the networks, other than CBS, almost look exclusively at the demo numbers, and Community would be cancelled on any one of them. Basically NBC really requires a 1.6 at the absolute minimum, and Community isn't even hitting that. Most other networks would pull a show if it drops below a 2.0. Community is the lowest rated comedy of the night. Only Prime Suspect does worse. xpost

prime suspect is doing worse than that?? : (

I think it got a 1.2 this past week, which is especially bad given their peppering their line-up with reruns. That number was affected by the baseball, but on a good week it doesn't do better than 1.6. They're really desperate for it to work, but any other network would have pulled it immediately and thrown on reruns of something else. Worst thing about the 10:00 slot is that local affiliates will kick up a bigger fuss about really low ratings as well.

how could any fan of cop shows want to watch latter-day svu reruns more than prime suspect?? : (

anyway i see that prime suspect is opposite the mentalist, that must be tough.

The Mentalist does much better, but it's been on a pretty steady decline the last two years. People just don't trust NBC to do anything other than Sunday Night Football, I guess.

nbc is in such dire straights that it's really, really hard to predict what's going to be picked up and what won't. instead of having this discussion between episodes every week, just enjoy the episodes as they come.