I still expect these folks to pull out something special.
Well, the episode prior to this was the Glee/x-mas dealie, preceded by foosball, and before that, "Hearts of Darkness." Granted, anything following that run is going to seem anticlimactic. But to paraphrase Louis CK, will you give them a second? They're going to space!
― we can be gyros just for one day (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Friday, 16 March 2012 17:01 (twelve years ago) link
ha ha come on
― congratulations (n/a), Friday, 16 March 2012 17:02 (twelve years ago) link
Even this amazing run in S2 had that awful episode with Pierce's Asian fiancee in the middle of it.
― Homosexual Satan Wasp (Matt DC), Friday, 16 March 2012 17:03 (twelve years ago) link
"why couldn't they have reached the heights of the episode of the West Wing where the Republican girl realized 'zomg these Democrats WORK HARD and are PASSIONATE, maybe I should ADMIRE them'"
― thuggish ruggish Brahms (DJP), Friday, 16 March 2012 16:57 (4 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
lol this is just the drama version of 'the groom realises that the bride is MORE THAN A MOTHER AND A HOUSEWIFE and that he still wants to marry her AS AN INDEPENDANT WOMAN'
― a hoy hoy, Friday, 16 March 2012 17:04 (twelve years ago) link
I think Freaks and Geeks is the only tv show to make it through without a shitty episode, and that got cancelled before it had the chance.
― a hoy hoy, Friday, 16 March 2012 17:05 (twelve years ago) link
I thought Britta the wedding planner savant was hilarious
I also liked seeing Shirley really take the reins of the sandwich shop pitch and show serious potential as a credible fictional small business owner
I also liked Jeff's drunken line dancing
I'd give this episode a solid B
― thuggish ruggish Brahms (DJP), Friday, 16 March 2012 17:07 (twelve years ago) link
If you view the series as being primarily about people figuring out how to live and interact with one another in a healthy and harmonious way (which I assert is the intended overarching theme), just about every episode is a success.
replaying the same unconvincing emotional beats episode after tedious episode is sorta whats ruined this show. the characters are too thin and uninteresting to sustain it, the whole 'these people realizing theyre a surrogate family' thing is entirely w/e. idk i agree w/ n/a i used to really like this show, i like its structural gimmicks and worldbuilding and when it goes hard on jokes, the absurdity and pastiche. but i didnt really miss the show when it was gone and last nite 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.
― Lamp, Friday, 16 March 2012 17:10 (twelve years ago) link
then the next day at work i went on a msg board and complained about it at length
― Lamp, Friday, 16 March 2012 17:11 (twelve years ago) link
It is a sitcom ppl. can we lay off looking for structural innovation and worldbuilding please?
― s.clover, Friday, 16 March 2012 17:13 (twelve years ago) link
after they've been really good at both in the past...not really
― da croupier, Friday, 16 March 2012 17:14 (twelve years ago) link
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.
― a hoy hoy, Friday, 16 March 2012 17:14 (twelve years ago) link
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"
― thuggish ruggish Brahms (DJP), Friday, 16 March 2012 17:15 (twelve years ago) link
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.
― we can be gyros just for one day (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Friday, 16 March 2012 17:16 (twelve years ago) link
― stan this sick bunt (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Friday, 16 March 2012 17:17 (twelve years ago) link
hahahaha
― thuggish ruggish Brahms (DJP), Friday, 16 March 2012 17:17 (twelve years ago) link
you will find every episode from this point forward to be utterly impenetrable
just like the rest of america amirite
― Lamp, Friday, 16 March 2012 17:18 (twelve years ago) link
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
― da croupier, Friday, 16 March 2012 17:18 (twelve years ago) link
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.
― Soggy Cheeseburgers (Deric W. Haircare), Friday, 16 March 2012 17:20 (twelve years ago) link
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.
― the girl from spirea x (f. hazel), Friday, 16 March 2012 17:20 (twelve years ago) link
I wept just reading your description.
― Emperor Cos Dashit (Adam Bruneau), Friday, 16 March 2012 17:21 (twelve years ago) link
(Goddamnit, I have to stop ILXORing on a phone. It's making me look like I don't understand basic sentence construction.)
― Soggy Cheeseburgers (Deric W. Haircare), Friday, 16 March 2012 17:22 (twelve years ago) link
― the girl from spirea x (f. hazel), Friday, 16 March 2012 17:20 (14 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
ice creammore ice creama conemore ice creamanother conea drip traythe table the machine is onthe floorthe concrete layerdirtcrustupper mantlemantleouter coreinner coregod
― a hoy hoy, Friday, 16 March 2012 17:23 (twelve years ago) link
The ice cream looked like poop.
― the girl from spirea x (f. hazel), Friday, 16 March 2012 17:23 (twelve years ago) link
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.
― Mike Love Costume Jewelry on Etsy (C. Grisso/McCain), Friday, 16 March 2012 17:31 (twelve years ago) link
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 timeslove you guys so much
― Peppermint Patty Hearst (VegemiteGrrl), Friday, 16 March 2012 17:35 (twelve years ago) link
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.
― if you ever leave me peggy, leave some propane at my door (zachlyon), Friday, 16 March 2012 19:03 (twelve years ago) link
that is true, except for where it is false
― thuggish ruggish Brahms (DJP), Friday, 16 March 2012 19:08 (twelve years ago) link
Holy shit, they did REALLY well in the ratings bcuz Big Bang Theory wasn't on: a 2.2 in the demo!
― an electronic plaque of Abraham Lincoln's assassination (reddening), Friday, 16 March 2012 19:15 (twelve years ago) link
literally two minutes later...
― Porto for Pyros (The Cursed Return of the Dastardly Thermo Thinwall), Friday, 16 March 2012 19:16 (twelve years ago) link
hey. dan's not stupid
― Peppermint Patty Hearst (VegemiteGrrl), Friday, 16 March 2012 19:17 (twelve years ago) link
thank you!
oh, wait...
;_;
― thuggish ruggish Brahms (DJP), Friday, 16 March 2012 19:18 (twelve years ago) link
Anyone who thinks Dan Harmon is a stupid showrunner deserves awful television forever.
― Soggy Cheeseburgers (Deric W. Haircare), Friday, 16 March 2012 19:30 (twelve years ago) link
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.
― an electronic plaque of Abraham Lincoln's assassination (reddening), Friday, 16 March 2012 19:33 (twelve years ago) link
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.
― Johnny Fever, Friday, 16 March 2012 19:38 (twelve years ago) link
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.
― congratulations (n/a), Friday, 16 March 2012 19:43 (twelve years ago) link
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.
― thuggish ruggish Brahms (DJP), Friday, 16 March 2012 19:56 (twelve years ago) link
^ 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.
― we can be gyros just for one day (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Friday, 16 March 2012 20:03 (twelve years ago) link
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.
― stay in school if you want to kiw (Gukbe), Friday, 16 March 2012 20:06 (twelve years ago) link
(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)
― thuggish ruggish Brahms (DJP), Friday, 16 March 2012 20:08 (twelve years ago) link
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.
― if you ever leave me peggy, leave some propane at my door (zachlyon), Friday, 16 March 2012 20:12 (twelve years ago) link
http://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/s720x720/427635_10150599762411596_681036595_9690410_304321202_n.jpg
― Spleen of Hearts (kingfish), Friday, 16 March 2012 20:35 (twelve years ago) link
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?
― stay in school if you want to kiw (Gukbe), Friday, 16 March 2012 20:36 (twelve years ago) link
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
― some dude, Friday, 16 March 2012 20:36 (twelve years ago) link
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
― thuggish ruggish Brahms (DJP), Friday, 16 March 2012 20:37 (twelve years ago) link
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.
― stay in school if you want to kiw (Gukbe), Friday, 16 March 2012 20:41 (twelve years ago) link
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.
― we can be gyros just for one day (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Friday, 16 March 2012 20:42 (twelve years ago) link
yeah i laughed pretty hard when i thought about Subway references on "Community" re: ilx
― some dude, Friday, 16 March 2012 20:53 (twelve years ago) link
'Ironic' plugging is one of the most annoying things ever.
― Emperor Cos Dashit (Adam Bruneau), Friday, 16 March 2012 20:56 (twelve years ago) link
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."
― stay in school if you want to kiw (Gukbe), Friday, 16 March 2012 20:59 (twelve years ago) link
― 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.)
― some dude, Friday, 16 March 2012 21:00 (twelve years ago) link