Community, the tv show

Abed actually shows remarkable insight into Annie's own thoughts and feelings in this episode so, yeah, I don't really know what to make of the "empathy" speech.

One part I found affecting is when he reveals he thinks everyone's going to get sick of him. It's that thing where people feel free to act judgmental and superior because they can't imagine anyone being hurt by what they think. He plays mind-games with Annie to try and teach her lesson, comes away realizing he can be a dick. The speech is awkwardly written - I don't always get the difference between sympathy and empathy right either - but I think the episode was nuanced enough that I don't need to damn it for ruining Abed or anything.

It's that thing where people feel free to act judgmental and superior because they can't imagine anyone being hurt by what they think.

to be clearer, I mean people feel free to act superior because they can't imagine one cares what they think. It's self-loathing, not sociopathy.

ha actually i have no idea if that made anything clearer, sorry

what do u feel about the part where abed cuts annie off financially bc he wants to buy a lake house?

i feel u could have written the joke better

what a poorly formed analysis

buttered noodles

This episode sucked. How many "we're lost in Abed's immutable subconscious fantasy world" eps will we get?

pretty mutable imo

Ya more or less the definition of

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Oh, I just immutable in the sense that when something shifts in Abed's world, he shuts down. We've seen this before - Christmas ep, introduction of "Inspector Space Time" primal scream ...

Clearly Abed can change because he is a TV character. Anyway, this ep was spinning wheels, which is <<< spinning plates, which this show does better.

They've been teasing a Dreamatorium episode for awhile now, though. I think they thought fans wanted this. (And a lot probably did.)

fans are idiots

Does this mean we are guaranteed an Evil Abed kidnaps Abed in the Dreamatorium and Troy has to lead the group through it to rescue his friend episode? Perhaps confronting Evil Troy in the process?

Shhh! Dan Harmon might hear you.

i miss the days when the show's idea of fan service was Alison Brie running in slow motion

STOP TRYING TO MAKE MULTIDIMENSIONAL COMMUNITY HAPPEN

some dude otm

the only dimensions i care about are alison brie's, am i right!!!!!!!

anyway this last episode sucked, all their nerd ambitious shit sucks, except for the first paintball episode, just be a funny regular sitcom please

I like their nerd ambitions. No one else is going to do quantum theory or My Dinner With Andre

max otm

i kind of think abed is my least favorite character

some of the great ambitious old episodes feel like a scathing critique of where the show is going now imo

Abed: We need a Jesus movie for the post-post-modern world.
Shirley: Like… Jesus as a rapper?
Abed: No. I want to tell the story of Jesus from the perspective of a filmmaker exploring the life of Jesus.
Shirley: That sounds… very appealing to filmmakers.
Abed: See, in the filmmaker's film, Jesus is a filmmaker trying to find God with his camera. But then the filmmaker realizes that he's actually Jesus and he's being filmed by God's camera. And it goes like that forever in both directions like a mirror in a mirror because all of the filmmakers are Jesus and all of their cameras are God. And the movie's called ABED - all-caps. Filmmaking beyond film. A meta-film. My masterpiece.
Shirley: … I don't like it…
Abed: You're reacting the way the world did to Jesus.
Shirley: I'm reacting the way the world does to movies about making movies about making movies! I mean, come on, Charlie Kaufman, some of us have work in the morning, damn!

i thought this ep was pretty amazing so haters to the left

i remembering finding the casual reference to Charlie Kaufman to be pretty questionable, but what the hey, it was funny

I found this episode kind of embarrassing to watch.

that's what happens when your audience is 98% hulu- and smartphone-based, all concern for the shame of a livingroom-based audience goes out the window.

Maybe Abed is just super high all the time and everyone just thinks he's weird.

He opens the Dreamatorium closet to reveal...a massive hydropronic growing operation.

thought this ep was fine, if anything bothered me it was alison brie's seriousface acting and the silly special effects

i hate the visual effects in a lot of the recent episodes -- didn't say anything about this one because for all i know they were a crappy-on-purpose Dr. Who homage but like the thing with Jeff Winger's heart, that was so lame

I was assuming/hoping they were deliberately referencing the goofy datedness of old Dr Who. Agree about Jeff's heart, especially considering how well-done "Abed's Uncontrollable Christmas" was.

when something shifts in Abed's world, he shuts down. We've seen this before - Christmas ep, introduction of "Inspector Space Time" primal scream ...

I do think that someone's Mum not coming home for Christmas for the first time is a more significant shift than the cancellation of a TV show or someone adjust some cardboard boxes in a Dreamatorium control room, which is a reason why I feel like the character might be changing a little.

Da croupier probably OTM though.

"adjusting"

oh, i wasn't talking about that, i meant the abed-switching-bodies effect xp

okay does anyone REALLY think Abed was having an actual meltdown when Annie switched the boxes around? I thought it was pretty obvious he was just following the dreamatorium rules to their (ridiculous) logical conclusion while making a point about how he eventually expects the study group to ditch him

doesn't matter -- he did the same thing in the end credits scene, and troy didn't respond as if he was doing it on purpose to make a point

i don't think he was having a meltdown, but anyone who follows dreamatorium rules to their ridiculous logical conclusion may not be as far as from one as he thinks

i just miss when abed was secretly the most confident and together person in the group instead of winger

Yeah i think having an actual meltdown and having one because you are following the rules of the dreamatorium are sort of one and the same.

tbh, throwaway gags that are easily diverted by other characters don't bother me that much so I'm not super invested in arguing character consistency here but, given that we've seen Abed pull a My Dinner With Andre manipulation on Jeff, watched him push around Troy re: the pillow/blanket fort battle, seen him take Shirley's movie for church off on a narcissistic tangent, I wouldn't be surprised to learn later on down the line that Abed's "losing it" is just a ploy to get the group to do what he wants

mind you, I'm not EXPECTING that; I just wouldn't be surprised

xp: right now, the most confident, together person in the group is Shirley!

This is the Soultaker of threads.

I don't think they've done a good job of explaining why Britta/Troy are dating now. It seems like it all happened in the background, or was communicated entirely through a few glances in the last few episodes. And their date looked like a TERRIBLE date.

Britta/Troy attraction goes back to S1 when they took that dance class together; also they did some foundational work on that relationship in the chaos theory episode

they just had lunch. it's not at all clear they are dating, although they clearly like each other.

It would actually make sense if Abed was just play-acting in the Dreamatorium, especially since he got up quickly and did a dead-on Jeff impression but as sd notes, he did the same thing when Annie rearranged their room, which is probably a better example.

i just miss when abed was secretly the most confident and together person in the group instead of winger

OTM! This is my issue!

he's an OCD Fonz wrapped inside a riddle wrapped in an enigma

I am still cracking up at "the version of myself that would go over there and talk to her would be a vampire" joke from S1