Community, the tv show

It took me a while to get to this point because of age difference bias but I now like that they've taken the expected initial parings of Jeff/Britta and Troy/Annie and swapped them

Also do you guys remember the viral video of my buddy the Washington state representative making a speech about how his deep-felt Christianity compelled him to vote to legalize gay marriage? Apparently he went to high school with Joel McHale, who showed up at one of his fundraisers last year. </threedegreesofseparationfromannieandbritta>

I dunno, I think I honestly preferred last week's episode. (I was never fond of Inspector Spacetime, admittedly). This felt a bit like a Big Bang Theory episode or something.

What is FotC?

Flight of the Conchords I think?

Fellowship of the Cockfarmers

hee hee

would watch

xposts

Ah.

I really disliked the Annie storyline because it did seem like she had matured past behaving as childishly as she did in this episode, but otherwise it wasn't as bad as I had I feared.

Definitely liked last week's "I'm sure as stuff not your sexy little ring girl" Annie.

xposts. They had a gag where Murray the manager responded to one of those Nigerian emails, and the Nigerian finance minister came to see him.

Yeah, I remember that. It was a good one. I just didn't recognize what "FotC" meant at first.

I was kinda hoping the Annie/Jeff story last night would blossom into more of a Certified Copy parody/homage, which would have been really next-level.

I also said it felt like a big bang theory episode! After Britta's sexy escape

Don't think is is an absolute disaster that AV Club/Dorks On Twitter think it is, despite a bit of a decline in awesome jokes.

Blowing off the whole 'Abed is going to freak out about them fucking' with his relevation that he has been taking advantage of morning donuts was great btw.

I also said it felt like a big bang theory episode!

I thought this as well. But at least it doesn't have the laugh track!

winger's admirer was a nice bit of casting

Six is still bangin'

okay you guys talked all DAY about this and no-one mentioned Luke Perry + Jenny Garth!? Ugh. Nerds.

Not bad! Didnt like the Annie storyline at all but otherwise it was ok & had some funny moments. The Thoraxis bow-down made me lol

i did not recognize jenny garth

Her face looks a little weird but it's totes KELLY

after three episodes, the pacing still seems off... a little too fast? but it's not bad at all.

weird, i did not recognize her at all

Luke Perry was on Raising Hope this week too--odd timing, since this Community was supposed to air in November or something.

Yeah, I didn't mention it bc I felt like I'd already seen enough of Mr. Perry this week.

as expected the qualm with the "so there's 50 years of this, huh" line was totally bonkers

Yeah OTM, it made total sense in context.

Hogan's Villans.

bottle episode callbacks a nice touch too.

Caught up on the first three eps of the season. Laughed plenty. I don't think any particular ep went next-level like the show could, but none of the shows were as bleah as the "wine-tasting" one.

At this point, the show is enjoyable and doesn't make me want to end humanity like most other tv, so it's fine.

Didn't like this one at all. I laughed once or twice, but everything seemed slapdash and inconsistent. I sort of liked the reversal -- that the study group is actually hated by everyone -- but it didn't make any logical sense, given how many times they saved the school and were able to rally everyone around them (paintballs, Chang dealie, etc). Also, they played D&D on a Saturday when (presumably) no one else would want or need to use the study room.

This isn't the first time the group were cast as villains tho, isn't it? I thought something like this happened already once.

Show still sort of funny, i mostly watch it for the characters/actors not the writing. I know we are all doomed to wander in a Harmon-less desert for 40 years of death and pestilence but TV show = OK. The groundbreaking older episodes still exist.

People frequently study on Saturdays in college

yeah, the glitch there is they had literally established everybody else at the school was at the puppy parade. thought this episode was actually bad (watchable but bad). current show is this weird mix of straining fealty to previous seasons of show and betrayal of previous seasons of show.

There were some funny jokes and I liked all the stuff about history/war/Germany. I hated the Chang stuff from last season so I wasn't thrilled about that coming back but I guess they couldn't really blow it off.

also arguably ken jeong is one of the bigger stars on community, so makes sense they'd want to give him play.

I thought he was a lot funnier as the dickish Spanish teacher. The whole security guard arc just fell flat for me (but at least it set up some good episodes after the expulsion).

I was disappointed that they didn't do more with the security guard voiceover gag. I thought they would gotta a few minor reoccurring laughs thru the contrast of Chang's powerless mundanity vs his extravagant internal delusions

Yeah, he was GREAT as a Spanish teacher. They really seemed to be struggling with what to do with him after he lost that job. The whole coup and tyrannical reign was the nadir for me.

That stuff happened while Harmon was still head btw.

o rly

Yeah, I haven't denied that. I'm not a Harmon partisan. I've even said that the first two episodes of s4 were better than the worst of s4.

I fell asleep during this. I don't feel bad. The Not-Kroll German was laaaaaaaaame

Yeah, bringing back the Germans seemed lazy enough, but without Kroll? Shit smacked of desperation.

I was kind of bummed that they didn't have Kroll, the other guy was pretty lame.

the editing felt really weird on this one, the scene with abed and the one german guy talking about the game they play felt very weirdly shoehorned in. the jokes were broad and weak -- prof complaining he was fired for getting caught with a coed and annie pulling her cardigan closed? that's like the tritest college joke ever. pierce gets electrocuted? that's the joke?

Those were weak, and the Lactaid joke sucked too, but I liked e.g. "You were just following orders". I even laughed at the "Real World" joke.

"Hogan's Villains" joke was good too. But this is probably OTM for the most part: http://www.televisionwithoutpity.com/telefile/2013/03/community-alternative-history-of-the-german-invasion-review.php

oh I will admit to laughing at "the German version of The Nanny."

Franlein, no?

I laughed at one bit of this, which was Pierce getting butthurt about not being able to be the Hitler of the group, otherwise this was pretty bad. Pierce getting electrocuted is probably exactly the sort of gag that Chevy wanted in the show all along. I was sort of pro- bringing the Germans back but WW2 gags are just lazy (crucially the fussball episode avoided them) and the guy playing their new leader was just bad.

Ken Jeong is an amazing comic actor but if they can't figure out better material for him than simply inserting the word 'Chang' into everything he says then they might as well bin the character. He was funny up until the end of S2 but they've totally lost their way with him by now.

An Oxford professor who is reduced to teaching at Greendale is hilarious in theory but didn't work that well in practice. Also, British people don't say "co-ed", ESPECIALLY fusty old Oxford history professors. It's kind of annoying because they totally nailed the Britishisms with Professor Ian Duncan (RIP), even when they were lol-Britishisms, so this just smacks of laziness in the writing.

Britta and Troy as a couple are not funny, and it prevents the group from laying into Britta like the good lord intended.

current show is this weird mix of straining fealty to previous seasons of show and betrayal of previous seasons of show.

The straining is the irritating part, you can tell the writers are trying to write for the nerds while simultaneously broadening the comedy. So there's this nudge-nudge kind of meta comedy for the nerds, like Pierce coming in and ruining Inspector Spacetime, or the digs at mainstream comedy in the first episode. But the original Community didn't dig at mainstream comedy, it loved it. And it did great broad comedy - ie any occasion when Jeff got kicked in the fact/beaten up/had his head bounced off the table.

It's weird because I don't think there's anything particularly wrong with the approach per se, the problem is the scripts aren't funny enough. Most of the actors are doing their best though - Alison Brie, Danny Pudi and Joel McHale in particular are still carrying their lines well enough to make the show watchable.

^^ otm. We grumbled at the co-ed thing too. Dumb.
I did like this ep though, esp 'Hogan's villains'.