Community, the tv show

season was certainly in a certain amount of decline (partly via the audience coming to expect a certain amount of ambition that is always conducive to a sitcom's weekly cycle) but it also had some very high highs and there's at least a couple episodes i'd nominate for the series' top 10 (chaos theory, the apocalypse now ep., pillows and blankets, maybe the law and order one but it's pretty boilerplate). Season 3 is mostly just inconsistent. But the season 2 --> season 3 drop is just apples and oranges to 3 ---> this year.

certainly very certain certain whatever

it just feels like they're on a hamster wheel of recreating old episode variations with flat obvious jokes

I mean, I'm mindful that I might be holding up the earlier seasons up a bit to highly in my mind but I don't think it's just me?

― set the controls for the heart of the sun (VegemiteGrrl), Sunday, March 17, 2013 6:12 PM (35 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Naw, it's definitely not just you. I used to watch Community with incredibly high expectations and, in one way or another, they were either met or exceeded. It feels too easy and unfair to pin the decline on the new showrunners, especially since a lot of writers left before Harmon did (also, Donald Glover is doing some serious heavy lifting this season -- his readings of even the hackiest lines are funny). But even in the worst of the season 3 episodes there was an undercurrent of batshittery that kept us engaged/interested. Said undercurrent is gone.

there was an element of danger in the weaker episodes always like "is this just going to go somewhere wholely else four minutes in and i didn't see it coming"? and i've now given up on ever expecting that, so even if the material is the same, the experience of watching it is very different.

but on the other hand, once you accept it as a less daring show, its still pretty decent.

it feels a lot more telegraphed? idk. talking about comedy is weird because it's so subjective and shit just is funny or it isn't, but for me this season is like when Mum would buy home-brand supermarket versions of cereal i loved and get mad when I wouldn't eat it saying 'they're just the same'. CHOCO POPS ARE NOT COCO PUFFS

yeah to me it comes down to, like, these characters are pretty fine-tuned and often delicate. Britta being the worst takes more than someone saying every episode "Britta, you're the worst." Abed being Abed takes a little more than "[television reference]" + "Eeeeeeeeeeee". I'm not the first to make this observation but the comparisons to mediocre fanfic are otm.

I feel like the Abed character has suffered the most in this season. Just not funny anymore.

definitely

everyone will roll their eyes @ this but: abed was based on a dude that Harmon knew irl so with Harmon gone maybe the ~heart~ of him gets lost somehow? speculating

the "real Abed" has been showing up on Harmontown the last few weeks

i need to listen to that

There was an interesting discussion a few weeks ago about the Abed auditions. Kumail Nanjiani, who auditioned for the part and didn't get it, was there. Everyone seemed to think Danny Pudi is a genius actor, and the character was refashioned around him.

Real Abed also auditioned and didn't get it

strained

i didn't even like the show THAT much before but the difference really is stark. those earlier episode concepts mostly felt like they came out of a surplus of ideas and immediately everyone knew there was some substance there. basically like any positive, communal creative atmosphere. now it feels like a struggle, like a bunch of writers desperately trying to force ideas together when there's really no reason to, just because they know "ideas" are what's expected of them. instead of episodes that someone at some point felt was necessary to make bc their ideas had some urgency, we're getting the results of a bunch of people treating a show like an open sandbox bc they just aren't getting any real ideas

and big serialized concept-ep-heavy shows usually have this decline but never so sudden. even last season when some of the theme eps felt forced, they backed those up with 1)funny jokes 2)executing the themes with a lot of verisimilitude ("troy is the type of player who is constantly jumping") 3)decent backstory/emotional heft backing it up

and yeah, garrett was the 1 laff this wk

I feel like I'm watching a completely different show from the rest of you. I thought this was fine.

yeah, thread becoming pretty AV Club

It was cool to see the actor that was head of the trout store or whatever, I must have seen him in over a dozen movies and tv shows.

I mean, I can't be the only person here who thought the season opener was okayish, the second episode really, really terrible, and everything since has been good to very good?

Third episode was the best so far, but on everything else the jokes just weren't landing for me, regardless of any conceptual/continuity flaws.

I haven't found any of the episodes to be outright awful. I still look forward to it, but in a Simpsons season 9 way, rather than in a Simpsons season 5 way.

DJP, i feel like it's been pretty good too. I can see a drop-off in quality but i don't think it's as steep as people are making it out to be.

I agree third episode was the best but I don't really understand sitting stonefaced through this last episode. I wasn't rolling on the ground wiping tears from my eyes but I enjoyed the Troy/Annie detective team, especially Troy's logic behind his character and Annie's exploitation of said logic. I also thought this was the funniest Pierce has been all season.

xp: I'm not even saying that there hasn't been a drop-off in quality as much as I think the drop-off happened after last year's Christmas episode and the show has basically been in a "just fine" zone ever since.

the crux of it is whether or not you enjoy 'just fine' and I don't think I do

then, by definition, it wouldn't be "just fine"

So what are the top 5 episodes so far? I think we may have voted already but i can't find the thread. Paintball, the Trampoline one, etc? The more people gripe about this new season the more i kind of want to revisit the 'best of' eps from the first 3.

My favorites:

S1: Modern Warfare (Paintball 1)
S2: Aerodynamics of Gender (Trampoline)
S2: Epidemiology (zombie Halloween)
S3: Regional Holiday Music (body snatchers Xmas)
S2: Advanced Dungeons and Dragons (D&D, Fat Neil)

honorable mention to the following:

S1: Physical Education (billiards)
S2: Mixology Certification (Troy's birthday)
S2: Abed's Uncontrollable Christmas (Claymation)
S2: Paradigms of Human Memory (flashbacks)
S1: The Science of Illusion (April Fool's)

"critical film studies" (dinner with andre) is my #1 for sure.

also pillow fort

pillow fort pt 2, specifically

The last one of season 3, where the Dean has been renting the school out for weekend raves, was pretty wonderful.

That was great; almost made the whole Chang-as-dictator storyline worth it.

first western paintball ep might be the funniest ep they ever did

epepep

This week's episode was, uh, not terrible? Not much in the way of big lols but... kind of likeable anyway?

feel that way about this season so far - nothing i hate except the schedule push really making all the holiday centered stuff feel weird

Donald Glover seems to be doing an extended apology for Childish Gambino via his commitment to Troy this season

"I was supposed to teach you two to teach other people, but instead, you ended up teaching me."

Thought this was pretty LOL ep.

Yeah, this definitely was pretty decent, although Abed's subplot didn't go anywhere (and is well-worn territory), and the song/montage was meh. But Magnitude's "...diggity-doo...?" cracked me up, as did the Let's jokes.

writing the initials for Physical Education Education on the chalkboard was super childish and cracked me up a lot

They really laid out their contempt for Chevro...I mean, Pierce in the opening, eh?

liked this one a lot

great ep all the way through. appreciate that they gave chevy the country club bit.

this was the first one this season that seemed on point. the UCB guy helped a lot.

I agree that this episode was as good as they've been all year (and quality-wise was about the ceiling i would have put on the creative team before the year started). The A-plot's conclusion was pretty rickety ("I like being treated normal!" ... okay? It felt extremely tacked on) but the P.E.E. thing was classic community imo and if you're gonna jack Harmon that's about as good as it can be done.

it was great that co-opting magnitude was where the line must be drawn.

i liked it, but i just kind of feel like the barbershop and the frat (and maybe even the p.e.e., although that was pretty good) would have been better taken advantage of in the past?

also, britta-troy isn't funny (except for that one bit with britta on the fire escape a few eps ago). they're so insistent on troy-abed and have made no suitable case for troy-britta to even begin, let alone continue

This episode was delightful. Consistently funny with great lines and, crucially, charm. The frat was an amusing visual gag and not much more but I cracked up at the Troy and Shirley storyline throughout and Pierce was really really funny for the first time this season.

Got a real Season One vibe from this one actually, which is a much, much better way to make Community accessible than taking Season Three type storylines and giving them much broader jokes. Like if this rest of the season were to follow this cue I would be totally happy.

good episode

OK, you guys are convincing me to give it a chance.

Ha, there have been THREE episodes since the last one I watched!

Huh, "Cooperative Escapism" was actually pretty good.

OK, I liked "Advanced Documentary Filmmaking" even though I hated the Chang storyline previously. I've loved every other "Documentary Filmmaking" episode (+ "Intro to Film" if that doesn't count) so I'll chalk it up to that.