Community, the tv show

season 5 trailer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-3kFjFbSSE&feature=player_embedded

Meta bit about Zach Braff and what Scrubs did for him was lol.

Ha, yeah. I lol'd plenty at this...but then, I also had high hopes for season 4 after seeing its trailer.

yeah, i liked the meta-Glover joke and the return to Harmon nod. as before, cautiously hopeful

Two big-ass pieces in today's NYTimes:
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/22/arts/television/dan-harmon-on-community.html?ref=arts
http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/12/18/how-dan-harmon-did-or-did-not-get-his-groove-back-at-community/?ref=television

I wonder how they're going to do the whole study group thing with no Pierce and no Troy. Presumably they're going to do something with Chang that doesn't involve the usual lame nemesis/supervillain thing, but I wouldn't be averse to seeing a couple of new characters at this point.

Not only no Pierce and no Troy, but supposedly none of them are students in season 5. In one of those pieces Harmon mentions "contrived reasons" for bringing everyone back to the school.

Given they have a criminology professor this time round, they could have a lot of fun with those contrived reasons.

AFAIK though only Jeff actually needs a contrived reason to come back in the first place?

What did they all graduate at the end of S4 or something? I only watched like the first three episodes.

It was only Jeff and Pierce, right? Jeff had secretly accumulated enough credits to graduate a semester early, iirc.

Jeff's reason is that he'll now be an instructor, but it seems weird if the rest of them aren't students...unless Greendale is like "The Island," and leaving is impossible.

Hey, Luis Guzman did it!

Mad Men promo:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BswdZTeTsXY

hahahah

Nailed it!

lol

i lol'd at least a few times tnite

The tonal shift from last season is staggering

def lol'd at the meta joke from Donald Glover

yeah i have to hand it to him for willingly being Zach Braff in that gag

I half want to look up the writing credits to see if he's mentioned because I wouldn't be surprised if he put that in himself

that ep was McKenna and Harmon

yeah performers don't get writing credit for improvs, writing credit is assigned by the staff/showrunner, usually to whomever does the first draft.

first ep was good, clever, and got the job done but the second episode reminded me just how much i loved this show. jonathan banks was hilarious and even though the nicolas cage thing at first made me think 'really? you're going to go there?' abed descending into cage was amazing and it leading up the realization that 'humans are random and pointless' was great, reminded me of the lost burn in the xmas episode from season 2. happy to have it back.

the Scrubs thing was so built into the episode at different points though (and Harmon and Lawrence have done so many shout-outs to each other before) that the line wouldn't be likely to just be thrown in

really sweet that Chevy came back to do a cameo now that Harmon is back btw!

So much could've gone wrong with the casting of Banks, and it all went so, so right.

I'm very happy that this is a show I like again.

so so happy

no surprise that Jonathan Banks does 'old white guy' character better than chevy chase

always be caging

Haven't seen last night's yet, but: will I be missing anything, not having seen S4? Kinda wanna watch it for car crash value/sating of OCD completist tendencies...but I also kinda don't want to. Mostly, I'm just curious if there are any camouflaged self-referential barbs afoot.

There's a passing reference to Chang's "Changnesia," and his name change to Kevin, from last season (it's really better that you don't know). It's just there to put that fetid storyline to bed so everyone can move on.

always be caging

died when i noticed this, btw

Also Annie says 'well there was a gas leak that one year', and Jeff's reply indicates it was the WHOLE year, ie last season. At least that's how I interpreted it.

yeah i caught that too, lol'd

Yeah, a few lines later when they are talking about the number of Abed's breakdowns he asks, "does that inclde the gas leak year?".

The Zach Braff thing was definitely a planned thing, because he was brought in to do the Scrubs-style voiceover at the end of the episode.

The Pierce Hawthorne Museum of Gender Sensitivity and Sexual Potency

I liked how Jeff's speech in the study room was essentially an acknowledgement and rejection of the the one-note personalities they'd become by the end of the last season. Also the apparent reset of Chang's character to his S1 persona is pretty much the best thing they could have done with him.

I was kind of worried how this show was going to work with no Pierce and no Troy, because the whole study group dynamic had become so important to the show, but that feels kind of irrelevant now. Most of all I'm just overjoyed that this show is funny again.

Loved the Pierce cameo though. Also Abed doing Cage was incredible.

Also Troy attempting to escape from Banks's office while disguised as a chair pretty much had me in tears.

laughed through both episodes, thank fuck for harmon

"I'M A SEXY CAAAAT"

"Also Troy attempting to escape from Banks's office while disguised as a chair pretty much had me in tears."

Me, too! Maybe their best credits scene yet.

god the look on glover's face and then banks' last line - "we can't afford to bury father with the rest of the family"

very happy with these two. Always Be Caging had me dying, as did "gas leak year". Chang actually funny again.

Have y'all seen this: http://imgur.com/a/6Sa6L

OTM re: Chang. His "Aaaaawww she in your class, yo" was funnier than all of his S4 lines combined (and most of his S3 lines).

xp

OTM

"oh, excuse me for being alive in the '90s and having two ears connected to a heart."

Reverse Chang tonight struck me as absolutely hilarious. Also the part about "You just admitted you own a fake butt."

STARBURNS' CAT CAR U GUYS

"The world's first animal powered vehicle!"

Was the episode supposed to be like the killing, or another TV show? There was clearly a logo treatment that I didn't quite get, but the grey rainy episode certainly reminded me of the killing