Community, the tv show

this was a brilliant episode, and still for all that dean pelton was the MVP

Chang's confession was great too

On some level the show feels less ambitious than it did in season 2, even though its basically doing the same thing. Only then it felt like "who knows where this could go?" And now its "celebrations of obscure reference points that still focus on the emotional dynamics between the characters, that's what we do." I used to worry the show would turn Family Guy but its got way too much heart to do that right now. So it's a little low impact and I can't imagine non-nerd people who aren't already into it getting into it, but I don't care because I'm so grateful for it.

Great episode!

And wow, Gina Gershon has been taking care of herself.

D&D episode next week!

nice

is Spencer coming back for it?

"we didnt learn nothin"

best part was gillian jacobs turning around after the dean scutters away, brief moment where she looks like she's about to lose her shit

yeah i caught that too, she's almost in pain keeping it in

Both her and Joel look directly at the camera for a split second

also loved the bit where abed and annie shared a look that basically said "we do not want britta to live with us"

Thought that last episode was mixed. The VHS half was enjoyable, especially Gilligan, but not really actual-laughing-funny. The textbook story was kind of boring and confusing.

I've really enjoyed this season, but something about it is almost starting to remind of Red Dwarf, although maybe that's just a hangover from last week.

The textbook part was the most conventional part of the ep!

It did kind of remind me of that lame episode where everyone was stuck in the garage at a Thanksgiving dinner for some reason.

eh I thought it was cute they had Vince Gilligan in the nerdy storyline while the rest of the cast was in a BB style heist & betrayal plot

The vcr game was hilar cos some of those games were convoluted and ridiculous.

not quite sure what the exemplars were of the genre that the textbook plot was based on, but the musical cues were perfect.

a simple plan

i love that beat where Gilligan gives an instruction on the game and then he pauses forever til you think the tape is stuck and then he yells GO or whatever

brought back vhs game memories

also the convoluted rules made me lol

cf in parks and recs Ben Wyatt's Settlers of Catan geek out and the ridiculous game he invented and bequeathed to his bean counter colleagues

yeah the vcr game details were nailed so great i have no idea how that played to someone who never played one of those awful games

we had one that our aunt gave us & it had like 900 perforated cardboard pieces, we tried playing it & it was so boring & confusing. i think it was pirate themed? maybe? idk. mum was mad we didnt play it more and we were like mum it's the WORST

I'd never even heard of VCR games before, but the basic idea came across right away. Also the characters had no idea either -- bafflement was the whole point.

yeah i'd never played one but the concept was clear and hilarious

Man YT is lousy with clips of these:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-vXc-bXbfVg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pOqJij2y_zQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IcWL8rqPpMw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VliKrIgerFw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lcSvATl1Mn8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ra7gLA4JaA

Man YT is lousy with clips of these:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-vXc-bXbfVg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pOqJij2y_zQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IcWL8rqPpMw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VliKrIgerFw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lcSvATl1Mn8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ra7gLA4JaA

I remember VCR trivia games, like it'd show you a scene from a movie and you'd have to guess the movie or something ("Scene It" I think it was called?). But our VCR was too crappy to take full advantage of something like Pile Of Bullets; the lag time between hitting FFW on the remote and the VCR actually fast-forwarding would've killed all the fun.

Which also serves as a reminder that every single robocop thing except for the original Verhoeven flick has been garbage

my vcr board game story: we used to have atmosfear - http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/1881/atmosfear-the-harbingers - when i was growing up. we tried playing it once or twice and then it got tucked into a random vcr box until a few years later when my then ~2yo sister turned it on thinking it was a baby genius movie. she was so frightened that from then on if you asked her if she wanted to watch baby genius she'd say, "no, too scary."

lool

haha that's awesome

I used to have this one basketball VCR game but it was shitty because unless you picked a random point to start the VHS tape (thus delaying the start of the game), every game always started the same! DVDs kinda brought back this type of thing since it's easier to jump around (ie, SceneIt etc).

and then our friends growing up had us playing a horse race betting game, thus exposing me to gambling at a nice right age.

also did anybody ever play the interactive CAptain Power game shit?

not quite sure what the exemplars were of the genre that the textbook plot was based on, but the musical cues were perfect.

― eric banana (s.clover), Sunday, March 16, 2014 4:46 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I don't know that it was meant to be anything more than 'hey it's organized crime/drug cartel shit only with textbooks instead'.

was thinking googling "heist gone wrong" would yield some good results but didn't bother.

nah i'm struggling to think of other examples than a simple plan but basically the plot involves small group of friends find some loot that's possibly ill gotten, decide to split it up amongst themselves instead of report it or whatever and then eventually greed and paranoia lead them to betray and destroy each other until whatever larger powerful evil force the loot originally belonged to arrives to deliver the final blow. no country for old men has elements of this, treasure of sierra madre as well but there are some that fit it more specifically. basically a variation on monkey's paw.

Not sure if mentioned here but VCR star was the dude who created breaking bad hence drug deal subplot

the captain power video tapes were more like a video game where you use the toy jet as the controller
here's a link the second tape

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6nqsq_captain-power-training-video-2-bio_shortfilms

I believe you have to destroy the sears tower

i'm struggling to think of other examples

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Men_and_a_Comic_Book

something about it is almost starting to remind of Red Dwarf

Most inexplicable comparison between two things I have heard all year.

I'm not really sure why I felt that (probably just the sci-fi association from last week) but something definitely sent a Chris Barrie -shaped shiver down my back. Something about the lameness and intransigence of the characters and being in a confined situation. But it passed pretty quickly.

nah i'm struggling to think of other examples than a simple plan but basically the plot involves small group of friends find some loot that's possibly ill gotten, decide to split it up amongst themselves instead of report it or whatever and then eventually greed and paranoia lead them to betray and destroy each other until whatever larger powerful evil force the loot originally belonged to arrives to deliver the final blow.

can't believe i forgot shallow grave

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fGCmAM6Oafc

Don't know why it never occurred to me that Community is basically a sub-par spinoff/reimagination of this,
http://img3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20130711002842/recess/images/7/7f/Recess.jpg

no.

yes.

You've got your inspirational speech making de-facto leader white guy,
Your (budding) firebrand anarchist,
your black sporty guy that hides a nerdy side,
Your rotund, impossibly kind person with a not so hidden dark side,
Your diabolical snitch that wants to be a part of the gang,
Your supporting cast of people defined by singular weird traits,
Your infinitely moldable school environment

I can't be the only one that sees it.

So what you're saying is Community is a situation comedy

If all situational comedies share the aforementioned tropes, then yes.

Or in other words, no.

"supporting cast of people defined by singular weird traits"

and there was that one time when there was a misunderstanding about a thing that caused an unlikely situation