Community, the tv show

the Sophie B Hawkins dance was exactly the type of ridiculous setup that would have paid 22 minutes of dividends in the first 3 seasons, and they just squandered the potential. it was one of the more watchable eps, but I remember being disappointed as the premise had promise

It just hit me last night that we never saw season 6 when it moved to Yahoo! (god, remember that?) so that will actually all be new to us when we get there.

I had that memory too, and started watching it during lockdown. it's definitely better than 4. and i"ll give a few more eps a chance.

I remember the end of S3 being just as bad as S4

Having come to it late and binge watched it all about the start of lockdown, I didn't see a huge drop off in quality for S4. Probably no real high points but not actively bad.

First time watching the show ever on netflix. i bailed halfway through season 5. the first two seasons are so, so good. I really disliked like 80% of the high concept episodes. The claymation and video game episodes I could barely watch.

I remember the end of S3 being just as bad as S4

Yeah, the Chang dynasty and Greendale coup stuff was garbage. I also hated the one where Abed was 'addicted' to hiring actors to do impressions (or something like that?) S1 is actually my favourite. The storylines and characters are strongest imo and it was so fresh and fun. They never knew what to do with Chang after he was no longer a Spanish teacher. S3 is when the decline really started for me but it got by on lols and ambition. Love the claymation Christmas ep though.

They really seemed to start leaning on Abed's character/the actor a lot to carry the show. I don't know if it's because of actor conflicts or the character was very popular at the time?

The writers very obviously loved Abed

(IMO, obviously)

Ii just missed the ensemble-ness of the first two seasons which was made even worse when Troy leaves.

The show was definitely better when everyone could potentially be seen as the series lead.

They messed up Chang, he was far more interesting and funny as a badass. Turning him into a pathetic loser was bad writing.

They leaned on Abed so heavily because he was the best character through which they could insert the pop culture references and meta narratives.

Harmon thought of Abed as a stand-in for himself

He's definitely more of a Jeff, though.

iirc he imagined himself as the Jeff, but came to realise how much of an Abed he is

(though all the group are intended as aspects of his personality, and he had Feelings about Britta being disparaged by real people due to the degree he identified with her)


yes, you can absolutely skip S4, although one character from the Sophie B Hawkins dance shows up for a few seconds in a S5 episode

The scenes between Abed & Jeff were some of the best moments of S1 and 2, i wish they would have done more with their friendship

a shipping perhaps

They never knew what to do with Chang after he was no longer a Spanish teacher.

Yeah, the Chang dynasty and Greendale coup stuff was garbage.

They leaned on Abed so heavily because he was the best character through which they could insert the pop culture references and meta narratives.

I also think Pudi was possibly the best actor. Imo, though, when they leaned on him, they started trying too hard to play up his 'quirks', veering into Sheldon Cooper territory. It really did feel like they were trying to play to the social media fan response by s3. It stopped being a quirky funny show about students studying at a community college and became more about idk going hard on whatever 'concept' generated the buzz last time or something.

I feel like Pudi was the first one who fully enveloped his character. in the early episodes, the other actors are definitely game, and are surprisingly close to what their characters become fairly early on, but Pudi was pretty much already there from the jump, whereas the others had to sand off a few rough edges.

Maybe it's harder to watch as a binge vs weekly; I would just sigh super loud every time it was a high concept episode on one idea, lazy bullshit. I honestly thought maybe they were centering on Abed because he was the only actor showing up and memorizing his lines on time.

Well, there was a lot of fan enthusiasm for both Abed and the high-concept episodes. Really don't think that e.g. doing a claymation introspection into the emotional state of an detached student with divorced parents was just cutting corners for the sake of cutting corners.

*a detached

that's why i think the binge probably isn't the best way of watching some of it. It gets very gimmicky back to back. I did like the paintball, buttcrack and D&D episodes though.

I loved the high concept episodes, personally, though I liked when they balanced them with more "grounded" (relatively speaking) eps since the writing and acting was sharp enough to carry almost anything.

but I didn't binge the show, I pretty much watched it in real time from the middle of Season 1 on, so not sure how I'd feel about watching more than 2 eps in a night. I hate the concept of binging though. once I sit through ANYTHING for more than a few hours, I need a break, and it starts to diminish my enjoyment.

even the metal cruise I went on this year that was one of the best times of my life, there were definitely breaks in my schedule, lol

like my favorite episode is still the Christmas ep with Anthony Michael Hall, which was relatively grounded, just because the scenes with Hall and McHale about made me pee

We usually watch 1 or 2 episodes a night while we eat dinner, feels like a better way to dole them out

My favorite is the Christmas claymation; and a close second is the Law & Order parody episode about the murdered yam

does abed ever do anything actually wrong, such that the group needs to bring him back into line? i don't think weird counts

certainly everyone else does

freaking out ever so slightly that this is 11 years old and even the youngsters are now in their late 30s

we went through about one season a week until I dropped off in season five ( I still catch glimpses because spouse is slogging through season 6 which looks terrible). But netflix is the only tv/platform we have besides 'random streaming'. I think i may just really subconsciously dislike claymation.

"Mixology Certification" was the first ep I saw and still my favourite (maybe tied with "Remedial Chaos Theory"). I wish more of the series had that tone.

does abed ever do anything actually wrong, such that the group needs to bring him back into line? i don't think weird counts

He was (deludedly and unintentionally) vandalizing property at the start of the claymation Christmas episode, which prompted the whole therapy session.

the only real wrong thing that he did was alienate his girlfriend in the episode where they played the VHS game to determine who would get to be the new roommate to replace Troy.

Also made out with Annie in a rain of paint and then blew her off when he was out of character in the second paintball episode.

also used mustard gas on some of his Spanish classmates in that one ep

well shit. my mistake, abed's an asshole

serious answer, though, no, he was about as pure as they came, though he occasionally upset people due to his aloofness, which usually wasn't his fault. i.e. the person at the bar that kept buying him drinks and Abed wasn't interested in him.

or the ep where he starts burning everyone but he was 'programmed' to do so by the ladies of Spanish club and he quickly relinquished his power.

I definitely know a few Abeds irl

this watch of community led me to sympathize with the whole Brie Larson is a terrible actress thing. because omg she is terrible in Community.

sophie b hawkins is better in it than brie larson. Chevy Chase is better in it than Brie Larson.

Does she appear in anything other than the role of the library clerk in "Herstory of Dance"? Or do you mean Alison Brie, in which case, that's just, like, your opinion, man.

who are the best actors named after cheese

she had a follow-up episode with Abed in Season 5 ("VCR MAINTENANCE AND EDUCATIONAL PUBLISHING")

yeah she was in two episodes and that was right around when i became disinterested so I had assumed (wrongly) she may have reappeared again.

I like Alison Brie. Except her Franco.

XPS

https://cdn.britannica.com/80/133580-050-24B4147B/John-Cleese.jpg

someone did tell me this thread was heavy on Alison Brie horniness but I didn't read the backlog.

the whole internet was heavy on alison brie horniness back then

Don't think that ever actually stopped

https://i.gifer.com/X11u.gif

Jeff's pants went to regionals