But ABC has Happy Endings.
-
Hey Guest. Check out your NeoGAF Wrapped 2025 results here!
Community S4 |OT| I Remember When This Show Was About Community College
- Thread starter Mariolee
- Start date
- Status
But ABC has Happy Endings.
People would be okay with the tonal shift if the show was still funny. Crazy, post-paintball Community is still as awesome as pre-paintball because, at the end of the day, it was still joke dense. Even if the jokes were progressively more off-the-wall. At this point, I bet I'd laugh more at an episode of Big Bang Theory.
Maybe if the characters were handled better, it's be watchable. I didn't find the convention episode particularly amusing, but the character moments kept it from being unbearable.
Not for long
Maybe if the characters were handled better, it's be watchable. I didn't find the convention episode particularly amusing, but the character moments kept it from being unbearable.
Not for long
This episode was okay, though it's still not joke-dense enough to make up for its lack of creativity.
But damn, Karl is hot.
ABC has better sitcoms than NBC right now.
But damn, Karl is hot.
ABC has better sitcoms than NBC right now.
Yup. Couldn't stop staring at him.
People would be okay with the tonal shift if the show was still funny. Crazy, post-paintball Community is still as awesome as pre-paintball because, at the end of the day, it was still joke dense. Even if the jokes were progressively more off-the-wall. At this point, I bet I'd laugh more at an episode of Big Bang Theory.
Maybe if the characters were handled better, it's be watchable. I didn't find the convention episode particularly amusing, but the character moments kept it from being unbearable.
Not for long
What I'm saying is that I think the jokes depended largely on a tension that no longer exists. I don't think they're trying for fewer jokes, though they are being painfully more obvious with it (I'm not sure, but I think Hogan's Hero's got mentioned directly more times in this episode than either Pulp Fiction or My Dinner With Andre did in Critical Film Studies). They're just more shallow.
And based on mutual friends/likes, I'm guessing he's gay. Whoop whoop.
(Ah, I remember, he also has a pilot at NBC).
beat
Member
Jeff definitely was wearing a different sweater during the real D&D episode, but maybe we could fanwank it as Jeff and the study group playing D&D some other time.
As for the Cooperative Calligraphy callback, it looks like they digitally put a door frame and blinds over a previously unused take from that episode. (To be specific, Pierce raising his hands like that from that camera angle wasn't aired in Cooperative Calligraphy, but otherwise, it's exactly the same camera position as the master shot they did use.)
Edit: longtime producer Jake Aust just tweeted that he's going to work on Hilary Winston's Bad Teacher pilot. If that show gets picked up, who'll keep Community running next year?
I think might have been harder for me to pick up on in the other eps because of how out there the premises were, but tonight the editing especially during the first classroom scene definitely struck me as off and different.
Im still rather enjoying the show myself, and have enjoyed all four episodes so far. Theres definitely been far far worse eps in the shows run than these imo
Clear
CliffyB's Cock Holster
tedtropy said:
It is, and has only ever been, a sitcom dude. It never had a "soul" to lose.
Sorry, but much as I do (did) respect Dan's contribution as show-runner, this whole "Harmon = Community" hagiography is really starting to bug me. Its astonishingly disrespectful to everyone else working on the show.
Blue Ninja
Member
I enjoyed the episode. I enjoyed every episode so far, to be honest.
grimshawish
Banned
Oh look a show about a Community college is finally back!
Its so much better like this. The cast are on the form, the writing works well and having all the characters in there is awesome.
Didn't however like the Germans coming back; just didn't see the point and they were never interesting in the first place.
I liked that the enter shitty end was basically for a joke with Chang.
The group needs these characters to normalise them against an odd community college.
Didn't like the electrocution scene, still feel like Pierce is being hugely underused.
Its so much better like this. The cast are on the form, the writing works well and having all the characters in there is awesome.
Didn't however like the Germans coming back; just didn't see the point and they were never interesting in the first place.
I liked that the enter shitty end was basically for a joke with Chang.
The group needs these characters to normalise them against an odd community college.
Didn't like the electrocution scene, still feel like Pierce is being hugely underused.
didnt get that, can someone explain this
cutmeamango
Banned
I'm really oblivious to change and comedy.
For me all those episodes were on par with past Community efforts.
And worst, I did not notice any absurd character deviation.
For me all those episodes were on par with past Community efforts.
And worst, I did not notice any absurd character deviation.
But I always enjoyed Chang and Pierce parts so I was never the Community fan mode element I guess.
I'm really oblivious to change and comedy.
For me all those episodes were on par with past Community efforts.
And worst, I did not notice any absurd character deviation.
But I always enjoyed Chang and Pierce parts so I was never the Community fan mode element I guess.
I don't know what people are going on about either.
First ep was pretty terrible, but it's picked up since then.
Last ep was great; it felt just like old Community.
Can't wait for Pierce to 'disappear' from this show though. What a waste of space.
Dr.Horrible
Member
That episode finally felt like a real Community episode to me. I absolutely loved it.
I thought it was a burn against Annie who is way too nice and wouldn't have lasted in the war or something, or maybe it was a reference to Asian Annie. Or both.
If there were more people in the world like Annie we'd all be speaking Vietnamese right now.
rofl!
The best. I didn't even notice the German guy motorboating the luftballoons until someone brought it up on the last page lol
I was reading this article over at the A.V. Club and it pretty much addresses what I (and what some of you) feel about this season and where the overall progression of this show is going:
http://www.avclub.com/articles/community-has-changed-its-aging-like-any-sitcom,93082/
Out-of-context quotes:
"It feels like these reviews are trying but failing to grasp exactly why the show has been so disappointing this season, and why it seems to have taken a banal turn from its wacky Harmon heyday. And thats because no network comedy has been more intertwined with its showrunner than Community has been with Harmon."
"But if the person running Community hadnt been Harmon, would the disappointment over the shows new season be so great? Sure, the show has changed. But, in its fourth year, its aging just like most other sitcoms that have gotten this far. Its gotten comfortable with its characters and has started going back to comedy wells that have become increasingly shallow. Plots get recycled. Characters change, sometimes not for the better. Jokes fall flatter."
http://www.avclub.com/articles/community-has-changed-its-aging-like-any-sitcom,93082/
Out-of-context quotes:
"It feels like these reviews are trying but failing to grasp exactly why the show has been so disappointing this season, and why it seems to have taken a banal turn from its wacky Harmon heyday. And thats because no network comedy has been more intertwined with its showrunner than Community has been with Harmon."
"But if the person running Community hadnt been Harmon, would the disappointment over the shows new season be so great? Sure, the show has changed. But, in its fourth year, its aging just like most other sitcoms that have gotten this far. Its gotten comfortable with its characters and has started going back to comedy wells that have become increasingly shallow. Plots get recycled. Characters change, sometimes not for the better. Jokes fall flatter."
The Middle is the most underrated comedy on TV.
Annie wants to let the German's have the table, to which Pierce equates the US surrendering to Vietnam. It's an absurdest joke that is made better by Shirley's follow up comment.
petethepanda
Member
As appropriate for Community, the response to this season so far has been all over the place. Most people seemed to hate the first few and might be coming around to it this week, whereas I was still moderately amused and even a little big hopeful for the first few and last night was quite possibly my least favorite episode of the show.
beat
Member
It's also a take on the usual "if this situation had been WW2, we'd all be speaking German now" joke.
Baconsammy
Banned
Last night's episode scored another dismal 1.1 in the ratings.
The Real Abed
Perma-Junior
This is exactly what I'm expecting. And will be really disappointed if they don't
have some sort of non-paintball related epic battle with City College
Also, thanks for the Britta GIFs, but where's our Annie? Where's Annie? Where's Annie? To quote Agent Dale Cooper from the finale of Twin Peaks, where's Annie?
Side note: Damn, Kyle McGlaughlin would have made an awesome guest star. I've loved every show I watch where he has shown up. HIMYM and Portlandia mainly.
And it's going to as long as BBT keeps getting 7 million viewers every week at the same time. Something something overused unstoppable jugglenaut joke.
Lone_Prodigy
Member
I thought the episode was alright. The Pierce line about Vietnamese was pretty good, and the scene with the collapsing chairs was funny.
I did like how the group was one whole entity instead of the characters breaking off into their own storylines.
I did like how the group was one whole entity instead of the characters breaking off into their own storylines.
Link
The Autumn Wind
That's what I enjoyed most about that joke, since that should have been the obvious reference in that situation.
Damon Bennet
Member
Liked it mich better than all the other eps this season
AlexMeloche
Member
Guess I'm weird, I liked the first 3 episodes better than this one. :x
Davey Cakes
Member
Guess I'm weird, I've liked all of them to a degree.
This one being Greendale-centric with some nice jokes and callbacks probably made it the best so far though.
"The soul or whatever."
That about sums up how people are trying to explain away their prejudice about Season 4.
The Real Abed
Perma-Junior
According to someone on the comments stream on AVClub's review of this episode, the replacement German was... Brian the sound guy from The Office. (Also known as Moe from The Three Stooges movie.)
Whaaaat? I didn't even notice it. IMDb doesn't have him listed for Community yet nor does Wikipedia. But IMDb does have a screenshot from the episode. Though The Office is the last current credit he's listed under...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Diamantopoulos
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0224565/
It's like this guy is the new Todd, who at the time of his first appearance on Community was on three other shows (HIMYM and New Girl's series premiere and Modern Family apparently) at the same time suddenly out of nowhere.
Whaaaat? I didn't even notice it. IMDb doesn't have him listed for Community yet nor does Wikipedia. But IMDb does have a screenshot from the episode. Though The Office is the last current credit he's listed under...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Diamantopoulos
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0224565/
It's like this guy is the new Todd, who at the time of his first appearance on Community was on three other shows (HIMYM and New Girl's series premiere and Modern Family apparently) at the same time suddenly out of nowhere.
I didn't actually notice the line until I saw a gif of it earlier today. Lol'd so hard. I'll probably rewatch the episode later today to see what other subtle jokes I missed.
Those are some sexy sausages.
Ah, thank you! I could only recognize him from Season 8 of 24 (President's Chief of Staff) and couldn't remember what recently I saw him in. That was it.
beat
Member
I did see his name in the credits.
I totally thought Todd (David Neher) was definitely going to land a series role somewhere the season after he first popped up and got so many guest roles.
I'm always amused when the Germans do that a capella techno thing.
RatskyWatsky
Hunky Nostradamus
I didn't like it at all. I didn't think it was funny and it felt like they were trying too hard with everything. I liked last week's episode a lot more.
not psycho
Member
That's not a fair statement, because the "Harmon = Community" thing started with a quote from Emily Cutler, who herself is the writer of the 2 best episodes in the show's history.
Emily Cutler: "There is no #Community without @danharmon. Period."
Then you had Chris McKenna leaving right after the new showrunners were announced.
Chris McKenna: "Nov. '09 I joined my favorite show on TV and today leave my favorite anything ever. Thanks Community, fans, and @DanHarmon"
These are arguably the 2 best writers the show had, so their words carried a lot of weight in creating the idea that Harmon was essential to the show and heavily involved in every episode. It was never the fans coming up with the idea on their own and discounting the other people involved in making the show.
Personally, I think there is a huge drop off this season, but I also think it could have been just as bad with Harmon still there. Who knows. I've been watching the show with a critical eye for it's entire run, and loving how it kept proving me wrong. If you say that I have to turn my brain off now and be uncritical, then it is already impossible for me to enjoy it as much.
I don't think it took writers leaving with him to make people believe the show was, in large part, his creative vision. It's been very clear from early on that Harmon was a strong personality and that he was steering the boat. If he wasn't then a very impressive PR campaign was waged to convince us it was the case.
Not every show has a showrunner. Not even every show with a showrunner really has one. But when they do it's usually really obvious.
Not every show has a showrunner. Not even every show with a showrunner really has one. But when they do it's usually really obvious.
Vert boil
Member
*Oktoberfest goggles activated*
Don't remember seeing this guy before.
A much better episode than last 3 and I am glad its getting better and hopefully it keeps going.
But I'd agree that Harmon was obviously a huge part of what made Community special. Just listening to the commentary on most episodes you hear that while didn't come up with all of the ideas, he knows exactly what fit and didn't fit the show. Like a filter that wouldn't allow generic stuff like a Space time convention.
To get this show to its former glory it would've required them to keep going bigger each season and obviously higher budget was probably a huge problem and Dan probably had to go for it to continue in some form.
Still I'm optimistic and like other said, its not bad enough to not watch it but its also no where near as good (yet) as previous seasons.
But I'd agree that Harmon was obviously a huge part of what made Community special. Just listening to the commentary on most episodes you hear that while didn't come up with all of the ideas, he knows exactly what fit and didn't fit the show. Like a filter that wouldn't allow generic stuff like a Space time convention.
To get this show to its former glory it would've required them to keep going bigger each season and obviously higher budget was probably a huge problem and Dan probably had to go for it to continue in some form.
Still I'm optimistic and like other said, its not bad enough to not watch it but its also no where near as good (yet) as previous seasons.
beat
Member
Look, I love Harmon too, but in my limited experience real geek cons always have bleed-over from neighboring fandoms.
BTW, ratings adjusted up to a 1.2 http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/20...stment-for-american-idol-or-zero-hour/171403/
roosters93
Member
It was close to old Community but there's a underlying feeling that something's "off".
The new german guy was fine but he's no Nick Kroll. Wish he was brought back.
The new german guy was fine but he's no Nick Kroll. Wish he was brought back.
faceless007
Member
I can't prove it, but I seriously doubt that anyone would have guessed this last episode was Harmon-less if they didn't already know it. The first few episodes were mixed, but this last felt like classic Community. It might not have been perfect, but's not like there weren't some episodes in the first three seasons that felt seriously off even with Harmon.
- Status