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Community S4 |OT| I Remember When This Show Was About Community College

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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.

Look, no one's saying that everything Dan Harmon touched was perfect. But it still had his fingerprints on it.

Unfortunately we can never really know if someone who didn't know would have been able to tell, because anyone who gives a shit about Dan Harmon knows and anyone who doesn't probably hasn't given any thought to whether there's a coherent creative vision behind the show.

But I don't think any episode this season has felt like Dan Harmon was actually involved.
 
Mindblown at the guy being Brian from the Office. Guy has some real comedy chops. Rewatched the episode and I really liked it a lot more. Not sure if I like the Changnesia story line so far as it seems obvious where they're going to lead it.

City College taking on Greendale with Chang as inside man.
 
I am surprised to see so many people saying this episode felt like Classic Community.

More than any other S4 episode, this one felt like a weird imitation. Specifically, the return of the German Eurotrash dudes felt like a rehash of a gag/plot that was only good once....but is being wheeled out again for the sake of familiarity or nostalgia (similar to the way late-era Simpsons episodes rehash characters and jokes from the show's glory days). The gag with Pierce being electrocuted by the lighting fixture was terrible, and made even worse by the corny CGI electricity. I'm no Community scholar, but I can't ever remember the show being so ridiculously slapsticky -- to the point where someone is essentially immune to grievous bodily harm for the sake of getting a laugh. And while Pierce is stubborn he's never been so stupid -- even he would know to take his hand off of something that is shocking him.

I didn't think the first episode of S4 was that great, but even that one got some bigger laughs out of me than the most recent one. "This is just like a plot on Hogan's Villains" was great though :) I love the idea that that show might have aired in Germany and the bumbling Nazi captors might have been viewed as the protagonists. The catharsis and satisfaction of every episode would have been how they managed to foil so many escape attempts.
 
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I recognized the lead German as Brian from the Office immediately. I think for that reason it was hard for me to really find his schtick funny, especially compared to the guy from the foosball episode (who was very funny). Most of the jokes fell flat too.
 
I recognized the lead German as Brian from the Office immediately. I think for that reason it was hard for me to really find his schtick funny, especially compared to the guy from the foosball episode (who was very funny). Most of the jokes fell flat too.

I dunno man, I loved the lead German. His accent was incredible.
"English is my second language!"
DEAD.
 
I recognized the lead German as Brian from the Office immediately. I think for that reason it was hard for me to really find his schtick funny, especially compared to the guy from the foosball episode (who was very funny). Most of the jokes fell flat too.

Yes, Nick Krol is very funny. If they couldn't get him back, they shouldn't have brought back the germans.
 
I am surprised to see so many people saying this episode felt like Classic Community.

More than any other S4 episode, this one felt like a weird imitation. Specifically, the return of the German Eurotrash dudes felt like a rehash of a gag/plot that was only good once....but is being wheeled out again for the sake of familiarity or nostalgia (similar to the way late-era Simpsons episodes rehash characters and jokes from the show's glory days). The gag with Pierce being electrocuted by the lighting fixture was terrible, and made even worse by the corny CGI electricity. I'm no Community scholar, but I can't ever remember the show being so ridiculously slapsticky -- to the point where someone is essentially immune to grievous bodily harm for the sake of getting a laugh. And while Pierce is stubborn he's never been so stupid -- even he would know to take his hand off of something that is shocking him.

I didn't think the first episode of S4 was that great, but even that one got some bigger laughs out of me than the most recent one. "This is just like a plot on Hogan's Villains" was great though :) I love the idea that that show might have aired in Germany and the bumbling Nazi captors might have been viewed as the protagonists. The catharsis and satisfaction of every episode would have been how they managed to foil so many escape attempts.

You cant let go if your muscles cramp.

Also: i genuinely enjoyed thus Episode. Hope they can Keep it up
 
I hope I'm not the only one tired of Chang. He's honestly felt completely shoehorned into the show since S1, but now it's worse than ever.
 
I hope I'm not the only one tired of Chang. He's honestly felt completely shoehorned into the show since S1, but now it's worse than ever.

I loved him as the teacher in season 1. Everything after that was downhill for me. I still prefer Duncan as the anthropology teacher though.
 
I loved him as the teacher in season 1. Everything after that was downhill for me. I still prefer Duncan as the anthropology teacher though.

Yeah, that's what I meant. S1 was the only one where he felt sort of natural. Everything post season 1 was annoying. I miss Duncan too. And poor Professor Slater, still missing.
 
Yeah, that's what I meant. S1 was the only one where he felt sort of natural. Everything post season 1 was annoying. I miss Duncan too. And poor Professor Slater, still missing.

Perhaps Duncan hit Slater in a drunken stupor, and Jeff needs to get him out of it in the finale?
 
Duncan was more or less written out in Abed's Uncontrollable Christmas.

He appears after that in the S2 Valentine's episode, though. If Abed's Uncontrollable Christmas was his last appearance that would have been great, as it is it feels like a somewhat important character has just been ditched.
 
Remember when Duncan was in this show's pilot? He was supposed to be around forever, damn it. :(

Jon Stewart took the blame for it. It's just too long of a flight for Oliver to be a regular on both shows. And since he's first and foremost a member of The Daily Show, Community got the shaft.

Duncan was more or less written out in Abed's Uncontrollable Christmas.

I believe he was in 4 episodes after that. It wasn't until the next season that he was more or less gone.
 
I recognized the lead German as Brian from the Office immediately. I think for that reason it was hard for me to really find his schtick funny, especially compared to the guy from the foosball episode (who was very funny). Most of the jokes fell flat too.

Glad I didn't know that until now, and can honestly say that the character just wasn't very funny no matter who was playing him lol

So...this season kind of blows so far.

Four episodes in and I sadly agree :(
 
I am surprised to see so many people saying this episode felt like Classic Community.

More than any other S4 episode, this one felt like a weird imitation. Specifically, the return of the German Eurotrash dudes felt like a rehash of a gag/plot that was only good once....but is being wheeled out again for the sake of familiarity or nostalgia

Right because Community never brings back a gag just for familiarity right?

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Right because Community never brings back a gag just for familiarity right?

To do a callback joke is one thing. To make the gag a focus of the main plotline is something altogether different......especially when said gag has already been explored for an entire previous episode.
 
To do a callback joke is one thing. To make the gag a focus of the main plotline is something altogether different......especially when said gag has already been explored for an entire previous episode.

The Germans were brought back for the European History parallel with the Germans and whatnot.
 
Didn't really like this episode. I wasn't a huge fan of the Germans in the foosball episode so wasn't too happy to see them return. I didn't think it was "ugh community sucks now this episode proves it" bad, though. I thought it was better than the first two episodes, but I enjoyed last week's episode more.

And yeah, really dislike Chang now. He was great in season 1, good in season 2, and then season 3 destroyed him for me. So far, it doesn't look like he's getting any better (though I chuckled when the Dean introduced him to the group).
 
Look, no one's saying that everything Dan Harmon touched was perfect. But it still had his fingerprints on it.

Unfortunately we can never really know if someone who didn't know would have been able to tell, because anyone who gives a shit about Dan Harmon knows and anyone who doesn't probably hasn't given any thought to whether there's a coherent creative vision behind the show.

But I don't think any episode this season has felt like Dan Harmon was actually involved.

While not exactly what's being discussed here, a huge amount of people who casually watch this show probably don't even know who dan harmon is and probably don't care either. I know a few people who very casually watch but like the show. I'll see what they thought I guess.


As another tangentially related point, I don't really care about dan harmon but I watch the show regularly. This season hasn't been great but it's about as average as much of season 1, was.
 
A little niggle but Mr Cornwallis should not have used the word 'coed' in regards to his Oxford days. Nobody says that phrase over here.
 
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