Let's get right into the politely sharing our opinions about Commun — 100 LUFTBALLOONS.
- Community: That loud, obnoxious noise you heard around 8:25 p.m. ET last night? Sorry about that — it was me sighing during Jeff's episode-encapsulating speech about Nazis or slavery or something. Even during the good days (has it come to that?), Winger's moralizing was always a lowlight, bordering on the treacly. He summed the previous 20 minutes up into a nice, neat, idiot-friendly package, which is why the parody montage in "Paradigms of Human Memory" is so brilliant. They were easy to overlook, however, because the rest of the episode was so good. That's not the case anymore, or at least it wasn't in "An Alternative History of the German Invasion," which, as you could probably tell, aired out of order. (The Chang stuff is always awful, but it's especially terrible as episode #4 when it's meant to be #2.) I laughed a few times — the hardest at Hogan's Villains — but the episode had some major problems, beginning with no Nick Kroll, no likey, and even if he was around, was anyone exactly clamoring for the broadly painted Germans to return? Also, and this has been a season-long problem, too many of the jokes were overexplained. Troy's Game of Thrones line was funny, and then Annie had to have a "gee jolly Troy" response, and then Troy followed that up with an exaggerated smile. Likewise, later in the episode, we can see the gift certificate is a $5 bill, which was great; we don't have to be told it's cash, which was not. We're not Big Bang Theory viewers here. Lastly, it was a half-baked concentration camp parody, something I thought I'd never write about COMMUNITY, that concludes with our heroes as Nazis, basically. That's arguably the show's biggest roadblock now: the one-liners are fine, but the writers are struggling with concepts. And that's to say nothing of Jeff's speech, which, UGH.
- 1600 Penn: As pointed out by commenter nevaRWilliams, last night's NEW 1600 Penn was preempted by a 20-year-old episode of Matlock in certain markets, like Cleveland. FINALLY, something good happens to Ohio (and Abe Simpson).
Share your favorite Community Nazi puns in the comments, or at least enjoy Britta in a dirndl, ja?
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The Darren Aronofsky line was gold.
I liked it. Ok, I liked it. Yes, Jeff’s speech was sigh-worthy and several of Troy’s jokes were just f’ing terrible, but I laughed a lot and basically enjoyed the episode. Plus, Annie and Britta in German cleavage outfits.
I liked it too, and not just because of Annie’s nor Britta’s cleavage. The jokes were good (as demonstrated, in my opinion, with those gifs) and yes it’s like it’s missing a small part, but I really think people blow everything out of proportion. I laughed. I’m not the only one (back me up numbersix) and I don’t consider myself mentally deficient.
I’m with you, Mr. Cheese. It was still *slightly* off from last season, but much better, and while I’m not thrilled Chang is back, the dean puns were A+.
You had me at “Annie and Britta in German cleavage outfits.”
If there’s one thing Season 4 has going for it, it’s the cleavage from Annie and Britta. They’ve definitely stepped that up.
/endperv
I laughed at the Game of Thrones lined, groaned at it being explained. Laughed at the “always dean that” line and the Aronofsky line.
I seriously do not understand why NBC brought Community back without Dan Harmon. Cancel it and I’m upset, but at least the third season finale was a perfect series finale (I think people who criticize the third season of Community should go back and rewatch it in a marathon, the throughline in it is pretty amazing though darker than previous seasons). Bring it back for an abridged 13 episode final season with Harmon and get your syndication numbers higher. But what we’re getting now? I liked the Halloween episode but the rest have felt hollow.
This doesn’t all fall on the departure of Dan Harmon: Chris McKenna, Garret Donovan and Neil Goldman left, that’s a big hole in the writer’s room. It’s just depressing.
I just watched the first 3 seasons in marathon fashion a month or two ago. I agree that the series should have ended after season 3. It really was the perfect finale.
@SHough610, that last sentence sums it up perfectly. For all the people who think we’re slamming the show because we’re swinging on the jock of Harmon or that it’s now the “cool” thing to do to diss the show, that’s really not the case. We want the show to be exactly like it was and we want the show to do well. But it’s not the same and it’s suffering in all areas because of it.
In the end, it’s just depressing.
@Saosin It also presupposes that people who aren’t enjoying the new iteration would prefer it to be bad if Dan Harmon isn’t involved. Nothing would have made me happier than a seamless transition (look at Cougar Town, I don’t notice that Lawrence & Biegel aren’t as involved) with the high quality of the show continuing. I love Community and want it to be awesome, Dan Harmon or no.
Thank you, SHough. I really don’t get all of the harsh words I see directed at the third season of Community, and I see a lot of that. Granted, that’s mostly at the AV Club, maybe being there is my mistake. Seriously, though. I saw the entire third/final season for the first time in an extended marathon of season two and then it back in December, and I was just completely blown away by the show all over again. Season three is my favorite, overall. Even if it may not be as consistently funny as season two, the writing for the characters and thematic throughlines are a whole new level of excellency, even for poor, underused Pierce and Shirley.
I can’t deny that emotional bias has probably affected me to some degree, but yes, this season has not impressed me in the least. The Halloween one is the only that’s felt natural and could fit with the other seasons, and even then it would’ve been one of the weaker episodes. Abed and Annie’s writing is the most disconcerting, which is an especial problem for me because the former is my favorite character and Annie is tied for third with Troy, behind Britta. I really do miss Harmon and McKenna, and am quickly losing the brief optimism Megan Ganz’s Halloween episode earned, especially since she’ll be gone after this season if it somehow manages to be renewed again thanks to NBC effectively tanking itself.
@SHough610: And don’t forget we’ve lost Dino Stamatopoulos along with those other writers. I know that in terms of main episode duty, he just co-wrote one episode with Harmon, but what a fucking episode it was. Abed’s Uncontrollable Christmas will always stand out as one of my absolute favorites of the series.
I can’t believe the flaming shitpile Community has turned into without Dan Harmon. It feels like the new episodes are taking the worst parts of the first few seasons and pretending like that’s what the fans want to see. It’s only got a couple more weeks to redeem itself before it gets removed from my DVR schedule.
if community gets deleted from franklin’s dvr this whole deck of flying shit cards we call existence could hit the proverbial fan.
It is unwatchable now. I’m done.
I decided that it doesn’t matter just how good or bad a new episode is, fans are so endeared to Harmon and hate Sony/NBC so much now that they’ll never be partial moving forward. I really do want to do an experiment in which I show someone whose never seen the show a marathon consisting of episodes from all the seasons and see if they can really tell a difference.
Shhh, you are ruining all the oddly righteous indignation….
The Evil Twin is right. Is Community as good as it was? No. Is it still an enjoyable half hour of television? Of course.
I mentioned it in a different post but I think while Harmon is the most significant loss you can’t discount the attrition to the staff besides Harmon: the Russo Brothers are out from directing, Garret Donovan and Neil Goldman, Chris McKenna, Dino Stamatopoulos and now Megan Ganz are gone. That’s a LOT of talent to lose.
I don’t think Community is shit at this point. I’d still say it’s in the top quarter of comedies on the air. But it’s not duking it out with the best comedies on television like it used to. But it just feels hollow, like really good fan fiction or generic brand. I did enjoy the Halloween episode the most, though I seem to be in the minority.
I never knew who Dan Harmon was before Community and didn’t really know much about him until around Season 2 or 3 when everything hit the fan with him and Chevy and him and the studio execs. So I don’t feel any real attachment or loyalty to him. What I do feel an attachment and loyalty to is the show he created. All I want is for Community to be funny and do as well as it can in the ratings.
Unfortunately, Community deserves the ratings it’s getting right now. While it was a wildly underrated show in Seasons 1-3, it’s a shell of it’s former self right now. Last nights episode was probably the best of the season, and it was wildly mediocre imo. As SHough said, it just feels hollow, it doesn’t have the same spirit it used to.
This was the best episode so far but that’s not saying much since they all have kinda sucked.
This. It’s a step in the right direction, but it’s still gone off a cliff.
pretty much. been going bad, “good”, bad, “good” so far this season.
At least they were in the study room. Sort of.
Oh, and btw this was supposed to be the 2nd episode but was rescheduled. Heaven knows why.
Also, this. The structure of the episode was still a mess (the everyone loves you again exposition was particularly jarring) but overall the writing was better than previous episodes this season.
Last night’s Community just felt like it was being a parody of itself.
It’s almost like the writers/producers have never seen the show before, so they picked up the DVD sets of the previous seasons and are reworking plot points from those episodes, hoping they stick. They’re not.
@Kurp
This is so spot on. But it’s part of the problem, that’s who they want to attract. But NBC seems to be fundamentally misunderstanding the show they have. You can’t just throw in wacky college hijinks and hope people will tune in because the audience you built through trust and loyalty are going to tune out eventually.
Bold statement: I think the first three seasons of Community are better than Arrested Development. I hold out hope that Community will be cancelled by NBC and picked up by FX or TBS and Dan Harmon will be rehired. I cling to it like Bart clung to his Krusty doll at Kamp Krusty. Especially FX. Holy shit.
Your bold statement is very, very wrong. Everything you said before that, whether correct or not, has now been washed out because of how ludicrous your bold statement was. Show AD the respect it deserves. If Community had been cancelled after last season, I’m pretty sure there wouldn’t have been a clamoring to bring it back seven years later.
We’ll never know, will we? But I have a feeling you’d be right about that only because Community is a show about a community college and seven years might render it a little moot. Don’t get me wrong, AD was brilliant but Community was also brilliant while still creating likeable characters.
It comes down to personal taste: that’s why some people like vanilla ice cream and some people like chocolate ice cream, you have crappy taste, that’s all.
I should probably revise my bold statement: I enjoy the first three seasons of Community more than Arrested Development. That said, I think Parks and Rec is better than both of them.
Right. The ONLY reason is because it takes place in a community college.
*eye-roll*
It’s a hypothetical argument but this is something that irritates me about the hardest of hardcore AD devotees. The idea that nothing will or could ever measure up to the brilliance that AD created while ignoring intelligent shows that were low-rated. Yeah, it sucked that AD was cancelled but if there had been more support for *other* intelligent shows then things might have changed more.
@ SHough610 Are you saying AD didnt create likeable characters? Seriously?
@the bearded one It was more Seinfeld than Parks and Rec to me. Like I said, I wasn’t bashing AD, just saying I enjoyed Community more.
It’s not that “nothing will or could ever measure up…,” it’s that Community doesn’t. It’s a great show but it’s no Arrested Development. Changing your argument from “Community is better” to “I THINK Community is better” does very little to help your case. Basically you just argument-proofed your statement by rephrasing it as opinion. Pretty bold.
Yeah, both of these are opinions. You can’t use quantifiable facts. You like Arrested Development better than Community. Don’t try to act like you have some sort of non opinion based argument for it.
@SHough610
There is no audience. Every single person in the world who watches Community comments on this blog the next day.
I love Arrested Development. It’s fantastic. I like Community more. The first three seasons felt like they were catered directly to me. Just a matter of opinion.
This is ENTERTAINMENT; which by conceptual definition IS subjective to the individual. Saying AD is better from an objective and qualitative sense is silly and approaching fanboy status. If someone is more entertained by one sitcom rather than the other it is simply their individual reaction.
That was my point. That’s why I qualified it with “I think”. My irritated reaction to powers was his snotty response. You like AD better? Cool. But don’t act so superior because you think so.
@SHough610 your responses have been great. I think arrested development is better than community but is in no way the best comedy tv show. Also Community in my opinion has been going down hill ever since they changed the camera style. It’s as if the writers (including Dan Harmon) have tried to take every individual funny moment and just create episodes out of them. A sort of palimpsest of community humour that has failed. That being said the last two episodes I found really funny.
This is the season I finally got my wife to come around start watching Community…I’m really getting tired of trying to justify myself.
It has happened. The Community backlash has begun. NBC execs are nodding and smiling right now.
Tank it!
I peacock this comment.
Ugh, I’m going to avoid the comment sections once the new Arrested Development episodes come out.
You should be OK, Netflix kept Mitch Hurvitz, and since everyone knows he is still on the show, they will love it no matter what. That being said, I cannot wait til its back.
I will always <3 Britta.
And I'm surprised Troy and Abed don't already watch Game of Thrones!
Yeah the episodes haven’t been all that great, blah blah blah, but the show still gives me a chuckle or two, still has a great cast, and with all the other shows either leaving or not coming back for a while (30 Rock, Louie, Don’t Trust the Bitch, Happy Endings maybe) or just falling flat for too long (The Office, The Office, or The Office), I guess I’m just happy for that. I miss that little something the show had before, but at least it’s back on for now. I guess.
Pretty much this for me. I still find it worth watching and get a few laughs out of it. Even if it’s somewhat dumbing itself down for a new audience, or rather explaining some of it’s jokes to them, it’s one of the few network shows I have any interest in watching whatsoever.
I’ve really enjoyed the office, last couple of episodes have redeemed it. Yeah it’s not what it used to be. But there is some great nostalgia from it still
At least I’ll save a few bucks not buying the season 4 box set.
I was really hoping for a Matlock GIF at the tail end of it, if those even exist.
I hated the first time the German characters appeared (despite my general enjoyment of Nick Kroll), and their return, with poor Chris Diamantopoulos – aka “Brian the Office documentary crew’s boom guy” as their leader made it even worse. Had Community premiered on October 19, we would have seen him here first and my hatred for his Office character would not have existed yet. But alas, October 19 = February 7 and here we are.
Some great jokes in this episode but the overarching plot was pretty terrible. Anyone know if the internet has created a running list of shows that have name-dropped Game of Thrones? It’s getting pretty long and I love that.
I’m going to assume the list of shows that name drops Game of Thrones is proportionate to the amount of times it’s name dropped by the Internet.
How did you not like the Germans the first time? The “twenty dollar bit” was hilarious.
@PowerClashing I know that’s an unpopular opinion in Community fandom, but I just didn’t. Too broad, I suppose, which I realize was the point, but it didn’t come back around to funny for me personally.
I am with you on the hatred of the return of the Germans, especially + boobmicbrian – kroll. But man, the first episode with the Germans, where they were foils to reveal the Shirley/Jeff background and brought us the soccer ball bit (it’s not even that good!) and “I wish there was a word to describe the pleasure I get at viewing misfortune” were worthwhile. Last night though, yeah, that was crap. I think I’d feel the same even if it aired before the existence of boommicbrian.
Sweet Jesus. I think I’m done with the Thursday recaps at WG. Community is different, we get it. I still have enjoyed the episodes so far.
Also, I thinks it is funny that you are complaining about Community breaking everything down for us like we’re idiots when that is exactly what you have been doing each Friday since the show returned.
Fo Realz. I’m just here for the .gifs, people.
Quick impression: Who am I? “Waaaaaaa” I’m Josh and the majority of this post’s commentors.
/Pierce laugh
Nailed it.
Pierce made that joke. He actually did that a couple of times last night.
Exactly this.
Alison Brie and Gillian Jacobs in dirndls is proof that there is a God and he loves us.
They owed us one after the whole “Ring Girl” tease.
That was a redeeming point in the show.
Wow, seriously? This episode was pretty damn solid. It FINALLY put the study group out of their element (losing the right to Study Room F) and into a conflict that made them look inside themselves to realize that they’ve been jerks to the rest of the campus, which is something that’s been building up through all the previous seasons. Malcolm McDowell’s Professor Cornwallis was like an awesome mix of Professor Duncan and Professor Kane. Pierce had several choice lines. The tag was the natural progession of Troy and Abed’s show. And they needed to have Boom Mic Brian as the lead German instead of The Douche in order to be in line with the Die Hard reference. This really should’ve been the second Season 4 episode to air. Also, Britta holding a tray of sausage is my new wallpaper.
Pierce wanting to be the Hitler was a good touch.
I think it was supposed to be the second episode…
It was good, if a little disjointed (so, great by this season’s standards). Let’s be honest, though, if this episode was supposed to be the culmination of the group treating everyone outside of the group like crap, then it was incredibly underwhelming. One scene of protest and a short montage was a pretty small payoff. The self-reflection angle is just too large to satisfactory handle in a random, mid-season episode that wasn’t really exclusively about that discovery. Feels more like finale territory to me. The old Community, at the very least, would have made reference to that fact.
My like or dislike is not affected by how other people feel about it. I know I’m right and you’re wrong because you have crappy taste and this is the internet so I have to be right but it doesn’t mean your opinion is wrong. That’s why it’s an opinion.
I’ve liked the season so far. Sure, not the same, but still a good show with some great ideas, and the cast is still great. I’m even glad that Pierce is still around.
Last night’s episode wasn’t great, and it wasn’t bad. The worst thing I could say about it is it’s the first one that I’ve found boring.
But there were some great lines: the Aronofsky joke, the Luftballons, and the first half of the Ruse bit. And I liked the Game of Thrones ref, but I kind of have to.
Is it just me? Or has this been Pierce’s best season so far?
I am reading some of these comments and they read like people are hoping Dan Harmon reads them and tweets them out or something.
Hey! You’re just bitter and cynical and right.
Word. I mean I want Dan back as well but getting the show killed forever isn’t going to bring him back.
I thought this last episode was f***ing terrible, and I turned it off fifteen minutes in. The few times I laughed it felt forced.
I guess maybe I missed a few decent jokes, but the Germans were so insufferable that I simply couldn’t bear it.
The main German was beyond the pale ridiculous. To the point of making me punchy. The rest of the ep was ok. They really need to dial back the Dean’s wardrobe obsession though.
Would have been nice if Professor Cornwallis dressed as Alex . . .
I gotta say, I agree with Josh 100% on his take on Community last night. I feel like they’ve been over explaining the jokes all season but last night was too much. I also feel like they’ve blurred Troy and Abed into the same character. Troy’s Arronofsky line sounded like it should have been from Abed and I feel like there’s been at least one instance of that in each episode. No sweat Boba Fett comes to mind as another example. But, I do feel while the plot was worse than Halloween or Spacetime convention and it needed Kroll, it at least felt more like our beloved characters than other eps so far this season.
After 3 years together and over a year living together, wouldn’t you think Troy would have picked up on a few directors and their styles from Abed’s DVD collection? I mean Troy stumbling upon Black Swan, Requiem for a Dream, or especially Pi would be hilarity and I’m guessing he’s seen at least 2 of those because of Abed
Abed: You had me at “ruse.”
Jeff: “Ruse” was literally the last thing I said.
Abed: Then it’s a good thing you said it.
Now that was a good episode of Community. Jeff’s speech was awesome only b/c of the reaction of Britta and (Troy? I forget who else was in the shot) when he started. They both rolled their eyes and sat back down, exasperated.
I don’t like knock-off Germans.
How good was Archer with Bourdain last night? Right?
Can’t wait for THAT post
Yeah, i am eagerly awaiting the Gifs on that one. I do not think it is fair to mention Archer though on any other post though, as anything will pale in comparison to how awesome it is.
I didn’t enjoy it. A couple throw-away lines were chuckle worthy.
The ‘Greendale 7 as the villians’ thing was only not terrible because I seem to remember Megan Ganz saying one of the original concepts for Star Burns’ funeral episode was to focus on the background characters, and this pleasantly reminded me of that better idea.
Get rid of this turd show already. They don’t even try to write jokes any more which makes sense as no one is laughing (except out of pity).
I feel like commenting on a Community recap is futile. You either enjoy it for still being here (albeit in a lessened state) or you trash it for not having Dan Harmon, when I don’t think we’d notice much of a change if there had been the controversy of his departure. Last night’s episode entertained me more than 98% of the Modern Family episodes and 100% more than any other “network” sitcom on NBC and all of CBS’ other than the odd episode of HIMYM.
i agree 100% with you
I thought the exact same thing as Josh when we saw the German students again- do we really need them back? And without Nick Kroll? Really? But the less they were on, the better the episode got for me. By the last act, I thought it was clicking pretty well. Troy has gotten a bit too stupid and Annie is overly-innocent (how is she so innocent after living above dildopolis and with Spaghetti?), but I really felt like the second half and the last act last night really got us back to where we want it to be…
I blame it all on his terrible CC sketch show.
Last night’s episode of Community was v.poor. I found myself laughing more due to muscle memory; it was clunky and kind of predictable (and as pointed out, that whole over explaining-of-the-jokes thing was horrible; as if someone from NBC said “yeah, i like this but the jokes need more explaining”).
What it did do, however, was remind me of this absolutely stunning sketch from That Mitchell and Webb Look:
[www.youtube.com]
This is well worth a watch. (if someone can embed it for me, please go ahead and do so).
Britta and Annie in drindls, yes.
Shirley? No.
This episode was good but it felt like a season 2 miss more than a hit. I’m still waiting for this seasons episode that is like a Greek epic, but those usually don’t come until after the 7th episode. Hell the first half of season 1 was terrible compared to the second half of season 3.
At least they went to class, right?
/sobs in corner forever
The worst episode of Community (Which this wasn’t, btw) is still better than the best episode of Celebrity Wife Swap, The Big Bang Theory, 2.5 Men, Mike/Molly, 1600 PN, and all of the other shows that the Nielsen robots keep telling us people love.
Amen!
Britta in a drindl? Yes, please.
I really loved this episode. A lot of the complaints with this season could be made about season three which I also enjoyed. There is just this bright spotlight on season 4 so every single flaw needs to be magnified and count towards the downfall of Community. I’m still willing to let the new show runners find their groove.
Annie’s explanation of the Game of Thrones thing was fine because it was to set up ANOTHER joke. And when have Donald Glover exaggerated faces ever been a bad thing?
HUZZAH!
yeah no kidding, people loved his exaggerated faces in the last 3 seasons
But you have to admit, Dan Harmon could write a Troy exaggerated face bit that would really make you think.
No amount of Uproxx badges are worth pouring through the constant negative reiterations about what Community has turned into. I guess I’ll just keep watching it quietly and stick to discussions about Justified and Archer – and Happy Endings, whenever it comes back – from now on.
I’ll talk to you about the good things!
Oh, and I thought “They lost a pen.” was gold.
I’ve had a real problem with the season so far, but last night’s episode, while uneven in some parts, was actually pretty good. But as I feared the internet is in full pile-on hyperbole mode and every minor mishap (and admitted this one had a few) will be blow out of proportion and all the genuine good things (I actually really liked that the rest of the campus views the study group as bad guys) is ignored. Solid episode, first time this year it felt like an actual Community episode.
On a related note, which of the past 3 seasons of Harmon’s Community did you guys enjoy the most? Season 2, for me!
I like Community still. Not every episode can be remedial chaos theory. It’s still the best sitcom on tv. With apologies to Happy Endings.
And please get Professor Ian Duncan on board again. Atleast HE would add an extra layer to the show, something it really needs. And i hated the Chang storyline too but let us not lose hope.
The only time I like my jokes over explained is when Norm is doing it. If they do get renewed for another season, I hope that the last episode is just the cast wearing felt moustaches and explaining how this whole season wasn’t the darkest time line, but rather the slightly off time line, and they’ll be back to normal soon.
My only solace is that Community will never come close to reaching the depths The Office has these last two seasons.
We’re only 4 episodes in. And I used to say the same thing about How I met your mother.
One of the main problems with Community post-Harmon is the joke/gag count has been slashed by like 2/3. Even in the lesser Harmon episodes there would still be tons of laughs and clever dialogue. Most of that is gone, and the jokes that are left are mostly shit.
And yes, it would be a noticeable if I didn’t know Harmon left. You’d have to be fucking blind and deaf not to tell there’s a been serious and troubling quality drop off.
Agreed.
That was easily the lamest episode of Community I have ever seen. Making fun of Germans is so played out. Make fun of the Chinese while we can, before they become our overlords.
I just don’t get it. I was not as disturbed as most of you with the previous episodes, although you could definitely tell the difference. However, last night’s episode was TERRIBLE. It really just pissed me off the whole way through. And then I come here and see everyone liked this one the best. Don’t get that at all. Maybe the problem was that the exited writers made a show that made me AND you happy, and the new guys can’t pull that off.
Yes its low brow and low hanging fruit; but they could have done much much more with the German Sausage in that episode.
How that sausage didn’t hit Annie’s face once, I’ll never know.
So, are you complaining about the fact that there was no Nick Kroll, or not? Decide what you want to say. People are way too excited about Nick Kroll, anyway. He’s a dickhead. And finally, “the Chang stuff” is not always awful. He got kind of annoying for a while during season 2, but other than that, he’s been a great complement to the show. His noir bits, his fascist bits–funny shit.
In fairness, I must commend you for your remarks w/r/t Jeff’s truly cringe-inducing speeches. Always the worst part of the show.
I liked this episode and found it to be quite enjoyable. The laughs are not up to “Harmon” level but they were still there (Shirly wearing a shirt with SS on it, Pierce wanting to be Hitler) and they showed some of the background characters in this episode, which are usually good to have around.
I did enjoy the storyline overall, I’m fine with the twist of branding them as bad guys, I actually liked that and how it ended with them giving back to Greendale – but Nazis? Cmon, really?
I kinda wish they had expanded upon their self-centered-ness as a group relative to the rest of the school and being “the bad guys” more and had done that episode where the side characters were the main focus and seeing their viewpoint of the Greendale 7.
I don’t know what or if they have an overall story arc for this season, but I would enjoyed seeing the study group be outcasted by the rest of the students, realizing too late that they should be giving back more to the school, and then finally have their chance for redemption coming to the rescue when Greendale is under some sort of final attack from City College which was alluded to in last season’s finale. Hell even have an episode or arc that involves the study group transferring to City College as part of some sort of Jeff Winger ultimate-plan to save Greendale.
When I heard the theme song I thought the lyric “I can’t count the reasons I should stay/One by one they all just fade away.” described many a Community fan as of late. That being said I thoroughly enjoyed this episode.
In my opinion, this was definitely the best episode of the new season. It still had a lot of the problems the other episodes had, but it was more focused for sure. There wasn’t four different plot lines running at once, only one major one and one minor one. And it was actually focused on Greendale.
And for people who say people would not know the difference if they did not know about Dan Harmon leaving: SHUT UP. Seriously. You couldn’t sound more ignorant/in denial. People could tell the differences between the first and the second, and the second and the third. Why? Because they WERE different. You really think people would not notice the differences when the showrunner leaves?
well I think the great thing/now problem is just how involved Dan Harmon was with the show. Yes a “showrunner” is significant, but good shows change showrunners and still can keep a good thing going. The problem is that Dan Harmon was not just a showrunner, he was the show runner, the creator, the head writer, the last guy revising, rewriting, final editing, everything up to the very last point until the written word transferred onto camera.
If Dan Harmon was just the showrunner, I actually think the differences wouldn’t be as major. But when you take Dan Harmon out of Community, you are not just taking the showrunner away, you’re essentially taking “Community” out of Community. Everything that happened on screen was because Dan Harmon made and allowed it to be so. From the on-set horror stories it sounded like Harmon was a mad-artist constantly ripping up and throwing out his work until he felt it hit perfection. That’s a nightmare work environment, but for the audience it meant TV viewing gold for the end product we saw.
What we are seeing now is just how involved Dan Harmon was, the writing comparatively is still good, but Harmon made sure it went next level. Also as it’s been said they’ve also lost a lot of other writing/directing talent throughout the show’s course which you can only lose so much before it becomes noticeable.
I, for one, cannot wait for next week’s episode when Annie randomly finds a telegraph and is bad at using it, to which Troy points out who ironic it is for an Edison to not be good at the telegraph. Harf Harf.
The episode itself was OK. There were some decent one liners in there. Aside from the over-explanation of jokes, I am not a fan of the re-occurring joke of the Dean asking what outfit he should wear. He kind of started using this line last season, but it was more subtle. It seems now they are just blatantly going out of their way to make it his catch phrase. The Dean showing up in an outfit unannounced was funny. The dean announcing he’s about to pick out an outfit for the next scene is not. Especially since it has become a freaking catch phrase.
I’m surprised this episode–which included so many stereotypes– did not include Russians fighting off the Germans after they became friends or someone who is French retreating.
“WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!”
It wasnt so bad. I’m starting to settle into it a bit. It’ll never be what it was, but I think that maybe I can enjoy it for what it is.
Also, Oktoberfest Annie? Mehr, Bitte.
Mmmm…. dirndls.
I do want to see an episode of the German version of The Nanny.
Christian
Deceived by my eyes,
and all I was told I should see,
Opinion’s not mine,
the person they taught me to be,
one night in the dark,
a vision of someone I knew,
and in the darkness I saw,
a voice say I’m you.
You saw the voice that said it was you??
Wrong thread, my bad lol
The German costumes on Annie and Britta, yes please!
I think this season has been perfectly fine. No great episodes, but still better than most TV. Stop complaining.
Thank you, this site is getting real vaginal.. just fucking enjoy the show we all have been bitching about to see
Couldn’t agree more, anyone thinking that Community has sunk to Big Bang Theory levels of comedy has clearly never had to sit through an episode of that show.
All this bitching about the new season won’t get Alison Brie any closer to an Uproxx Q&A, just sayin…..
with community, i actually liked last week’s episode a lot better than this week’s. i’m still faithfully watfching, but this season just seems like a hit and miss. and not in a good way.
(i actually prefer season three to this. hopefully with the upcoming episodes, my mind will be changed. (see what i did therer?)
Really felt like a filler episode
no nick kroll returning was a sign this was gonna be a meh episode
I felt gypped too.
No Kroll was bad, yes. I felt like his replacement was doing an impression of Will Forte doing a german person.
Still love everything the Dean does, though.
The lack of Annie’s bouncing cleavage GIFs is really standing out…
Is it just me, or does Jim Rash make silk purses from sow’s ears?
“Winger’s moralizing was always a lowlight, bordering on the treacly. He summed the previous 20 minutes up into a nice, neat, idiot-friendly package, which is why the parody montage in “Paradigms of Human Memory” is so brilliant.”
Seriously? Jeff’s moralizing speeches at the end have ALWAYS, from the PILOT EPISODE, been a parody. The whole point is that he takes the episode and works his lawyer word-magic to manipulate the rest of the group into accepting the episode’s events as being part of a life-lesson, or a larger narrative. But there never was any larger narrative; Dan Harmon himself said that he made it up as he went along, and that’s exactly what Jeff is doing. EVERY. SINGLE. EPISODE.
Go back and re-watch those speeches and think about how they’re making fun of the kind of ham-fisted moralizing that you get in so many crappy feel-good sitcoms, and the kind of manipulative storytelling that will twist any random crap into a life-lesson to make the audience feel like something important is being said, as if to justify the story’s very existence. Suddenly those speeches are HILARIOUS.
Unfortunately, I feel Poe’s Law may be in effect here.