Ongoing Community Discussion Thread

[the G-man]

The blanket and coffee bit was a nod to the first episode of Sherlock.

 

[Aldo]

I checked up on the Community IMDB boards and people are hating on this episode because it's not "realistic" enough. Now up until recently I've only been a casual viewer, but 'Community" never struck me as a show that tried all that hard to be realistic.

From reading through that particular thread it appeared that most people didn't like the episode because they didn't know what the episode was parodying. And that's one of the reasons I like this show, they're not afraid to write an episode that not everyone will understand.

 

[OdoWanKenobi]

Community. Realistic. What?

 

[the G-man]

Community. Realistic. What?

x 2

Who watches Community for realism?

This is a show that started from the premise that someone who falsified his law license can get a real one by attending a community college... a community college that gives out four year degrees...but has a curriculum and social life more like a high school.

And that's just the initial premise...

I could see complaining if the characters weren't acting consistently (as in parts of the prior season) but that's not the same thing.

 

[Aldo]

While "realistic" was used, I think what the poster was more talking about was it was not a normal routine episode. Kind of like how 'The Treehouse of Horror' episodes are not normal Simpsons episodes. But from what I've seen of Community, there is no real "normal" for the show.

It just seems to be that some people who watch shows have no understanding of the show they claim to enjoy.

 

[AgentCoop]

I guess those people didn't see the D&D episode, the Law & Order episode or the episode that was a parody of the 80's movie "Spacecamp".

 

[Aldo]

I absolutely loved the "Law and Order" episode. It really amazed me all the details they got so spot on about L&O. I liked the D&D episode but at the time I was a bit put off because it felt like Pierce was acting like an ass (and yes, at the time I was just a casual viewer so that could be how he always acts).

I haven't seen the 'Space Camp' episode though.

 

[AgentCoop]

^Season 2 Episode 4 - Basic Rocket Science. They parody "The Right Stuff" a bit, too, but it's mostly "Spacecamp" and it's hilarious. One of my favorites.

 

[Aldo]

I just went out and picked up Community season 1 on DVD. Got it for a decent price too (a few dollars cheaper than Amazon, which was a tad surprising).

For the first four years this show has been on I've been nothing but a casual viewer, I would watch maybe a season premier, and then two or three episodes afterwards but I always ended dropping it eventually. I guess back then it just never really clicked with me like it has now. It really reminds me a bit of 'Arrested Development' sure the sense of humor may be a little different, but it has that same 'in-jokey' type feel to it that not everyone will get (which explains why Community has had such a rocky life).

 

[JirinPanthosa]

Sounds like they're complaining that Community is doing the thing that makes it special in the first place.

If they want to watch a show where every episode is the same, they have the rest of network television to choose from.

 

[bigdaddy]

If you want realism watch Honey Boo Boo or The Real Housewives.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

I am SHOCKED, SHOCKED that there is unrealism going on in Community!

 

[Australis]

Cos, like, the paintball eps, man, the realism... the... the... horror...

 

[bigdaddy]

Wait... I thought Community was a weekly documentary on how bad the educational system in the USA is?!?!

 

[tighr]

I think I mentioned this earlier, but Dan Harmon said in an interview that he wants each episode to be "real", as in physically possible, if completely outlandish. The whole "Darkest Timeline" from last season would probably never have been made under his watch.

Here's one article where he talks about it, regarding "Epidemiology":

http://www.avclub.com/article/dan-harmon-walks-us-through-icommunityis-second-se-57085

The litmus test I used to prove that was to run through every episode in both seasons and picture myself reading the events that take place in the story in the local paper. I ran “Modern Warfare” through that. I ran chicken fingers through that. There was a shortage of chicken fingers on campus, and some kid took over the supply and was selling chicken fingers for favors. Whatever! Why did this make the paper? It was on page eight. There was a paintball game that got out of hand. Somebody built a fire in the cafeteria to warm their hands because the power went out. A guy set off a dye pack, and there were Die Hard themes. Again, it sounds interesting, but if I’m more than a city away, it’s not even in the paper. The military is covering up an experimental bio-weapon in the form of a rabies virus that spreads through bites and turns people into zombies and it was accidentally served at a Halloween party. Yeah. It’s on the cover of Time. [Laughs.] No matter where it happened. It could have happened at the North Pole, and you’d be reading about it.

Here’s why that’s dangerous. It doesn’t really have anything to do with not believing Peter Pan can fly and now you’ve damaged the fabric of the universe. That’s not the case, because a sitcom is a fucking constant violation of all reality. That’s the point of it. It’s an opiate. You are experiencing life as life is not. In the most successful ones, you’re literally hearing 150 people laughing when you’re supposed to laugh. It has nothing to do with whether something’s believable. What it has to do with is protecting the characters’ minds within the canon. The simple example is, I don’t wanna be breaking an episode in season five where Britta is arguing with Jeff over the remote and having this thing looming over my shoulder where anybody can stop this argument at any time and say, “Britta, why are we arguing about this? The military is lying to the people it’s supposed to protect. The Pentagon invaded our campus, and it was going to murder us. We were zombies!”

So when I narrowed it down to that being the thing that was the biggest threat, I came up with the forgivable if obvious solution of amnesia, of just going, “Well, if you’re not yourself when you’re on this stuff, it’s not that big a deal to say that when you go back to being yourself, you weren’t collecting memories.” Actually, there’s some logic there. It’s not necessarily a Bold And The Beautiful contrivance to say, “Well, you wake up from a roofie. You don’t remember.” And more importantly, even if it did feel contrived, I felt like it was a noble contrivance because I don’t want these people living in a world where that’s on the table.

Other than the Darkest Timeline, every episode is things that could really happen to these people, rather unremarkable things that happen in a crazy way. And then you have zombies, but no big because everyone got amnesia. Even the Darkest Timeline one was a dream, but still dumb. At least they were all awake for the Claymation episode, it was just imagination-time.

 

[Anwar]

Community lost all "Real" pretense with "The Chang Dynasty" stuff from season 3. That was just TOO bizarre for Harmon's "Real" talk.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

Yeah, and Pierce's father creating an 8 bit video game to determine who gets to inherit his fortune? I suppose if you stretch your imagination, it's slightly plausible.

Although, they do say that people are quicker to accept physics that are unrealistic faster than they would accept human behavior that is unrealistic, and I think seasons 1-3 did do a better job at that than season 4. The stuff at the end of season 3 is the stuff that stretched realistic human behavior the most. But the 'Hunger Deans' was just plain absurd, and the whole Changnesia thing was even more ridiculous and not even entertaining.

It's kind of like that episode "You think I'm going to be chased by a werewolf?" "No, but if you were, that's how you'd react." It's the same with the zombie episode. "You think a college is going to serve people food carrying a zombie-like infection that's cured by chilly air?" "No, but if it did, that's how they'd react." Other than the last few episodes of season 3, season 1-3 was very good at the "No, but if it did, that's how they'd react." Season 4, not so much.

 

[Anwar]

Well, after season 3 any explanation for why Chang was still on the show was going to be pretty contrived. Both "Changnesia" and his current "Yeah, they just hired me back" explanation were pretty...ugh.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

Neither explanation is realistic, but "They just hired him back" doesn't lead to a lot of annoying storylines.

 

[bigdaddy]

Yeah you can't fault him for that. He realizes season 4 was stupid as shit at times and wanted to move on without wasting time continuing the horrible storyline.