Ongoing Community Discussion Thread

[Aldo]

Well I finally finished going through the first three seasons again, so that means...I finally watched my first Season 4 episode: 'History 101.'

I'm a fan of Todd's write ups over at the A.V. club, he recommends looking at Season 4 as a new show and judging it on those merits, because in a way it is. While watching the first episode it's really hard to do that, this is my favorite show on television (now streaming, I guess) and watching the characters I know and love acting "off" was just painful. I have a few friends who say there are some decent episodes, and I know you guys have said similar things, so I won't write it off after one episode, I'm going to solider through, and there were a few bits I liked:

-I really liked the homage to the Muppet Babies

Shoot, I suppose that's all I really liked about the episode. I thought the sitcom scenes in Abed's head fell flat, though the idea that he'd get upset when he found out it was the study groups last year at school worked for me. I thought the Hunger Games plot was awful though.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

I couldn't get through that episode the second time. I agree the Muppet Babies reference was the high point, but that doesn't make up for that episode's declaration "We have decided the Dean is defined by flamboyant behavior and lusting after Jeff so we're taking that to an extreme and removing all other aspects of his character".

 

[Aldo]

I watched the second episode: "Paranormal Parentage."

While it had a bit of a rough start, I actually found myself enjoying the episode quite a bit, especially when they split up and did the whole 'Scooby Doo' thing. What I didn't care for though was the random shout out to past episodes, it just reminded me of how good the show used to be and also felt like "Hey remember that time we did that thing? This is the same show!"

Despite that though, I'm going to say this was a fun episode. While the characters more or less felt like themselves, Alison Brie seems like she's playing someone else entirely. Annie's characterization is much better this time out than in the first episode, but she still feels off.

 

[AgentCoop]

I watched the second episode: "Paranormal Parentage."

While it had a bit of a rough start, I actually found myself enjoying the episode quite a bit, especially when they split up and did the whole 'Scooby Doo' thing. What I didn't care for though was the random shout out to past episodes, it just reminded me of how good the show used to be and also felt like "Hey remember that time we did that thing? This is the same show!"

Yeah, they do that throughout Season 4. It's as though they knew they couldn't live up to the previous seasons, so they just kept referencing them.

But there are some decent episodes in Season 4.

 

[Aldo]

Just watched "Conventions of Space and Time."

My good will from the previous episode is gone. I really tried to enjoy this episode but I didn't laugh once. I smiled a few times, and I enjoyed seeing Annie fawning over Jeff, even if it seemed like she moved on the previous season. I did like the opening where Britta left Troy's room to knock on the front door. Although that was one of the few parts I remembered from when I watched this episode originally, so I'm not sure if I smiled because I liked the scene, or from remembering when I watched it the first time.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

That's an episode where Annie was acting completely out of character in order to conform to the kind of sitcom trope that real Community would dedicate an episode to making fun of.

I like how in season 5 they finally reference Annie's family, and show us that she's completely alienated from her family because of the way they treated her after her addiction. I'd like to see that explored more on season 6.

 

[Aldo]

I was going to add that I enjoyed Annie's subplot, even if it was incredibly out of character behavior for her. At this point though, we'll all just assume it's implied, since it is Season 4 we're talking about after all

Even though the three episodes didn't do much in terms of making me laugh, watching them is still interesting. It's interesting to me to see how different the show is without Dan Harmon. I think Community is as close as your going to get to an auteur driven TV show. Now I'm even more excited they're moving away from the Networks influence, we'll finally get to see what an unfiltered Dan Harmon Community will look like.

That can be either a good thing or a bad thing, but it's going to be fun to find out.

Edit to add:

I just watched 'Alternative History of the German Invasion.'

If I I was watching this as a fan when it was first aired I'd probably worry about my favorite show. This episode was just mediocre. I didn't find it boring or anything, to me it was just there. I thought a few bits were cute, but nothing really got me to laugh.

 

[Aldo]

'Cooperative Escapism in Familial Relations." -Boy now there's a mouthful.

And we have the second episode of season 4 that I've enjoyed (so far). This also happens to be one of the few episodes I did see back during the original broadcast, but I doubt that has anything to do with my enjoyment of it. Again the references are a little bit less subtle than is the norm for this show, but they were fun. Having part of the group hide out in Shirley's garage was fun, and Pierce felt like Pierce. In fact all the characters felt more or less like themselves, so I have no problems there.

I'm a huge fan of Adam Devine, so seeing him pop up as Jeff's half brother was fun (he's one of the few aspects of Season 4 I wouldn't mind seeing Harmon bring back) and I'm OK with James Brolin as Jeff's father, even if I know it wouldn't have been Harmon's first choice, I believe he wanted Bill Murray.

 

[AgentCoop]

^I think Jeff's "appendix scar" speech was the high point of Season 4.

 

[Aldo]

I liked it as well. I wish they could have gone more into why Jeff is angry at his father. I mean I know they showed him as an absentee father, but I wished they would have dug further. While it's easy for me to say "What would Harmon have done..." and then write the episode off, I really think he would have given us something deeper. He definitely was building up to a reunion for Jeff and his father, he just never got to give it to us.

 

[The Borgified Corpse]

I was going to add that I enjoyed Annie's subplot, even if it was incredibly out of character behavior for her. At this point though, we'll all just assume it's implied, since it is Season 4 we're talking about after all

My favorite part was Jeff's reaction to it at the end. "Is it my hair? And if so, did it fall out naturally? Because, if so, I need to contact science."

But I'm surprised that you didn't like it. Maybe it's just that I'm a Doctor Who fan, so the parody of that seems very well thought out.

 

[Aldo]

I'm a Whovian too, but the episode just didn't really work. It didn't really have anything to do with the actual convention itself, I mean I liked the premise OK, and I seem to be one of the few people who actually likes the "Inspector Spacetime" show, even if it is a way to subvert copyright.

But it's like I said above, I didn't really laugh at anything in episode. With a different set up, I may have laughed about the line about Annie putting Jeff's hair in the sink to make it seem like they were married, but set up just wasn't there (at least for it to work for me). And the "Science line" was one of the few bits I smiled at that I mentioned. It was one of the few lines that actually felt like something Jeff would say.

My enjoyment of these characters and this show is going a long way to making Season 4 manageable for me, even if it's not striking me as that funny. I am actually looking forward to the season 4 finale where the Darkest Timeline crosses over (even if it does turn out to be a dream sequence) just because it would be something more interesting than what we've been getting so far (except for the two episodes I've enjoyed).

 

[shivkala]

The scenes with Pierce being in the focus group for an Americanized Inspector Spacetime was great. To me, that was the only redeeming part of the episode.

 

[Guy Gardener]

More than the post credit with Luke and Jenny?

 

[TheGodBen]

I'm a huge fan of Adam Devine, so seeing him pop up as Jeff's half brother was fun (he's one of the few aspects of Season 4 I wouldn't mind seeing Harmon bring back)

I hated Jeff's brother. It was like an obnoxious character from a bad sitcom somehow winded up on Community, I half-expected to hear feigned laughter from the audience while he did his Wacky Antics™.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

I thought that episode was okay, but I thought Jeff's 'I'm not well-adjusted' speech was cheesy and forced.

 

[Aldo]

I'm a huge fan of Adam Devine, so seeing him pop up as Jeff's half brother was fun (he's one of the few aspects of Season 4 I wouldn't mind seeing Harmon bring back)

I hated Jeff's brother. It was like an obnoxious character from a bad sitcom somehow winded up on Community, I half-expected to hear feigned laughter from the audience while he did his Wacky Antics™.

Yeah he kind of did feel out of place, but like I said, I really like Adam Devine. He definitely could dialed it back a bit if he wanted to but I'm thinking that's how the character was intended by the writers.

I watched "Advanced Documentary Filmmaking" this morning, and the over reliance on past episodes continues. Although it's not completely fair to hold this against Season 4, since Harmon's Community also did a follow up to the original Documentary Filmmaking episode as well.

While I'm not big on the "Changnesia" storyline, I actually enjoyed this episode quite a bit. The characters are starting to fall back into place and feel like themselves (except for Pierce, but I suspect that's because at this point Chase just stopped caring and was completely phoning it in).

I really enjoyed Troy and Annie working together. Especially because of how Troy was purposely doing the opposite of everything Annie said, and then Annie using that to her advantage. Jeff's obsession with proving that Change is faking was great too, and I even liked Britta screwing up with the camera so that we missed Shirley's moving speech.

 

[Aldo]

So I found an article where Joel McHale briefly talks about Season 6 and the possible movie, but what I found more interesting is what a higher up at NBC has to say about the cancellation:

“That sixth season thing was created by [the fans] — I’m surprised they didn’t say ’10 seasons and a movie. And [the mantra started] before my time [at NBC]. It didn’t just make sense for us to have another season of it at that level of audience.”

Rest of the article and Joel's thoughts here.

While on the surface his comments aren't too bad. I mean the show did have low ratings and it makes sense NBC would want to try and replace it with a show that has more appeal. What I do take issue with is his comments about the phrase "Six seasons and a movie." Again, his comments aren't horrible since he is kind of right...until you realize that the marketing for Season 5 heavily emphasized the phrase itself:

[yt]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-3kFjFbSSE[/yt]

 

[JirinPanthosa]

I just watched Repilot again. I love the way Harmon uses it to comment on the course of the series.

"Britta, you came here an eclectic anarchist, how did you become the group's airhead?"
"We all came here real people, and we turned into exaggerated cartoon characters!"

I fully expect something akin to that in the season 6 premiere.

 

[Aldo]

When I first watched 'Repilot' I only had seen Community as a casual viewer (IE: a random episode here and there). So it's going to be fun to watch the episode again as a die hard...who also (will) has Season 4 under thier belt too. So I can watch it from that perspective too.

I just watched "Economics to Marine Biology" and I actually really enjoyed it. It had a few big laughs and managed to utilize Pierce in an interesting way...well at least interesting as far as this season is concerned. The biggest laugh came at the end when Britta was telling Troy why she still eats Springles and he told her she better leave because he had a headache. I also thought Abed doing the Fraternity was neat, but nothing really interested was really done with it.