Yeah OTM, it made total sense in context.
― EveningStar (Sund4r), Saturday, 23 February 2013 17:46 (eleven years ago) link
Hogan's Villans.
― s.clover, Friday, 1 March 2013 05:09 (eleven years ago) link
bottle episode callbacks a nice touch too.
― s.clover, Friday, 1 March 2013 05:13 (eleven years ago) link
Caught up on the first three eps of the season. Laughed plenty. I don't think any particular ep went next-level like the show could, but none of the shows were as bleah as the "wine-tasting" one.
At this point, the show is enjoyable and doesn't make me want to end humanity like most other tv, so it's fine.
― The New Jack Mormons! (kingfish), Friday, 1 March 2013 08:01 (eleven years ago) link
Didn't like this one at all. I laughed once or twice, but everything seemed slapdash and inconsistent. I sort of liked the reversal -- that the study group is actually hated by everyone -- but it didn't make any logical sense, given how many times they saved the school and were able to rally everyone around them (paintballs, Chang dealie, etc). Also, they played D&D on a Saturday when (presumably) no one else would want or need to use the study room.
― Tarfumes The Escape Goat, Friday, 1 March 2013 15:31 (eleven years ago) link
This isn't the first time the group were cast as villains tho, isn't it? I thought something like this happened already once.
Show still sort of funny, i mostly watch it for the characters/actors not the writing. I know we are all doomed to wander in a Harmon-less desert for 40 years of death and pestilence but TV show = OK. The groundbreaking older episodes still exist.
― Emperor Cos Dashit (Adam Bruneau), Friday, 1 March 2013 15:48 (eleven years ago) link
People frequently study on Saturdays in college
― that Django got me Nuages (Sufjan Grafton), Friday, 1 March 2013 17:42 (eleven years ago) link
yeah, the glitch there is they had literally established everybody else at the school was at the puppy parade. thought this episode was actually bad (watchable but bad). current show is this weird mix of straining fealty to previous seasons of show and betrayal of previous seasons of show.
― balls, Friday, 1 March 2013 18:11 (eleven years ago) link
There were some funny jokes and I liked all the stuff about history/war/Germany. I hated the Chang stuff from last season so I wasn't thrilled about that coming back but I guess they couldn't really blow it off.
― EveningStar (Sund4r), Friday, 1 March 2013 19:23 (eleven years ago) link
also arguably ken jeong is one of the bigger stars on community, so makes sense they'd want to give him play.
― s.clover, Friday, 1 March 2013 19:25 (eleven years ago) link
I thought he was a lot funnier as the dickish Spanish teacher. The whole security guard arc just fell flat for me (but at least it set up some good episodes after the expulsion).
― Tarfumes The Escape Goat, Friday, 1 March 2013 19:29 (eleven years ago) link
I was disappointed that they didn't do more with the security guard voiceover gag. I thought they would gotta a few minor reoccurring laughs thru the contrast of Chang's powerless mundanity vs his extravagant internal delusions
― The New Jack Mormons! (kingfish), Friday, 1 March 2013 19:33 (eleven years ago) link
Yeah, he was GREAT as a Spanish teacher. They really seemed to be struggling with what to do with him after he lost that job. The whole coup and tyrannical reign was the nadir for me.
― EveningStar (Sund4r), Friday, 1 March 2013 19:34 (eleven years ago) link
That stuff happened while Harmon was still head btw.
― Emperor Cos Dashit (Adam Bruneau), Friday, 1 March 2013 19:45 (eleven years ago) link
o rly
― balls, Friday, 1 March 2013 20:10 (eleven years ago) link
Yeah, I haven't denied that. I'm not a Harmon partisan. I've even said that the first two episodes of s4 were better than the worst of s4.
― EveningStar (Sund4r), Friday, 1 March 2013 20:18 (eleven years ago) link
I fell asleep during this. I don't feel bad. The Not-Kroll German was laaaaaaaaame
― set the controls for the heart of the sun (VegemiteGrrl), Friday, 1 March 2013 20:36 (eleven years ago) link
Yeah, bringing back the Germans seemed lazy enough, but without Kroll? Shit smacked of desperation.
― Tarfumes The Escape Goat, Friday, 1 March 2013 21:34 (eleven years ago) link
I was kind of bummed that they didn't have Kroll, the other guy was pretty lame.
― Ulna (Nicole), Friday, 1 March 2013 21:56 (eleven years ago) link
the editing felt really weird on this one, the scene with abed and the one german guy talking about the game they play felt very weirdly shoehorned in. the jokes were broad and weak -- prof complaining he was fired for getting caught with a coed and annie pulling her cardigan closed? that's like the tritest college joke ever. pierce gets electrocuted? that's the joke?
― says a future man to his crystal son (reddening), Friday, 1 March 2013 23:44 (eleven years ago) link
Those were weak, and the Lactaid joke sucked too, but I liked e.g. "You were just following orders". I even laughed at the "Real World" joke.
― EveningStar (Sund4r), Saturday, 2 March 2013 00:01 (eleven years ago) link
"Hogan's Villains" joke was good too. But this is probably OTM for the most part: http://www.televisionwithoutpity.com/telefile/2013/03/community-alternative-history-of-the-german-invasion-review.php
― EveningStar (Sund4r), Saturday, 2 March 2013 00:13 (eleven years ago) link
oh I will admit to laughing at "the German version of The Nanny."
― says a future man to his crystal son (reddening), Saturday, 2 March 2013 00:22 (eleven years ago) link
Franlein, no?
― Vol. 3: The Life & Times of E. "Boom" Carter (C. Grisso/McCain), Saturday, 2 March 2013 00:43 (eleven years ago) link
I laughed at one bit of this, which was Pierce getting butthurt about not being able to be the Hitler of the group, otherwise this was pretty bad. Pierce getting electrocuted is probably exactly the sort of gag that Chevy wanted in the show all along. I was sort of pro- bringing the Germans back but WW2 gags are just lazy (crucially the fussball episode avoided them) and the guy playing their new leader was just bad.
Ken Jeong is an amazing comic actor but if they can't figure out better material for him than simply inserting the word 'Chang' into everything he says then they might as well bin the character. He was funny up until the end of S2 but they've totally lost their way with him by now.
An Oxford professor who is reduced to teaching at Greendale is hilarious in theory but didn't work that well in practice. Also, British people don't say "co-ed", ESPECIALLY fusty old Oxford history professors. It's kind of annoying because they totally nailed the Britishisms with Professor Ian Duncan (RIP), even when they were lol-Britishisms, so this just smacks of laziness in the writing.
Britta and Troy as a couple are not funny, and it prevents the group from laying into Britta like the good lord intended.
current show is this weird mix of straining fealty to previous seasons of show and betrayal of previous seasons of show.
The straining is the irritating part, you can tell the writers are trying to write for the nerds while simultaneously broadening the comedy. So there's this nudge-nudge kind of meta comedy for the nerds, like Pierce coming in and ruining Inspector Spacetime, or the digs at mainstream comedy in the first episode. But the original Community didn't dig at mainstream comedy, it loved it. And it did great broad comedy - ie any occasion when Jeff got kicked in the fact/beaten up/had his head bounced off the table.
It's weird because I don't think there's anything particularly wrong with the approach per se, the problem is the scripts aren't funny enough. Most of the actors are doing their best though - Alison Brie, Danny Pudi and Joel McHale in particular are still carrying their lines well enough to make the show watchable.
― Matt DC, Sunday, 3 March 2013 13:11 (eleven years ago) link
^^ otm. We grumbled at the co-ed thing too. Dumb.I did like this ep though, esp 'Hogan's villains'.
― kinder, Sunday, 3 March 2013 13:39 (eleven years ago) link
I wondered about "coed" too. I can't even imagine a Canadian professor using that term tbh.
― EveningStar (Sund4r), Sunday, 3 March 2013 14:42 (eleven years ago) link
Do Americans even still say "coed"?
― EveningStar (Sund4r), Sunday, 3 March 2013 14:43 (eleven years ago) link
American newscasters do.
I laughed a lot at this episode but I was three beers deep when I watched it. I thought the Real World joke was wonderful regardless of inebriation, though.
― my super interesting Kant story (DJP), Sunday, 3 March 2013 15:58 (eleven years ago) link
So what is the British English term for a student you get fired for having sex with?
― the girl from spirea x (f. hazel), Monday, 4 March 2013 00:19 (eleven years ago) link
if they can't figure out better material for him than simply inserting the word 'Chang' into everything he says then they might as well bin the character.
V. OTM.
― EveningStar (Sund4r), Monday, 4 March 2013 00:24 (eleven years ago) link
not british but i think it's "student" xp
― This is called money bags. (zachlyon), Monday, 4 March 2013 00:24 (eleven years ago) link
A "Bird"
― gentle german fatherly voice (President Keyes), Monday, 4 March 2013 01:36 (eleven years ago) link
its "newsie wewsies"
― max, Monday, 4 March 2013 01:37 (eleven years ago) link
funny episode
― Shuwopley (some dude), Monday, 4 March 2013 18:16 (eleven years ago) link
"Hogan's Villains" was a my favorite quickie joke of the whole episode. I thought this one was slightly better than the three that came before it. I dunno why. The jokes just seem better at Greendale instead of off campus. Still a far cry from the show's peak, though.
― Johnny Fever, Monday, 4 March 2013 18:38 (eleven years ago) link
I thought the whole thing was pretty funny and reading the handwringing about the study group being called Nazis online was even funnier. Like, it's been pretty apparent for a couple of seasons now that the study group en masse has an antagonistic relationship with the rest of the school; many of the members have friends outside of it but no one at the school aside from the Dean appears to have any time for them as a group.
― my super interesting Kant story (DJP), Monday, 4 March 2013 18:43 (eleven years ago) link
i feel like the show treads a line of "your awesome TV friends who you love to spend time with would be kinda dicks IRL" that is very familiar in the post-Seinfeld age, and that it's pretty silly that anyone would take offense at it.
― Shuwopley (some dude), Monday, 4 March 2013 19:36 (eleven years ago) link
are they editing in awkward pauses for laughter now, or am I just laughing less?
― da croupier, Tuesday, 5 March 2013 01:59 (eleven years ago) link
i totally understand if people who watch 10 sitcoms each week think this is one the 15 best sitcoms on tv, but it really does remind me of bob camp-era ren & stimpys
― da croupier, Tuesday, 5 March 2013 02:08 (eleven years ago) link
woops, meant to use the number 10 twice, didn't intend to make a further dis
― da croupier, Tuesday, 5 March 2013 02:09 (eleven years ago) link
PUPPET EPISODE
http://25.media.tumblr.com/0eff09698455529388e9793185aa9d7d/tumblr_mj96q3hxcc1r2igm4o1_1280.jpg
― Johnny Fever, Wednesday, 6 March 2013 19:34 (eleven years ago) link
So next...Troy and abed are broniesChangam stylePierce gives a TED Talk
― gentle german fatherly voice (President Keyes), Wednesday, 6 March 2013 19:43 (eleven years ago) link
Man, when you are reduced to ripping off an episode of Angel that's pretty weak sauce.
― Ulna (Nicole), Wednesday, 6 March 2013 19:47 (eleven years ago) link
tbf, that is possibly the best episode of Angel, so if you're gonna rip one off...
― Nhex, Wednesday, 6 March 2013 19:49 (eleven years ago) link
Yet the claymation episode was a mind-blowingly brilliant and original idea.
― Emperor Cos Dashit (Adam Bruneau), Wednesday, 6 March 2013 19:50 (eleven years ago) link
mostly because it was a Claymation Christmas episode
― "Bellini." (DJP), Wednesday, 6 March 2013 19:55 (eleven years ago) link
so actually the show is using the company that did the puppets for angel, if that helps anyone deal with that conflict at all.
― Clay, Wednesday, 6 March 2013 21:12 (eleven years ago) link
really the most upsetting thing for me here is learning that Angel had a puppet episode
― "Bellini." (DJP), Wednesday, 6 March 2013 21:20 (eleven years ago) link
it's fantastic.
― Nhex, Wednesday, 6 March 2013 21:24 (eleven years ago) link