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
Was a really good episode iirc
― pandemic, Wednesday, 6 March 2013 21:25 (eleven years ago) link
You rc, was written by Ben Edlund
― ( ͡° ͜ʖ͡°) (sic), Wednesday, 6 March 2013 21:47 (eleven years ago) link
Not a bad episode, and Jeff's half-brother was pretty funny. But what the hell, are Troy and Britta suddenly no longer dating?
― Tarfumes The Escape Goat, Friday, 8 March 2013 02:53 (eleven years ago) link
thought that was weird too
― Nhex, Friday, 8 March 2013 04:18 (eleven years ago) link
I'm really bored by this show now and it makes me sad.
― Evan, Friday, 8 March 2013 05:44 (eleven years ago) link
I'm watching this and man the guy from Workaholics is a lucky sonofabitch to get so much work. He's a horrible actor.
― Emperor Cos Dashit (Adam Bruneau), Friday, 8 March 2013 19:04 (eleven years ago) link
He has a certain amount of buzz right now. He'll go away soon.
― Johnny Fever, Friday, 8 March 2013 19:08 (eleven years ago) link
I thought he was decent, in a fun, unrealistically over-the-top kind of way. Never seen him before/in Workaholics, though.
― Tarfumes The Escape Goat, Friday, 8 March 2013 19:09 (eleven years ago) link
He's in Workaholics, this (and future?) ep of Community, a Sim City commercial, and probably a couple other places I can't recall.
I know people who LOVE Workaholics. I think it's just bad tv. Not because I'm a prude or too highbrow for it. It's just not good. In this guy's defense, he's probably the least objectionable of the three stars.
― Johnny Fever, Friday, 8 March 2013 19:12 (eleven years ago) link
he was also in Pitch Perfect
yes, I saw Pitch Perfect
― "Bellini." (DJP), Friday, 8 March 2013 19:14 (eleven years ago) link
Didn't find this very funny at all - Jeff's dad and brother felt poorly cast and a wasted opportunity. The Abed-Shawshank Redemption strand was really strained. Britta was good in this one though.
I'm losing patience with the show in general by the point, but I am totally ready for Pierce to ride off into the sunset now because Chevy is carrying his lines worse than anyone right now. The rest of the cast are still great to watch even when their lines aren't very funny.
― Matt DC, Friday, 8 March 2013 19:22 (eleven years ago) link
Chevy had one really awkward line reading last night. I can't remember what it was, but I immediately thought he must have been asked to do another take but probably/dickishly refused.
― Tarfumes The Escape Goat, Friday, 8 March 2013 19:27 (eleven years ago) link
Thinking back to a character like Vaughan, or Pierce's dad, and how great the minor details of those characters were, and they conspicuously failed to do anything like that with Jeff's brother. Like, he vomits sometimes? Is that the sum total of the humour in the character?
― Matt DC, Friday, 8 March 2013 19:27 (eleven years ago) link
I saw Workaholics, maybe 5 or 6 eps, and thought it was hilarious. But here, not so much. Didn't help that he was cast for a role in the serious/dramatic/character development story arc. I thought maybe he was supposed to be slow, so it just seemed mean-spirited to me.
― Emperor Cos Dashit (Adam Bruneau), Friday, 8 March 2013 19:31 (eleven years ago) link
I thought large chunks of this were funny/great, esp Britta
I also admit to taking the easy lols offered by Annie's attempt to fake her way out of Shirley's house and how Shirley thwarted her
I thought the main point of Jeff's brother was that he was the exact opposite of Jeff; short, dumpy, codependent, super emotional, etc, basically showing Jeff's dad as an all-around failure of a parental figure and an emotional villain for Jeff to build his speech off of.
― "Bellini." (DJP), Friday, 8 March 2013 19:32 (eleven years ago) link
They could have done all that in ways that were funny, and with better -drawn characters. It all felt like a pointless frittering away of a moment they've been working up to for years.
― Matt DC, Friday, 8 March 2013 19:49 (eleven years ago) link
define "better-drawn"
― "Bellini." (DJP), Friday, 8 March 2013 19:52 (eleven years ago) link
I'll agree that Jeff meeting his dad seemed thrown together, but really, once Bill Murray was out of the running, I didn't care anymore.
― Tarfumes The Escape Goat, Friday, 8 March 2013 19:58 (eleven years ago) link
Brolin was not a bad choice imo
― set the controls for the heart of the sun (VegemiteGrrl), Friday, 8 March 2013 19:59 (eleven years ago) link
despite jeff's dad and brother being pretty nondescript i thought the emotional stuff at the end was pretty well done, even if it was a bit much all at once. but prior to that i can't say i got much of anything from this episode. watching this season while i rewatch season 2 for the first time in a while probably isn't helping me have much in the way of good feelings about the new stuff.
did anyone else think that chevy chase's delivery was often a bit slurred? i had to strain to pick up what he was saying at a few points.
― hot young stalin (Merdeyeux), Friday, 8 March 2013 20:12 (eleven years ago) link
shawshank stuff was so strained
― This is called money bags. (zachlyon), Friday, 8 March 2013 20:17 (eleven years ago) link
I didn't even watch this! It's not like I was boycotting it, I just got busy and forgot. I was curious to see how the situation with Jeff's dad played out, oh well.
― Ulna (Nicole), Friday, 8 March 2013 20:43 (eleven years ago) link
I know people who LOVE Workaholics. I think it's just bad tv.
― Johnny Fever, Friday, March 8, 2013 2:12 PM (1 hour ago)
It's the poor man's It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia.
― Evan, Friday, 8 March 2013 20:48 (eleven years ago) link
workaholics is better than community
― congratulations (n/a), Friday, 8 March 2013 20:55 (eleven years ago) link