Community

[vektor]

Originally Posted by polak

I don't get it.
They took every little "trait" of Community, like Abed being weird, a parody or theme, the dean being odd/gay, and took it to levels that were just not funny. Way too over the top.

Like why did Britta and Troy fight? Why is Annie so weird?

Also, they changed the pacing. It felt like the episode went by really quick....

Going to go watch the paintball episode and have a stiff drink with the girlfriend to try and get over this. I'm serious.

you lose your writers and that'll happen. Look at what happened when the trailer park boys tried to make a show without the trailer park boys' writers, every little thing about their characters that was funny and awsome turned into garbage (I'm talking about the drunk and on drugs happy fun time hour)

[polak]

Originally Posted by Yasa

Pierce summed it up the best; "what the hell did we just do?"

I thought it was an alright episode but it was way too busy. Too many story lines being crammed into 22 minutes, which made it feel rushed. The lack of the study room table stuck out to me as odd.

Yeah this sums it up best.

The worst part is they had a solid idea in the hunger games spoof. It was literally all laid out for them. Why didn't the whole study group participate in them? Too much like paintball?

I know I'll watch every episode of the season but if they're all like this, I'll be glad if it gets cancelled.

I hope pre-dreamatorium Abed comes back...

[longsuffering]

Got to laugh at the group think here. Two bad reviews get published, half the posters are ready to pronounce the show dead after one episode.

[troutman]

Originally Posted by longsuffering

Got to laugh at the group think here. Two bad reviews get published, half the posters are ready to pronounce the show dead after one episode.

I feel like many missed the joke/concept. I would not expect the next episode to have the same flavour at all. I think history will judge this episode kindly. Watch it again in a few months.

[foofighter15]

sorry to join the conversation late, but after last night it became clear what Dan Harmon was fighting with NBC over all the time...
Condering how bad that episode was last night its obvious why they delayed the start of the season to Februrary so they could work on the show with less pressure in regards to deadlines so they could try to right the ship. Without Dan Harmon I just don't see that happening.

[polak]

Originally Posted by troutman

I feel like many missed the joke/concept. I would not expect the next episode to have the same flavour at all. I think history will judge this episode kindly. Watch it again in a few months.

That might be the case but it's not our job to understand the joke. It's the showrunners job to make sure the joke is told in a way that everyone gets it.

Considering that Community is known for being incredible at delivering complex, meta, multi-episode jokes and nailing them, last night was quite a misstep. At least to me.

I have faith that it could get better but one thing to remember is that the Community "concept" episodes walk a really fine line between brilliance (paintball, mafia movie) and terrible (imo, last nights episode, claymation, annie in the dreamatorium). Also the concept episodes need to be spaced out throughout the season. Another huge fear of mine is that the new showrunners are going to overdue the parodies to try and stay true to Harmon which will get stale fast. 4 or 5 "special" episodes in a 22 episode season is a good balance.

[Superflyer]

Well reading peoples reviews I may be OK with my PVR taping college basketball instead of community.

[M*A*S*H 4077]

That was interesting... The last 4 or 5 minutes seemed to pick up a bit, hopefully that carries forward. Annie was just weird, Britta and Troy didn't seem to have much purpose in this episode.

I liked the Abed TV parts with the laugh track. Did anyone else catch the "American Sword Cooks" ad that popped up while on Abed TV? I thought that was the funniest part of the episode.

[octothorp]

I'm with Troutman, I think the AbedTV stuff was designed to be the sort of bland and warm comedy that Community fans tend to hate. The only parts of that world that were funny were those that were outside of that show (Pierce being recast, the in-picture ads for other shows). The actual TV show jokes there were intentionally flat and unfunny.

I do, however, also agree with those saying that there were too-many plot-lines going on here. Either the hunger games or going into abed's mind inception-style would have been enough to anchor a whole episode.
Also, I'm not, at this point, a fan of setting up the Dean moving in next to Jeff as a major storyline for the season... just personal preference, but the Dean and Jeff work better as just little asides here and there, while the Dean is much funnier interacting with other characters.

[polak]

I'm bored and have the day off so I rewatched it.

The problem is 100% too many plot lines going. There are some funny lines but it gets lost in the confusion. There are also to many "montage", cut scene moments.

Best line (this is vintage Community):

Britta: I doubt any one is going to miss wars
Troy: Star WARS, thumb WARS... *gasp* Storage wars!

[GP_Matt]

I definitely liked the opening sequence. The start with the laugh track had me reaching for the remote ready to turn the show off and never mention the post Dan Harmon period. So much relief was felt when it was just a dream sequence.

On that note, apparently someone from Reddit predicted it quite a while ago. I wonder if it was a homage to Reddit.
http://imgur.com/dBUyxWX

According to Megan Ganz it was coincidental

[–]MeganGanzwriter 34 points 2 hours ago
Yep! You freaked out a room of writers who thought they finally had a good premiere idea. Nicely done. (That sounds sarcastic, but it's not. We're such a jumpy bunch.) Actually, I remember that the multi-cam idea was tossed around at the end of season 3. During our hiatus, when Andy and I were meeting with the new showrunners, we went out to lunch together and I brought up the idea of making the premiere a multi-cam, so we could cold open with a laugh track and maybe even trick a few people into thinking all of their worst fears had come true. He and I had so much fun talking about the idea that we thought, "Let's sit in a room and do this again, but let's make Sony pay for it." The multi-cam as happy place arc fit so naturally with all of the crap (both narratively and Deadline Hollywood-y) we had to deal with during the premiere. Plus, Fred Willard? Come on.
So, krevency, does this mean if you come out of the ground during winter and see your shadow, we'll have another paintball?

[kirant]

Originally Posted by longsuffering

Got to laugh at the group think here. Two bad reviews get published, half the posters are ready to pronounce the show dead after one episode.

Huh? I don't think many people are burying it. They just said that it's a bad episode.

That, plus CP likes to overreact a lot.

Originally Posted by octothorp

I'm with Troutman, I think the AbedTV stuff was designed to be the sort of bland and warm comedy that Community fans tend to hate. The only parts of that world that were funny were those that were outside of that show (Pierce being recast, the in-picture ads for other shows). The actual TV show jokes there were intentionally flat and unfunny.

That's certainly what made it funny. It bore some resemblance to their Glee episode, where they blatantly sexualized characters (well, A character) and made reference to the 4th wall (which they swore not to do).

[getbak]

Like others have said, I think the biggest problem with the episode was that they had two competing main story lines.

I think a whole episode of Abed's "Happy Place" and/or a who episode of "The Hunger Deans" would have been better than putting them both in one. As it was, jumping between the two was just disjointed.

[worth]

I just watched it and I thought it was pretty good. Not great, but it was pretty funny. Opening sequence was great, I didn't really have a problem with the multiple story line thing, I thought Abed's rules to the fountain were perfect, Britta and Troy holding hands is a little weird, but I don't think that will last anyway. I will reserve complete judgement until were a few episodes in, but I really don't think it's as bad as a lot of you are making it out to be.

[gottabekd]

Originally Posted by polak

I'm bored and have the day off so I rewatched it.

The problem is 100% too many plot lines going. There are some funny lines but it gets lost in the confusion. There are also to many "montage", cut scene moments.

Best line (this is vintage Community):

Britta: I doubt any one is going to miss wars
Troy: Star WARS, thumb WARS... *gasp* Storage wars!

Storage Wars was the best line in the show.

Too bad there was so little competition for that title.

It was a bad episode. Season 3 had many bad episodes, among many good ones. Let's hope for a rebound next week.

[devo22]

I thought it was solid. Not great, but also not bad. I agree that it was too crowded, separate episodes for the hunger deans and Abed TV would have been better.

I liked Jeff's "don't you read Garrett's twitter? He sent out a crisis alert!" line. The simple thought of the model UN episode with all the crisis alerts made me smile.

[Bigtime]

CRISIS ALERT

This episode is still in my PVR, unwatched. Tell me what to do thread!

[troutman]

Great moments - Leonard about to go up the climbing wall. Fred Willard as Pierce.

[Maritime Q-Scout]

I'm inclined to agree that there was too much going on to make it a truly great episode.

Jeff/Dean
Annie/Shirley
Abed/Happy Place
Troy/Britta

They needed to limit to two storylines, with a focus I actual Hunger Deans which for the record should have parodied Hunger Games and not American Gladiators.

Hunger Deans had the potential to be this season's paintball minus the paintball) instead it was wasted.

I'm not entirely sure the My Happy Place was needed at all, Abed has had the same story before (Animation Christmas).

It was good, but they tried too much which prevented it from being great.

Last critique. Annie shouldn't wear a sweater coat... Ever

[TurnedTheCorner]

This is like reading a PGT after a loss.