Community: Season 3 thread (1 Viewer)

[joshEH]

The season finale will be 90 minutes. Wow.
That link says what happens in the last three episodes, for the spoilerphones. It also reveals Esposito will not be overlapping with next week's Starburns meth-death stuff, so boo that.
Not sure if the 90-minute finale is good or bad. Is it a vote of confidence, or are they burning off episodes? At least if Community is going away, it's an epic send-off. Probably a good thing it's happening during sweeps.
I'd probably say "vote of confidence," since 30 Rock ends the same night, and Parks and Rec the week before. That, and the fact that Community is basically the only thing on NBC Thursday that's drawing a consistent crowd.
This way, they can promote a grand finale-evening during sweeps. If they just quietly burned the remaining episodes off in the following weeks, with it as the only new content of the night, then I'd be concerned.

 

[TravisR]

I've hardly been an optimist when it comes to Community's ratings but since its return, I've become confident of its renewal for next year. I'm not six-seasons-and-a-movie confident but I'll just be happy if we can see them graduate at the end next season.
As for why they're running the three episodes, I don't think it's a vote of confidence or a sign of them burning off the episodes. They're probably doing it because a rerun of The Office or Parks And Recreation is likely to pull in the same or smaller size audience than new Community episodes.
Another idea: When does NBC announce their fall schedule? If they announce it the week of May 13, maybe they're planning on getting a little free publicity with Community's potential renewal and hope that that and a super long episode(s) boosts the finale's numbers and, in turn, their sweeps numbers.

 

[Albert_M]

Formally the schedule should be introduced during the network up front.

 

[Scott-S]

Community Renewed!!!!!
http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/2012/05/10/community-renewed-by-nbc/133476/

 

[joshEH]

For 13 episodes.
Or, as Vanity Fair is looking at it:
"NBC Will Reportedly Gently Cancel 30 Rock, Parks & Recreation, and Community."
From the piece:

A trio of devastating television developments today: NBC reportedly plans to raze 75 percent of its beloved Thursday-night comedy lineup. The rumored casualties: 30 Rock, Community, and Parks and Recreation — all three of which represent some of the smartest (if only moderately-watched) comedic output by any network right now. Instead of canceling the shows outright, the Peacock network will reportedly announce shortened final seasons for each at next week’s annual "upfront" presentation in New York City. The fourth Thursday-night sitcom, The Office, which is in its eight season, is predicted to remain on the air.
The network has already confirmed series orders for six new comedies, including Go On, from NBC alum Matthew Perry; The New Normal, from Ryan Murphy; 1600 Penn, the White House comedy starring Bill Pullman and Jenna Elfman; Anne Heche’s Save Me; and Animal Practice, a veterinary-clinic-set sitcom starring Justin Kirk. Judging by NBC’s recent comedy batting average, at least one of these shows should make you laugh.

Fuck them taking out the whole comedy-block like Godzilla. Some sources are reporting that NBC might order up an additional "back nine" episodes for either show if ratings warrant next year, but those odds are extremely slim. Greenblatt was supposedly under pressure to bulldoze the existing schedule anyhow, so this isn't the least bit surprising, frankly.
At best, Sony might take them to another network/outlet, like TBS or Netflix. Hey, if Jericho can (potentially) come back, anything's possible.
But at the end of the day, this is just NBC dodging a shitstorm of public outrage by giving these shows a token final renewal, so they can cover their asses and say, "See? We brought 'em back. Now shut the fuck up, assholes."

 

[Scott-S]

Wow, Glass half Empty Much?
I thought Community was a certain goner. To get more episodes seems like a good thing to me. Guess I don't understand the equation 13>0 as much as I thought.

 

[joshEH]

Yeah, thirteen brand-new episodes are certainly much better than zero brand-new episodes.
Don't get me wrong -- an 84-episode run isn't shabby at all, this day and age. I don't mean to sound like a total ingrate, here, necessarily. I guess it's more that that limping, wheezing, wretched POS known as The Office is likely to receive yet another guaranteed full-season pickup, while its much more vital, innovative brethren are barely getting NBC's table-scraps.
While I know ratings numbers are a big factor in this whole decision (The Office is NBC's second-highest-rated show, or something close to that), it still stings slightly.

 

[TravisR]

I guess it's more that that limping, wheezing, wretched POS known as The Office is likely to receive yet another guaranteed full-season pickup, while its much more vital, innovative brethren are barely getting NBC's table-scraps.

Community and Parks And Recreation will likely be joining the elite club of great shows that went basically unnoticed but went out at the top of their game (others in that group are The Wire and Arrested Development). It's better to burn out than to fade away.

 

[joshEH]

Some (belated) thoughts on this episode:

• This was the best Garrett-episode ever. I'm glad they saved him. His Barry White-voice absolutely killed us.
• "Vicki to Queen Three."
• Abraham Benrubi as insane-asylum Dean Laybourne.
• The "Can I Fry That?" part was fucking hysterical. Lost it when he got so pissed at the girl for suggesting "fries."
• Dean alerts the study group to the fire early...but not before going to the Tickle Trunk to pick out his Fireman outfit.
• An ongoing joke I love: Abed not knowing how to read analog-clocks. Hinted at in "Virtual Systems Analysis," expanded on in "Basic Lupine Urology," and tonight he is absolutely confused by them.
• "Remember that time we went rafting?"
  "Yes!"
  "Remember that time we painted that room?"
  "Yes!"
  "Remember that time we all argued?"
  "Yes!"
  *Troy starts screaming*

I think my third-favorite joke of the night was the study group agreeing that, wherever he was being held, the Dean was almost certainly trying to cobble together a sexy "Patty Hearst" outfit.
Second-favorite joke? Insane-asylum Troy and Jeff re-enacting the Magic Trampoline episode.
My favorite bit, though? The campus-cop going off on a long tangent about Antiques Roadshow, and finishing it off with, "...Oh, and leave in pairs. Rape's up 8 percent."

 

[Paul D G]

"Not just yet. I want to see what happens when I take a pen away from them."

I just love this show. Each time I think they can't top themselves they do it again. I honestly don't understand how my wife can sit there with a straight face every week.

(and yes, that's a sore spot with me)

 

[joshEH]

Also:
"Stop letting him make you realize stuff!!"

 

[spshultz]

Wait! Wait! Am I going to need a new coffee cup now? NBC, you better sell this cup!

Garrett's Barry White voice was awesome. I LOL'd big time with that one because it was completely unexpected.


And regarding Paul D G's statement: "I honestly don't understand how my wife can sit there with a straight face every week." My wife is the same way.

 

[Walter C]

While I have not gotten around to watching the 2nd half of this season, I am glad to hear the show is coming back next season. If this was cancelled and 30 Rock renewed, I would have been fuming mad, as I think Community still has it, while the other one totally lost it a few seasons ago.

 

[joshEH]

My resolution for today is to answer at least one question with, "I'm solving future crimes."
For a moment during the asylum-sequence, I was wondering if it would go into a "Sucker Punch"-riff, and was somehow both relieved and disappointed when it didn't happen. Still a little surprised that after the fake-psychiatrist-conspiracy reveal, no one (especially Abed) used "Shutter Island" as a verb.

• "I'm a fake psychiatrist, not a fake ethnologist!"
• Loved Annie's mini-melt at one line of Abed's Don Draper.
• Pre-cog Garrett.
• The homeless guy with the rabid dog.
• In other news, this episode pretty much resolves that whole, "Annie-and-Abed-kiss-again" speculation...
• So who won Paintball 3? Pierce? Abed? Personally, I'm going to go with the left-field choice, and say Leonard.
• I really loved how underwhelming the prize was: after Priority Registration and $100,000 cash, all they had were tickets to see Chicago (with George Wendt and Stefanie Powers).
• "Troy and Abed in the Morning...Nights!":
  "Hey Jeff, what's your question?"
  "Who is this?"
  "Great question! We're us."

(Also, I'm pretty sure that in the scene where Jeff gives Annie coat outside the party, you can hear the original "party song" they played over the Animal House/food fight-closing of the "Schmitty" episode in S1.)

 

[joshEH]

 

[Quentin]

Nights!
That Brett Ratner...I'm just going to say it...he's the next Spielberg!

 

[joshEH]

The only thing that really worries me in all this is that NBC will make a "Community/30 Rock" combo at 8 PM, next year. And since 30 Rock got held to midseason this year, it likely gets to go first this time around. And if Community starts in January, it pretty much negates any chance of getting a "back nine" order, and makes S5 truly improbable.
It's all quite messed up, and also a little unfair.
And, as this is 30 Rock's final 13 episodes, they can fill any hole in NBC's schedule at any time. Not only do they not need a back nine, they can't actually get a back nine. It's over, done, the end. A summer burnoff or "Bent"-treatment would be just as profitable for NBC as anything else, since 30 Rock's ratings are (comparatively) crap.
Community actually NEEDS that flippin' back nine.
Right now, I'm just trying to focus on the happiness of having Community not being canceled. My biggest hope is that whenever it ends, Harmon and company are given enough advance notice to write and produce a proper finale. Anything else we get is really just gravy at this point.

 

[Albert_M]

I have no expectations of Community going past season 4. I hope (and I'm sure that they won't let us down) that Season 4 is great and also works as closure for graduation.

 

[joshEH]

After rewatching this episode, the brillance of that asylum sequence made me imagine how other epic moments in Greendale's history might have been portrayed through that filter:

• Jeff trying to beat a janitor at pool naked, using a mop-handle as a stick.
• Britta singing her heart's song, "Me So Merry," in a straightjacket.
• Jeff and Abed trying to get drunk off apple juice to "drunk-dial" Britta. (Maybe Slater's one of the doctors, and Jeff thinks he's got a "thing" going with her.)
• The entirety of the AD&D episode taking place just from their therapy table, and with a paper die.
• Leonard reviewing imaginary frozen pizza in his chair.
• Shirley and Annie being pretend-cops to try to figure out who left a papier-maché "dead" frog in the middle of the room overnight.
• It actually makes the U.N. episode's plot work a little better if you imagine Annie pretending to be Annie Kim, and serving as her own antagonist.
• And how would the Rocket Science/Epidemiology episodes work? Trapped in a locked storage closet with old KFC boxes from a charity event? Quarantined to a new hospital room from a measles outbreak?
• The pilot is Jeff constantly trying to take control of the group therapy from Dr. Pelton. It'd basically consist of Jeff constantly interrupting the good Doctor, and generally being an ass, while all the other patients nod in agreement.

The STD fair is actually a group-therapy session conducted because of Jeff and Britta and Troy and Annie's inappropriate relationships. But it spins out of control once Annie admits to sexual trauma in her past, Pierce using a pay phone to call a hooker, Jeff trying to date a drawing he made in crayon on the wall, and Troy getting overly competitive with Abed. Dr. Pelton tries to get everyone back on track, but instead they just take away that they shouldn't use condoms.
Here's a thought -- what would Chang be? Another patient?
Either Chang's "normal" as another patient from a different ward, or they could play it ironically, and he's 100% sane and composed, but from the group's perspective, he comes off nuts. (I wonder how he got the "El Tigre" nickname in that event?)

 

[TravisR]

Here's a thought -- what would Chang be? Another patient?
Either Chang's "normal" as another paitent from a different ward, or they could play it ironically, and he's 100% sane and composed, and to the group's perspective, he comes off nuts. (I wonder how he got the "El Tigre" nickname in that event?)

Yeah, Chang would have to be the normal one in the asylum. On a related note, I can't believe how crazy they've made that character and that it still works. I don't know if it's a testament to Ken Jeung, the writers, the wackiness of the show or all of the above but I love it.