Community - Season 2 Thread (1 Viewer)

[Citizen87645]

Yeah, the Cape stuff was hilarious and brutal in a way. Serves 'em right though.

 

[TravisR]

Originally Posted by joshEH

I'm guessing there's TONS of deleted footage from this one.

Yeah. What's funny is that clip shows are a way for a series to save money and this (pseudo) clip show looked like it had tons of sets and location shoots which was probably a fairly expensive proposition.


And it looks like the finale is now spread across two weeks (instead of one hour) on May 5 and May 12.

 

[Paul D G]

A minor footnote: This past week Community poked fun at Glee, and Glee poked fun at Dan Harmon...

 

[Josh Dial]

Originally Posted by Paul D G

A minor footnote: This past week Community poked fun at Glee, and Glee poked fun at Dan Harmon...

Actually, Glee made fun of *Mark* Harmon, and his show, NCIS. Mark is not Dan

 

[Paul D G]

 

[Josh Dial]

Originally Posted by Paul D G

I...don't know what that means.

 

[spshultz]

I just noticed the name of the robot was "Boob-a-tron 6000".

 

[Greg_S_H]

"I don't want my baby's first memory to be Starburns!" And he looks like, "What did I do?"

"We almost had a class where it wasn't all about them." "Remember when they went on that St. Patrick's Day fishing trip?"


"Cancel school or we tell everyone about this."

Annie bounce running down the hall in the promo for next week looks bonerific.

 

[Citizen87645]

Yeah, the animated gif practically makes itself and the scene illustrates the purpose of a sports bra.

 

[joshEH]

"Make your money, whore!!"


"And that is what Jews do at weddings. Anthropology!"


"Are you two going to fall in love?"


Also, Abed mentioned he'd delivered a baby earlier in the year, with Troy trying to figure out how he'd missed it, and Abed mentioning that Troy was just "somewhere in the background."


Normally, I would say there was too much Chang last night, because he's best in small doses. But it made sense for this episode. If he hadn't already been there when Shirley went into labor, he would've shown up somehow. They've made a point of showing how important it was to Chang to be the father, so there was no way he was missing that.


And if there had been less Chang, we might not have gotten one of the best lines of the night:

Chang: "How do you know I'm not the father?"
Shirley: "There haven't been any locusts."



Quote:

Originally Posted by Greg_S_H

"I don't want my baby's first memory to be Starburns!" And he looks like, "What did I do?"

"We almost had a class where it wasn't all about them." "Remember when they went on that St. Patrick's Day fishing trip?"

I thought it was a wonderful callback to how every time the group interacts with anyone outside of the group (and Dean Pelton, and Chang), they're always horrible to them. Note the "Chicken Fingers" episode, or the "Mean Girls" episode, or pretty much any episode with Vaughn.


Actually, I've been thinking about that recently, how I'd like to see some more stories about the study-group being seen as the "cool group" on campus, and the friction it's created with the lowly commoners, or just flat-out fawning envy. Jeff and Britta even openly brag about how the others are "just jealous" of their "good looks." Surely, people are envious of -- or even fawn over -- Troy and Abed, too.


I also I liked the callback to Starburns' enjoyment of lame periodicals (i.e., "Wholesome Living" magazine in the April Fool's episode).


On the other side of the coin, having the unseen Food Fair turn into a race-riot provided a great reminder that ALL of Greendale Community College is fucking insane, not just our little group and their anthropology class.


(Also, I demand "Fat Neil/Vicki" 'shipper videos on YouTube within the week!)

 

[joshEH]

...One simply must click:











Great "2001" riff, what with the Ligeti-ish music, and all. (Starchild!!)


Too, I swear that I was getting a "Raiders of the Lost Ark"-vibe the first time she poked her head in. The expression on her face was exactly like Belloq's right before his face started to melt.


Also, I hope Season 3 has a "B"-squad centric episode, following the exploits of Starburns, Fat Neil, Leonard, Pavel, Garrett, Magnitude, Vicki, etc. They should have their own insane hierarchy.


Garrett should be the "Chang" of the group.

 

[Derek Miner]

Originally Posted by joshEH

Also, I hope Season 3 has a "B"-squad centric episode, following the exploits of Starburns, Fat Neil, Leonard, Pavel, Garrett, Magnitude, Vicki, etc. They should have their own insane hierarchy.

I was just thinking the same thing in the shower this morning! I suppose it's the natural thought process from Starburns' line about how every class has to be about the other guys. So let's see a day with Starburns and the rest. Harmon's got to be on it.

 

[joshEH]

That's the thing I love about this show: it lets its "background characters" acknowledge what's going on. Think about how many hospital shows there are that only ever acknowledge around five people who work there, even though hospitals have literally hundreds of employees.


In retrospect, of all the clips from last week's episode, I really want to see the whole story behind the Jeff-Annie-Pierce jump rope squad:





I also won't rest until I figure out why Pierce (dressed as a hot dog) looked so distressed about the rampaging robot. Also, why he was dressed as a hot dog.

 

[joshEH]

Some extra Dan Harmon awesomeness from a Q&A-thing he did at Reddit:


About Glee, no.1:


Quote: Imagine being someone that's not getting paid any more to write my show than they would get paid to write Glee, where everyone's clearly home by 5.

About Glee, no.2:


Quote: I have no idea what you mean. There was a glee-club at Greendale, and their bus was driving on a rainy night, and a downed power line was hanging across the road, and the bus drove through it, and it sliced through the bus and decapitated everyone, row by row, so that the people in the back had to watch all their friends get decapitated, then they got decapitated, and then the bus drove into a pool of lava. And I guess the crazy thing is, the electricity from the power line somehow kept their nervous systems "alive," so they could feel the lava. They didn't escape the pain of the lava just because they didn't have heads. They felt the lava. It was terrible but it was not metaphorical in any way. I would never be that petty and envious of another show's popularity.

I mean, I know some people love Glee, but I just can't understand it. I've given that show several chances, because the core concept sounds like something I'd enjoy, but man, every single time I've regretted it. It has such an incredible lack of truth or wit, which seems to be the two things it's aiming at most. Also, it turns out that watching Gwyneth Paltrow sing "Forget You" is the worst thing there is, period.


I guess most shows are about the bottom line, but Glee essentially has no plot any more. They just figure out what pop song is blowing up the charts, shoehorn it into the show, and then rake up the bucks as it cleans house in iTunes sales.


I tried to watch "Original Song" to see if they'd answered Jeff Winger's challenge, but got bored and quit after about 15 minutes. The ratings that Glee gets are, frankly, depressing -- a sad barometer of American taste in pop-culture.


Anyway, LOVE that Harmon isn't afraid to attack them -- but a little sad that it probably doesn't even matter.

 

[TravisR]

The only reason that I can see to not mock Glee is that you'll date Community by making jokes about a show that's 15 minutes are almost up. Glee has been on for two years so it's about time for the "I only watch it because everyone else watches it" crowd to jump ship and I've seen tons of critics complaining about Glee this year so it seems to me that Glee's time as a pop culture phenomenon is soon to be over. Then again, I thought the same thing about American Idol years ago and that show is still one of the biggest things on TV so what do I know?

 

[Josh Dial]

Originally Posted by joshEH

I mean, I know some people love Glee, but I just can't understand it. I've given that show several chances, because the core concept sounds like something I'd enjoy, but man, every single time I've regretted it. It has such an incredible lack of truth or wit, which seems to be the two things it's aiming at most. Also, it turns out that watching Gwyneth Paltrow sing "Forget You" is the worst thing there is, period.


I guess most shows are about the bottom line, but Glee essentially has no plot any more. They just figure out what pop song is blowing up the charts, shoehorn it into the show, and then rake up the bucks as it cleans house in iTunes sales.


I tried to watch "Original Song" to see if they'd answered Jeff Winger's challenge, but got bored and quit after about 15 minutes. The ratings that Glee gets are, frankly, depressing -- a sad barometer of American taste in pop-culture.


Anyway, LOVE that Harmon isn't afraid to attack them -- but a little sad that it probably doesn't even matter.

I find this criticism (essentially thinly-veiled criticism of Glee fans) sort of funny considering you are, and I do *not* mean this in any negative sense at all, the quintessential fan-boy for Community. To you, this show can do no wrong (and I have two seasons' worth of posts as evidence), and when someone says anything remotely-negative about an episode, you are right there, defending it.


You comment that you've given Glee several chances, yet your comments seem to be mere parroting of the stereotypical "internet" comments: no plot, bottom line, shoe-horned-in-hits, et cetera. I'm not sure these statements are backed by you actually watching the show, and rather are just "things you've read on the internet."

Further, you claim you watched "Original Song" for 15 minutes before quitting--that's like watching the paintball episode of Community for 8 minutes, and then turning it off. Ask yourself this: if someone did just that, and then posted on the forum that they "just can't see the appeal of Community," would you sit idly by? I think not.


I'm only making these comments because of the "American taste in pop culture" line (ignoring the fact that I'm Canadian). It seems that the bulk of your posts fall into 3 categories: heaping praise on Community (rightly so), taking a dump on Big Bang Theory, and another on Glee. The latter two are usually coupled with comments/implications to the effect of anyone who likes those shows has bad taste.

 

[joshEH]

That's fair, although I was exaggerating a bit when I talked about quitting so soon into "Original Song" (it was more like around halfway through, with commercials, from what I remember).


It's true I don't watch Glee regularly any longer, but I have seen a good number of episodes (perhaps slightly more than half of the total run), and I'm not fundamentally opposed to Glee, or of comparing it to Community, but while I feel there are some surface-level comparisons to be made here, the primary problem with this is that it assumes Glee actually achieves its goal of being the kind of show it strives to be.


I was amused by some of this season's early episodes, but dismayed by its later turns to melodrama and "lessons of the week," which now seem to be its primary objective. Ironically, I really think that if they would just stick to over-the-top jokes and musical numbers, it could be a decent show, for what it is.


Instead, most of the episodes now seem to be taken up by maudlin storylines and forced "themes," with the characters molding themselves to whatever that week's stories and themes require, while Community's characterizations tend to remain far more consistent, even though the premise of the show itself may change from week to week.

The lack of overlap between Community and Glee fans is interesting. As you mention, I'm a Community near-obsessive (it's fine, don't worry!), but I also have friends who (conversely) love Glee and despise Community. There's a lot of people out there who just don't want to watch an episode centered on Dungeons & Dragons, or try to figure out why the hell these people are in a stop-motion cartoon (even if the episodes are quite good).


Glee, though, masks its own toying with reality behind frequently-undercooked writing and inconsistencies in character, which some people either can't or don't want to pick up on. To be sure, Community has its share of writing-based issues too, but I've talked to hardcore Glee fans about some of the problems with that show, and they (in my experience) either have absolutely no idea what you're talking about, or they brush it off by saying that the show is just about "fun," and that "you're overanalyzing it."


I've seen my share of Glee episodes, and my real gripe isn't with the cast-versions of songs (it's about a glee-club, who admittedly usually don't perform many original songs), as much as the show's inability or unwillingness to develop a "voice."


Conversely, Community knows exactly the type of show it wants to be: possessing a persistent tone punctuated by clever writing (and, occasionally, genuinely-touching moments) delivered by a cast of consistent characters. Even if one doesn't like Community, you probably can't really argue with the fact that it has a steady goal in mind at the end of the day.

 

[Paul D G]

I'm with Josh on this one. We've been watching Glee since the pilot aired and while the first half of Season 1 was terrific fun, once it came back from the mid-season break it was a different show. In Season 2 it became unrecognizable. Plots are, indeed, non-existant (apart from Kurt's storyline) and it became clear it was no longer about telling a story and performing songs that reflected the characters feelings or to propel the story, but about what hit they can take advantage of. Case in point - last week's episode was quite clearly written around finding a way to use Lady Gaga's new song rather than the other way around.


We're dumping Glee after this season. We just don't enjoy it anymore. As for how much longer it will last, unfortunately the teenagers who immediately buy all the songs off iTunes will keep it alive just as the teenagers keep alive American Idol despite the lack of any real talent in most seasons (we dumped that at the end of last season. I can think of only three and a half Idol contestants who went on to success after Idol. I'm counting Jennifer Hudson as the half because while she received fame in 'Dreamgirls' I don't think she had any real chart success. That means while all the 12 year olds are voting for David Archuleta (sp?) every week, none of them actually bought his album.)


Back to Community - I think I'm going to hold off watching next week's episode until the finale so I can watch the two straight through.

 

[Greg_S_H]

Donglover is going to be making the funny in Dallas tomorrow, but I'm not going. Just heard about it, for one.

 

[Josh Dial]

Originally Posted by Paul D G

I'm with Josh on this one.

Either way, you're with Josh! Everyone is with Josh! *evil laughter*


Seriously, though, I see where you are coming from regarding that show.