Does Anyone Else Watch COMMUNITY?- Page 19

[jasonf]

Posted: 2/14/13 at 11:12pm

I didn't like last week's but tonight's episode was very strong. Definitely better than the premiere.

Honestly, I can't stand the dean. He was only in it for twenty seconds tonight and it was SO much stronger without him. I wish they'd dump that character, or at least keep him to a brief cameo each week. Nothing against the actor, either - I just hate the character.

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 2/14/13 at 11:21pm

The Dean is one of the best characters ever in the history of history!!!!

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 2/14/13 at 11:38pm

Yeah, jason, I don't think you're gonna get a lot of support in that. If you'd said Chang I would have agreed with you.

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 2/15/13 at 12:20am

I thought the amount of Chang in the season premiere was PERFECT.

[Wynbish]

Posted: 2/15/13 at 12:34am

Was he in this episode? Haven't seen it yet, but it's recorded.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 2/15/13 at 12:56am

Unless I blocked him out, no. I really have no beef with Ken Jeong, but the show has always had what I like to call (and that my brother laughs so hard about) "The Chang Problem." Small doses, more cogent than crazy is how I like Chang. I think my favorite Chang episode is the Model UN one.

I have a dream that even if this season just goes haywire and it NBC cancels it for good, maybe it could pop up somewhere else like TBS or TV Land or OWN I don't care. And with Chevy Chase gone, maybe Dan Harmon could come back.

[Wynbish]

Posted: 2/15/13 at 1:04am

I never truly thought of Chang as a bad or annoying character. Just a drastically less fantastic character than the rest.

[jasonf]

Posted: 2/15/13 at 4:30pm

Oh, I realize it's a minority opinion - he just annoys the hell out of me. Chang I can take or leave, though I also feel small doses are better with him.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 2/15/13 at 4:39pm

All the reviews I've read of this episode just savaged it. I think the internets is over the show.

[mormonophobic]

Posted: 2/15/13 at 5:25pm

Well most of the reviews hated the premiere episode as well. They were wrong then and they're wrong now (in my opinion). I think that if they had no idea Dan Harmon was gone, they wouldn't be looking for so many ways to tear it apart.

[strummergirl]

Posted: 2/15/13 at 6:19pm

I feel like people cannot get out of their head that Dan Harmon (and actually a number of writers) is gone and that anybody put in their place (even if these new show-runners had worked with the Russo Brothers, who deserve some amount of credit for this show, previously on kindred spirit show Happy Endings) are dead in the water already because they are performing NBC's marching orders to be broader. It admittedly took me the second viewing to enjoy the show more. It took Dan Harmon a while to be Dan Harmon weird, so that this first episode felt like some pretender or imitation feels a little too rough on a show that most mainstream critics never really got into until latter Season 2 and Season 3.

We seem to forget Season 1's entire trajectory and just remember the weirdness post-Paintball episode on forward. Season 3 was a threshold of the weirdness, even as somebody who dug the Ken Burns homages and Law & Order episode, so I guess there is a bit whiplash in there being some level of normalcy, but let's not act like this show is the most broad comedy on the NBC Thursday lineup.

And Dean is a great character and his growing role was welcomed. I got nothing against Ken Jeong, Chang is just a spottily-written character, but John Oliver's Professor Duncan being written out that indirectly led to Dean getting written in more in the series was a welcomed change.

[Wynbish]

Posted: 2/15/13 at 11:32pm

Watched the episode earlier today. I don't understand criticism of this particular episode because it had so many things similar to other episodes (Pierce's frustration at not being included - Season 2 paintball). I loved Shirley's continuing reaction to the sex chamber.

Such a fun episode
That we were the only people to watch, apparently

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 2/15/13 at 11:59pm

For what it's worth, I thought it was funny that people were so excited over last week's numbers.

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 2/16/13 at 12:02am

3 1/2 seasons and a webisode, maybe?

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 2/16/13 at 12:11am

I mean, barring some sort of deus ex machina, the show is dead at this point anyway, isn't it? They've already finished shooting (not like anyone really expected NBC to order more episodes for the season) , NBC more or less abandoned it three years ago, and the vast majority of its fanbase (those of us here excluded) seems to be wishing it would be gone already.

I may just stop reading ANYTHING about this show online anymore and just try to enjoy whatever time we have left with it.

Updated On: 2/16/13 at 12:11 AM

[Wynbish]

Posted: 2/16/13 at 12:16am

And there is something to be said about ending a show before it goes bad.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 2/16/13 at 12:20am

Well, according to everyone (hyperbolicly!) it already has!

[Wynbish]

Posted: 2/16/13 at 12:28am

I agree that the only difference is just the knowledge that Dan is gone. I haven't noticed any other glaring differences.

Look at last season. John Goodman was in the first episode to start that weird air conditioning subplot. Britta and Chang were weird in the second episode. The third, with the timelines, was one of the best of the whole show.

People aren't realizing that the same pattern may apply here, because they don't recognize it as the same pattern, because of the difference of him being gone. They see it as a deep pit of Harmon-less comedy that it will not climb out of.
Updated On: 2/16/13 at 12:28 AM

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 2/16/13 at 12:43am

I totally agree. And you're right about it always being like this. I even remember last year people would complain about how the a show one week wasn't as good as the week before.

I mean, I get that maybe I'm just being too rosy about the show and I'm in a "I'm gonna love it no matter what" place, but I really wish the majority of people talking about the show (again, all of us excluded) would just STFU.

[frogs_fan85]

Posted: 2/16/13 at 8:21pm

I'd imagine that Community's renewal is going to be dependent on how strong NBC feels about its pilots.

All of the freshman comedies have turned out to be bombs. Go On and New Normal seemed to collapse without the lead-in from The Voice. Up All Night is probably done as well (there's an article on TVGuide today about Arnett taking other offers and Rudolph announcing a pregnancy). With The Office and 30 Rock ending, the only sitcom NBC would have left is Parks and Rec. They would need a lot of successful sitcom pilots to fill out the schedule.

I believe season 4 was an order of 13 episodes, which would bring the show to 86 total episodes. That's 2 short of the seemingly random 88 needed for stripped syndication nowadays. Why not give the show another half or full season order just to get it over the hump and then reap the syndication money?

Maybe that's just wishful thinking on my part to achieve a fifth season, but it makes sense to me.

[Wynbish]

Posted: 2/21/13 at 10:03pm

For those wishing on a baby tooth that they'll do a Dean-less and Chang-less episode soon, your tooth has not been in vain tonight.

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 2/21/13 at 10:05pm

And maybe that's why tonight's was so....lacking.

[Wynbish]

Posted: 2/21/13 at 10:08pm

It really was. At first, I thought it was because the gang was so separated, but I remembered that episode last season where Annie was moving in with Troy and Abed, Britta and Shirley picked up a hitchhiker named Jesus, and Jeff and Dean sang romantic karaoke. And that was great! This was not so great!

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 2/21/13 at 10:10pm

Abed's "I Hate You" will be an amazing gif, though.

[Wynbish]

Posted: 2/21/13 at 10:11pm

I did like the cameos at the end, and generally I always like Matt Lucas. It just felt kinda like a dud.