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Last night, Dan Harmon tweeted, “AND, tonight, celebrate Community‘s unschedulization with the least accessible, least marketable episode in its alienating history!” Which is a very Dan Harmon-y thing to say, but also SO RIGHT! If you weren’t already completely on board with Community (and Hearts of Darkness), I’m not even sure that you would have been able to make sense of this dark, Luiz Guzman filled, meta-documentary nod to the FIRST weird documentary episode episode. With that said, though — I loved it so much! Ahhh! It was absolutely very, very good in all the ways that Community can be very, very good — silly in a dark and honest way, full of inside jokes, and then even more full of SUPER inside jokes, most of which I never catch, with a genuine-seeming hug at the end. (I won’t say that the reasons I like Community are kind of the same reasons why I think Videogum is the best website on the Internet, but I won’t not!) It’s unfortunate, though, that it is so clearly a show that doesn’t have a place on NBC. While it’s true that it is densely packed with easy-to-laugh-at jokes, all of those jokes are wrapped in a very thick layer of complicated weirdness that seems to be kind of impenetrable. Not that I don’t think Community should keep trying! Please keep trying. ANYWAY, great episode. Jeff did a great Dean impression. A+. Parks and Recreation was also very good! Not even just because of the Ben and Leslie kiss! (WHICH, OMG!) I loved the Andy, April, and Ron college plot line — it was both very funny (“Crap I forgot my books and computer.”) and very sweet, with Ron giving Andy the money to enroll. The Tom and Jerry plot line was great too, AND THE RACIST WOMAN? Don’t even get me started on how good the racist woman was. I feel like I can’t really talk about this episode, the Community episode, and the It’s Always Sunny episode without just going through every single moment and talking about how much I liked it, and I cannot do that. Anyway, It’s Always Sunny was great too! Finally, an explanation for Fat Mac! And the dumbest explanation ever, that he needed to match his muscle-y avatar! Maybe it was the reemergence of Skinny Mac, but this episode felt more like a “classic” episode than any of the others have this season. The Frank/Charlie scenes also added to that — seeing them in bed together again, Charlie going into the crevice, Frank hitting him with a stick. Ugh. IT WAS SO GOOD! These three episodes were all way too good for one night. I wish I had something to complain about. I didn’t watch The Office, was The Office bad? Guys? What did you think?
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Abed’s face looking at the camera at the end of Community. Perfection.
And some TV characters are too awesome to exist for only three seasons. If there’s only one thing we learned from Cougar Town (and there is…), it’s that every TV show needs a little Abed magic.
Hey, Cougar Town is funny! (No, really.) Once you get over Courteney Cox’s new face appearance, at least.
“Oh, that’s a possum. Once you spend some time with them you’ll see they’re just big gentle rats.”
Community: B+. I kinda liked the Hearts of Darkness direction, and as the dean is the best non-study group character, he carried the weight of an entire episode really well. And Luis Guzmán makes anything he’s in better. I loved him in IMDB. But this is definitely not the episode to introduce someone new to the series.
It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia: B-. Gotta disagree with Kelly. This was a limp episode after two weeks of brilliance. We’ve been anticipating the tale of how Mac got fat all season, so this episode’s listless flabbiness (get it?) was doubly disappointing. The guys huffing paint thinner in the back office made me laugh a lot, however.
PS Frank and Mac are the weakest characters. I’ve noticed that episodes focusing on them tend to be the ones that struggle the most.
Parks and Recreation: A-. Awww. I’ve been getting impatient with the Leslie/Ben stuff, but this episode did it great. The college stuff made me laugh a lot—although as a professor I’m biased. I too would take a class in Women’s Lasers. They probably offer it at Greendale.
One thought, however: Ron Swanson giving nearly $1000 for a lovable idiot to take a Women’s Studies class? Doesn’t that strike anyone else as … utterly un-Swansonlike? I’ve been kinda unhappy with the eroding of the curmudgeonly/fierce character of Ron Swanson this season.
The Office: I didn’t watch it. It bores me. I played the new RPG Skyrim instead.
Skyrim: B+. My home computer is on a terribly slow Internet connection, so downloading the game and going through five updates took literally from Thursday night to Tuesday night before I could play the game. But the wait was worth it.
Bethesda, the creators of games like Fallout 3 and Skyrim’s predecessors Oblivion and Morrowind, does the RPG best. Skyrim is also beautiful—seriously the most amazing images I’ve ever seen in a game.
The problem is that the gameplay itself is pretty much the same as it has been for Bethesda games for the past 10 years—it’s a lot more dungeons, a lot more quests, a lot more creatures, a lot more crafting, but the same mechanics as the past 10 years. I was hoping for something a bit more revolutionary besides the graphics.
However, I’m only about seven hours into the game, so my opinion could change.
Community was great, it’s in my top five favorite episodes. lthough I disliked how blatently they were going for Heart of Darkness, even spelling it out, they really knocked it out of they park. I’ve mentioned before the more bizarre the premises get, the better Community is and this was no exception. They gave the characters so much to work with. Crazy Dean, Jeff as the Dean, Chang as Jeff as the Dean, sassy Shirley, young star Leonard, documentarian Abed, Luis Guzman… amahzing. And if you imagine what Leonard tried to say about television was Harmon’s vision on NBC it’s even better than that.
Also Skyrim, wish I could trust myself with that game but I know if I got it I would never get anything done.
Was I the only one that thought last night’s Parks and Rec was horrible? The A plot was slapped together, we’d been waiting for a conclusion to Ben/Leslie for forever, and it was just more of the same that we’ve seen for 3 eps, until they decide to do what, ultimately, was predictable anyway? The B plot was nonsensical. Why would Ron be with them the entire time? People talk about Ann’s unbelievability, but at least she’s Leslie’s friend, Ron made no sense going to classes with them. He was only there to later resolve the plot, which also made no sense? I’m going to give you this money for college, which I love, when I hate everything else bureaucratic? I can’t even imagine Ron saying the word “scholarship”. The C plot, which had the most promise, ended with kind of a thud. Tom is settling back into things and is miserable with his big idea nature being crushed, but it was resolved quickly.
I mean look, a bad Parks and Rec is worth 10 good anything elses, but still, this was a disappointing episode, especially for such crucial plot movement.
The B plot made sense- Ron will do anything to get away from the office because he hates the government. Like he said, he believes a strong education is important and doesn’t want to see Andy waste his time because he likes him.
Exactly, and Ron LOVES Andy (see the episode Flu season).
Sunny was weak, agreed, but didn’t this make up for it?
Skyrim is great, but I feel like it has no place in the NBC lineup, what with Whitney being there and all.
Ooooh Videogamegum.
After reading that Skyrim is basically going to get me pregnant and the kid is going to be a unicorn-dolphin hybrid with the power to travel through time AND renew Community AND give me a million dollars every day, I was slightly disappointed to discover it is basically Fallout 3 with dragons in terms of gameplay (the level up noise is even the same!). However, werttrew, after 20-ish hours I am kind of in love with the leveling system (the one big change I’ve noticed from Fallout mechanics), hopefully it grows on you too!
I went into Skyrim expecting a better Oblivion, which it tooootally is (I used four “o”s for emphasis). But the combat does get better; while it does feel like Fallout with dragons, you have more options in terms of how you tackle dungeons. Raising the dead, casting invisibility, shooting water with electricity, enchanting your weapons, sniping from afar–and lets not forget the fact that you can dual-wield practically anything. That being said, the main thing that got me excited for Skyrim was the setting and atmosphere, and it surpasses almost every other game I can think of in those categories.
Also, VIDEOGAMEGUM!!! Listen. I am a nerd. We cool? Of course we are so. So let’s start talkin’ jive ’bout dem viddyergames!
Jeff Goldblum as Nick Kroll’s dad on The League was the best.
Not a pretty soul.
I completely lost it when he and Sarah Silverman were doing the ice cream thing at the dinner table.
I kind of love Dean Pelton, is that weird? I mean, I’m not a Dalmatian so I know it wouldn’t be mutual, but we could still be friends.
Was the whole rubbing ashes all over himself an homage, as they say, to Apocalypse Now? Either way, it was BRILLIANT.
YESSs this is what I want!
“I’m horrible…I’m horrible!”
I love that in one part of that talking head, you can see the newspaper article about Andy tackling the pesky raccoon
“I barely haven’t even seen a gortar.”
I don’t know why, but I loved Tom’s quote on that. It’s so very Tom and so very gauche at the same time. “This is a waste of time, because we all know that the only cool font is the Sopranos one, where the R is a gun.”
with the fate of the show hanging in the balance, i kind of loved that this was the episode of community that aired last night. what better way to demonstrate the show’s accessibility than making an entire episode in homage to francis ford coppola and heart of darkness? A+
Poor Kyle; he’s at the very bottom of the totem pole. Even Jerry takes him down a notch.
Kyle is such a perfect character, and he has spoken maybe less than 10 words. He has never, ever, EVER been in an episode where he doesn’t get shafted in some way by Andy and or April, and yet he always comes back. He’s the only customer! I love it. Knope/Kyle 2012.
Anybody else pick up a Charlie Kaufman vibe from last night’s Community? Chang playing Jeff playing the Dean, and Abed making a documentary of the filming of the commercial had a real Synecdoche, New York feel for me.
I didn’t get the vibe when i watched it, but I’ve got it now. Grab hold!
My favourite thing about this comment is that the timestamp is an anagram of the timestamp of my comment. That is all
My favorite thing about this comment is “favourite”.
As soon as he started talking about fonts, I told my friend “I bet Jerry loves Comic Sans”, then I literally yelled “THAT’S SO JERRY!” when he said it. A+.
The only moment of The Office that made me laugh last night. Does that say more about me or the state of the show?
I liked the part where Jim put his hat on Erin for two reasons: one, because she already had a hat on and it looked funny, and two, because Andy said “You missed your head.” I turned it off not long after that though.
That moment was a good one. Also…how does Jim Halpert still manage to look hot in a hot pink trucker hat?
True story: My brother-in-law is like a shorter, heavier version of Gabe. Substitute anime for horror movies, and they are the same person. He sits in his room listening to Final Fantasy soundtracks and does hover hands in photos with girls. I worry about him.
Papyr: Paper for women
“You see in the African American Community…”
“No.”
“Damn”
Bones corner:
Is that little Sam Weir all grown up? I don’t watch Bones, but maybe I should?
YAY, Sweets! Yes, that is indeed baby Sam Weir on Bones, and he is half the reason to watch the show. He’s adorable and hilarious.
Augh! I haven’t watched yet!! *covers eyes*
Last night’s episode of Parks & Rec was basically the funny Andy episode.
So many good lines and good faces!
Andy: I would like one ticket for women.
April: He wants to sign up for women’s studies.
And then also The Office made me laugh with this.
Darryl: I have Limitless on my phone. I could hook it up to the TV.
Phyllis: Oh! Is that the one where the guy is limitless?
Where are all the sassy Whitney gifs?
I was actually really stoned by the time Whitney came on, and it was way more enjoyable that way! I watched the whole episode willingly. Which. I mean. Wow.
I’m sorry you had to go through that
This story could be the new “Just Say No!”
Haha. Don’t do drugs! You could end up watching Whitney.
That sounds like a ‘The More You Know” public announcement
That sounds very similar to this guy I know who quit drinking shortly after giving a man on the street review of some awful musical that he had never even seen. I think he lives in Cleveland now with his girlfriend (wife?), an abs model.
I wish I could upvote this more than once.
Didn’t they move to New York? I thought I heard he moved to New York to be with her.
I was a little drunk and ditto! I only watched the last few minutes but I definitely giggled several times…
I’m a little afraid of Ben and Leslie being together. Pam and Jim proved that sexual tension is much more entertaining than couple squabbles. BUT… the Parks and Recreation writers have done such a great job with Andy and April, that I have some faith.
When the old woman in Parks and Rec was complaining about the certain people at the basket ball court, I was so hoping she’d say tall people.
They give out Emmys for Best Guest Star, right? Because I’m thinking we need to whip up a few “For Your Consideration: Potentially Racist Old Woman” posters and send them to Hollywood.
There was no “potentially” about that racist old woman.
The League is just a bad show in disguise, the guinea pig thing? Come on.
Is there a chance you missed all of the scenes with Jeff Goldblum in them?
I’m inclined to agree with you ElectricKoala. I like the talent, I’m rooting for them, and the show has some great set pieces (last night’s sorbet scene was great, and I loved seeing Sarah Silverman and Jeff Goldblum on a show together).
But the plot of any of their episodes always feels so threadbare, and they rarely are capable of really putting a solid comedic button on the end of a scene.
I know they improvise all their lines, so each scene is basically them trying to feel their way from the starting point to what needs to be accomplished by the end, and apparently it’s harder than it looks, which is why Curb is even that much more astounding to me, as the plots on that show never feel outlandishly forced.
(and seriously, how do you carve up a guinea pig inside a turkey and not realize you’re dealing with two separate creatures, and WHY THE FUCK wasn’t their daughter eating Thanksgiving dinner with them?! You see what I’m saying?)
That whole plot was totally unnecessary. I have no tolerance for “oops!” animal abuse. Goldblum was amazing, though. Silverman didn’t bug me as much as she usually does… but the sorbet scene was a little much. No, a lot much. No one, not even the Sunny people, would act like that.
Very good point on the daughter, though I assumed she was at
a kid’s table of one.
Anyone that has owned a guinea pig will know that they squeal and chirp super-loud. The instant it was burning alive in the oven, it would have sounded off. (and I’m not saying that to pick apart the realism in a comedy show, I’m just saying maybe they should have picked an animal as a class pet to be cooked in a turkey that isn’t known for its obnoxiously loud squeal). A lot of stuff in any given episode doesn’t really add up when looked at all at once.
Back to the sorbet scene- true, no one would act like that. But it was funny nonetheless in that it’s just funny watching Sarah Silverman and Jeff Goldblum inappropriately performing cunnilingus on their dishes of sorbet at a Thanksgiving dinner.
The stuff that got us there was equally, if not more unbelievable, such as the wife all of a sudden giving a shit about having a proper, classy Thanksgiving (Really? With this group of derelicts and their entire collective track record? It felt really out of character) or everybody’s outright trust that Ruxin isn’t faking his logged miles with his pedometer (which ANYONE KNOWS you can just shake around and it’ll start counting). They glaze over their premises to get to the punchlines (eating out a dish of sorbet and jerking off jokes). They’re missing half the equation – solid premises.
concert addict is the man (woman?) i wish i could be
LADY
http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_luuopakiAE1qcti48o4_250.gif
“I’m on the moon.”
I died when this happened. Mac’s Charlie impression + Mac’s disdain for Charlie’s assumed authority + eating in confession all of a sudden = me dead.
Did anyone else notice that the dean was wearing Jeff’s underwear re-stitched back up from the billiards episode???
Super fan!
I just re-watched that scene, and you’re right. Amazing.
I was Jim Rash’s bitch last night. He pwned that episode of Community.
I can’t believe I just typed pwned.
Does anyone want to discuss Happy Endings with me? I spit water all over myself when Dave came out with the PERM! Oh and did you catch the Busy Phillips cameo at the beginning?
“It’s a code war!”
“He cooks all his meat in his underwear!”
“Ahh, two of my favorite people hanging out. It’s like when Mike Myers and Kanye West tried to raise money for Hurricane Katrina.”
The Temple Grandin joke was BY FAR the best one. Love this show.
YES! I knew that was her!
I’m trying to think of what Penny said about Max’s kissing, mouth skills?
That gay’s got some serious mouth game. (I think.)
Thank you!
I just realized that I never see commercials for Community, while I’m pretty sure I see an ad for “Whitney” every 0.3 seconds.
P.S. – Could someone please tell me how to embed photos/gifs into my comments on here? I promise it will be worth it – like a Jerry “Dreaming is for weekends” gif worth it.
I google it the first time I posted it and it turns out the trusty wettrew has a guide for us:
http://werttrew.tumblr.com/post/320807705/images-in-the-comments-a-guide-for-videogum
Why would they advertise their struggling show? That’s just bad marketing.