Community - Season 4 [US] Spoilers

TheStook · 08-02-2013 3:21pm

It felt the same as Community, which is all that matters for me. It was always gonna be a bit all over the place for the first episode, the next few is when you can really judge it.

120_Minutes · 08-02-2013 4:00pm

Mr E wrote: »

Richard Dower - I know you're chomping at the bit to post ratings for last night and gloat. You've been very vocal that you don't watch the show and you don't like the show, so any posts regarding negative ratings will be considered as trolling and will be dealt with as per the forum charter guidelines.

Spoilsport? Yeah, that's me.

thank you, i thought i'd have to do what he does here over on the two and a half ****es thread...

Yillan · 08-02-2013 5:37pm

Didn't laugh once. They've very much so gone down the route of, 'what do people like about the characters?, Let's to that ad nauseum even when it doesn't make sense'. It happens to all great shows and will only get worse. I'll continue to watch it, but it's not the same show, like Friends after season 5/6.

FlyingIrishMan · 08-02-2013 5:43pm

Yillan wrote: »

Didn't laugh once.

You probably started watching the show with a negative mindset, and because of that you refused to laugh at any of the jokes. It was funny, there was some genuine laugh out loud moments.

As someone said over on reddit, if Dan Harmon produced the exact same episode, people would love it - not saying you in particular. Just there is a lot of people jumping on the bandwagon saying now that Harmon is gone the show can't be good anymore.

Hande hoche! · 08-02-2013 5:48pm

Found it an enjoyable episode, glad to have it back.

phasers · 08-02-2013 5:50pm

I don't agree with that, I think the /r/community circlejerk are just looking for anything to discredit criticism for the episode.

That was not a Dan Harmon episode, and Dan Harmon wouldn't make an episode like that. The style is just different. It's understandable that fans would react to their favourite show being Changed.

FlyingIrishMan · 08-02-2013 5:57pm

phasers wrote: »

I don't agree with that, I think the /r/community circlejerk are just looking for anything to discredit criticism for the episode.

That was not a Dan Harmon episode, and Dan Harmon wouldn't make an episode like that. The style is just different. It's understandable that fans would react to their favourite show being Changed.

No, I'm not saying Dan would produce an episode like that, but on the off chance that he did people would still love it, or at the very least it wouldn't be under the heavy fire its under now.

There is a lot of negativity on the community subreddit too, I was just quoting one person not a group of people. It seems to be about 60/40 over there. 60 positive, 40 negative.

Shane St. · 08-02-2013 6:01pm

just about to watch woo

titan18 · 08-02-2013 6:38pm

That Abed TV thing was atrocious. Ruined the episode for me

FlyingIrishMan · 08-02-2013 7:24pm

Some happy news:

Ratings for NBC (week of 2/4-2/7). From High to low:
The Office (Last season) - 2.1/6 (Won't count since it's ending this season for scripting average.)
The Biggest Loser - 2.0/5
Parks and Rec - 2.0/5
Community - 1.8/6
Chicago Fire - 1.8/5
L&O: SVU - 1.5/4
Betty White's 2nd annual - 1.5/4
Deception - 1.2/5
Whitney - 1.2/4
Guys with Kids -1.2/3
Smash (premiere) 1.1/3
Do Not Harm - 0.7/2

Don't give up on a season 5 just yet, thats higher than all other premieres. Not to mention The Office is ending soon so it'll be easier to continue an already popular comedy then try promote a new comedy.

Also Starring LeVar Burton · 08-02-2013 7:50pm

A 1.8 rating for NBC at the moment screams guaranteed renewal... If they can keep it 1.6 or above I can see them getting a season 5 no problem... If it drops below that, it could still get renewed, I just wouldn't be as positive about it as I would be with a 1.7 average...

Boom_Bap · 08-02-2013 9:18pm

That was not a great episode, hope it picks up. But it was way too formulaic.

The only decent part was Chang at the end.

Too many puns on the word 'Dean'.

In fairness the show started to dip last season, but had a strong finish.

pixelburp · 08-02-2013 9:48pm

Of course it's a bit quick to judge too harshly based on one episode, but I dunno: it just all felt a little flat & lifeless. Like one of those sequels that happen long after the original (which I guess series 4 is), where everything feels like it's just going through the motions & ticking off the old gags & tropes the fans loved.

Season 1 and now must seem like chalk & cheese, because the main cast have become total caricatures - Britta for example - and I think the show suffers because of it. The Dean's the worst example of this: he was always better used in small doses, so the Hunger Deans daftness, the overuse of the puns, and his ostentatious costumes is stretching a thin joke way too far. Same goes for Abed TV: funny initially but just got wearisome - the irony is that the real study group are just as one-dimensional as Abeds imagined sitcom.

Maybe it didn't help I watched this in-between the latest Archer and Parks & Rec - two shows still fairly razor-sharp (and both at similarly advanced stages of their lifespan), whereas Community felt like autopilot.

scooterdoyle · 08-02-2013 9:49pm

sorry lads
total hijack here cos i need to get in touch with 120mins
have u still got that fostex D160

120_Minutes · 08-02-2013 10:14pm

scooterdoyle wrote: »

sorry lads
total hijack here cos i need to get in touch with 120mins
have u still got that fostex D160

errrr yeah. i'll pm you....

only in a community thread could that happen.

anyway... I enjoyed the episode, but i have to agree with pixelburp, and i hope he's proven wrong.

they shouldnt have got Willard, as now we've had a taste of what pierce could have been...and it would have been good.

"while you were inceptioning i stole your balls" - line of the episode.

Basq · 08-02-2013 11:18pm

Didn't laugh once..

.. I didn't even smirk.

Plenty of cringing though!

stiffler123 · 09-02-2013 1:05am

It wasn't a great episode. The only bit that made me laugh was the changnesia bit. The show needs more Chang.

MOH · 09-02-2013 2:26am

That was really weird.

The first 2 minutes with the laugh track and re-casting of Pierce ignored by everyone else was awful. I was actually watching it with a look of horror before I copped on it was probably in someone's head.

Spent the next couple of minutes thinking "that's brilliant, they've taken all the stuff people were afraid might happen and just taken the p*ss out of it, that's so Community, now on with the show"

Except ... they kept going back to it. If they'd killed Abed TV after the opening credits, and moved on, it could have been a classic. But it just ended up really disjointed. The cartoon bit and Jeff's usual speech inside Abed's head was OK, but a lot of the rest of it was all over the place. That Shirley/Annie scene in the Dean's office looked oddly familiar. Popping pocorn in his car with mirrors was cool, but blink and you miss it. The whole Troy/Britta wishing well thing didn't work for me at all.

The Hunger Games thing was just bizarre. They set it up and did practically nothing with it. Though the tango scene was quite funny, like a callback to their karaoke duet.

The weighting of the various parts felt off. As if they filmed about four different opening episodes and edited them all in together. But when you compare it against something like "Remedial Chaos Theory" it was just really disjointed.

Not terrible, but confusingly off. Think Pierce pretty much summed it up near the end: "Somebody tell me what the hell we just did".

miralize · 09-02-2013 3:32am

They have to go back to basics next episode, or we'll see the true effect of a Community without Dan Harmon.

Also Starring LeVar Burton · 09-02-2013 5:15am

I watched it again and enjoyed it much more the second time around... Still not a very strong episode, but there's been worse in the past...
I'd actually rate it a 7/10, and if I'm being honest I'm only dropping marks because as someone mentioned, it was like 4 episodes merged into 1... There was simply too much going on, but it actually all worked in its own right... As long as they scale back and have less going on from here on out, it's the same show it has always been...

phasers · 09-02-2013 11:20am

Andy Bobrow, the writer of this episode, sort of sums up most of the problems I have with it.

In the episode, we're doing an Abed fantasy sequence, a movie parody, animation, recasting Pierce, the multi-cam trick, Abed descending into a psychotic break, a movie parody, Dean in a dress, establishing Troy and Britta's relationship – which we didn't do very well. It just ends up being sort of a free-standing scene – trying to do a C-story with Shirley and Annie. When I look at that whole mess, I guess I can say, on the positive side, it's amazing that we worked it all together because there's so much going on. Then, I [feel] we shouldn't have done that much stuff. When I look at it, the critiques that I'm anticipating are "This is a sign of new showrunners trying desperately to assure die-hard fans that we're still gonna be the same." Especially, that we threw in animation. We tried to do an Abed's descent into madness [story] that admittedly doesn't work half as well as Abed's Christmas madness story. Maybe the review that I'm anticipating is there's a hint of desperation in the season opener. There's too many tricks and because of that, we're robbing from actual storytelling.

If we did it over again, I wouldn't have done a Troy/Britta story or a Shirley/Annie story. I would have lumped everyone into The Hunger Games, and just done those two stories. Some version of people competing to get into a class, paired with Abed seeing the world differently in multi-camera. It would have just made it two stories instead of five

http://splitsider.com/2013/02/talking-to-community-writer-andy-bobrow-about-last-nights-season-premiere/

Also The Dean moving in next to Jeff is RIDICULOUS and so cliched.

120_Minutes · 09-02-2013 1:08pm

We had one day where we shot all that multi-camera stuff with Fred Willard and no Chevy on set. It was a really delightful day [LAUGHS], not only because the actors enjoyed hamming it up and getting into that style, but because Fred was such a pro. It gave all the actors a glimpse into [how] life could be this way if we had someone who didn't waste our time on set between takes or flub every single line. Fred came to play, and it was really delightful. It was great.

ah.... what could have been....

allanb49 · 09-02-2013 1:10pm

scooterdoyle wrote: »

sorry lads
total hijack here cos i need to get in touch with 120mins
have u still got that fostex D160

120_Minutes wrote: »

ah.... what could have been....

think this is for you :P

phasers · 09-02-2013 1:13pm

Fred Willard was Dan Harmon's original choice to play Pierce, wasn't he?

But the network insisted on Chevy. Sigh.

allanb49 · 09-02-2013 1:17pm

don't think I could see Willard playing a dick like Chase does.

phasers · 09-02-2013 1:24pm

I could, Fred Willard is deadly.

120_Minutes · 09-02-2013 1:28pm

allanb49 wrote: »

think this is for you :P

and i replied to it, a few posts above. surreal...wha?

allanb49 · 09-02-2013 1:31pm

how did I miss that.

I read it sleepily this morning and thought it was spam or someone talking about a tv show called 120 minutes.

then boom 120 minutes the user shows up.

so anyways.

I enjoyed the episode, it did seem a bit clunky but think it's down to being away for so long and the hype building it up. I enjoyed it.

allanb49 · 09-02-2013 1:32pm

phasers wrote: »

I could, Fred Willard is deadly.

no denying that but he always comes across as a nice happy guy.

EyeSight · 09-02-2013 4:20pm

it was a good episode i think. People need to stop idiolising Harmon, sure we all owe him for creating an amazing tv show. But there was a lot of weak episodes in season 3 while he was there. This episode isn't as bad as those weak ones.

I think they tried to do too many stories in the one episode. But there were some classics. Bring on the rest of the season!
I hear that the Dean has written episode 9

Community - Season 4 [US] *Spoilers*

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Community - Season 4 [US] Spoilers