NBC's Community Thread - 6/2 - Ep. 13: "Emotional Consequences of Broadcast Television"

Im a huge Community supporter, but this one I cant go fight the battle for. Some clever moments (great finish to the episode with the Dean and Jeff living beside each other), but I hope this isnt a sign of things to come for the rest of the season.

#BringBackHarmon. Lets get it trending folks...

However, Im not totally jumping ship. In fact, never will. Its just... different.
Honestly, I'm not gonna act like this show was perfect before Harmon left and could do no wrong. I remember from season 1 and each one after ppl nitpicking or outright saying some eps were really bad and not funny at all, opinion were not far from saying the show jumped the shark or it wasn't that good to begin with and over hyped. This is as recent as last season. It was like ppl were waiting for the show to start sucking or looking for eps to prove it's not as funny or clever as ppl said it was.
^and there it is, Big J. :lol:
I feel you're overreacting here. It's not the same but it wasn't that bad.

I didn't tune in and feel I was watching a brand new show with a lot of familiar faces to the point it felt everything was done differently.
 
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They're going too far with the sus Dean thing. Now it's just annoying.

Been going on for a while now >D

700
 
Other than the cameras and lighting it felt pretty normal. I'm a little upset they didn't dive deeper with the dean games. I'm not mad at the laugh track, that was Abed's happy place. Abed being a movie and tv buff means he is in to many genres, I don't think him being into a traditional sitcom is that farfetched. It's something that hasn't been explored before and it shouldn't be reoccurring.
 
Of course a premiere after such a long layoff won't be a true reflection, but the ratings were up 6% over last season's premiere, 4 million and a 1.8 in the demo.

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damn...community is soo wack. Like I really enjoyed that video game episode and a couple others but they play off this abed being a person with possible autism thing way too much.
 
Been going on for a while now >D

700
It used to be funny, in a "this guy's kinda really crazy" kind of way.
Now it's freaky because his whole stalking Jeff thing is getting creepier and creepier.

Although, one of the funniest scenes in the show was when Jeff put the aviators on and the Dean just lost it.
 
Been going on for a while now
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It used to be funny, in a "this guy's kinda really crazy" kind of way.
Now it's freaky because his whole stalking Jeff thing is getting creepier and creepier.

Although, one of the funniest scenes in the show was when Jeff put the aviators on and the Dean just lost it.
You gone have to face the fact that you werent paying attention to it. There's a episode where they're practically on a date
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. Dude been on his D from Day 1. You didnt find his animal costume fetish sus did you?
 
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Yea, I ran through all 3 seasons last week, in terms of Dean Pelton in last nights premier, it wasn't even OD in my eyes. He's been on some weird ish prior to last night :lol:

I actually liked the laugh track., didn't even throw me off or anything, I had a feeling that it would be a temporary ploy to throw us off.
 
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I don't know why but the laugh track made me a bit angry too :lol:

I thought it was solid episode. Dean and Jeff living close is not good to me. But hopefully its a few episodes not a main thing. Troy and Britta relationship, okay. Annie trying to get Jeff, okay.

Pierce :lol: trying to figure out a joke.
 
[h1]The Critics Are Turning on 'Community'[/h1]
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Esther Zuckerman | Feb 7, 2013

Perhaps this is finally the end of Community, or at least the small but virulent fervor that surrounds it. We can't say we didn't see this coming — our Richard Lawson wrote back in October that the show should just die already. But NBC's three-and-a-half-year-old sitcom was always bit of a unicorn: critically acclaimed with a rabid fan base (see: the Community subreddit) but constantly at odds with the network, and even to some extent itself. On Thursday night Community embarks upon its long delayed fourth season (the Halloween episode is airing on Valentine's Day!) with new showrunners taking the place of hailed-as-crazy-genius creator Dan Harmon, and many of the show's lauded writers are gone as well. Now, as eagerly as fans may anticipate its return, the reviews have been mixed to very bad. Even critics — once a major part of upholding the Community cult — are upset at their own reactions to the show:

Todd VanDerWerff @tvoti

Having watched both episodes twice now, I'm pretty sure they're not BAD. I'm also pretty sure I'm LYING TO MYSELF.
7:24 AM - 07 Feb 13

With the network suffering, and this spate of bad/tepid/disappointed response to new episodes, Community's departure seems more and more inevitable, even though one of the new showrunners, David Guarascio, told The Hollywood Reporter that he's "feeling very confident about a season five." In the world of Community, who really knows? But let's take a look at what's wrong, at least according to today's critical 180:

It's Not As Smart Anymore
Mike Hale of the New York Times savaged the show in his review in today's paper. He starts by saying that, before Harmon's departure, Community was "unapologetically smart." Now it's been "dumbed down, its humor broadened past recognition."

It's Not Funny
Hale, who is by far the most voracious critic of these new episodes, charges that the laughs are gone. He writes:
They might have been nut cases who negotiated reality through bad puns and movie references, but they were substantial and complex nut cases. In the new season they’ve been flattened and, especially in a story line in which Annie (Alison Brie) imagines marrying the bad boy Jeff (Joel McHale), sentimentalized. Also, they’re just not very funny.

It's Trying Too Hard
James Poniewozik of Time explains that the so-so (not terrible) episodes "play like they were created by very talented writers who prepared by reading Community's IMDB description." Poniewozik makes the case that a number of shows (The West Wing is one) lost their creators but then went in different, equally interesting directions. Here, there is no such direction. Alan Sepinwall at HitFix has a similar take, explaining that the early episodes "feel like everyone is trying much too hard to recapture some lightning that flowed out of the bottle when Harmon left."

It's A "Zombie" Version of Community
That's the way Andy Greenwald describes the new episodes in his take for Grantland. He explains that "there's a Stepford quality to it all," as easy and obvious choices are made in trying to sustain the characters' special brand of weirdness.

Libby Hill @midwestspitfire

Listen. Dan Harmon was far from my favorite person. I wasn't sure there'd be that much of a difference. But this show is just soulless now.
7:26 AM - 07 Feb 13

Where do we go from here? There's still an entire season to get through, but if the fans cry foul, then what does Community have left?

My hope is that it does turn out like West Wing, where it was basically all the things people are saying about Community, but slowly they made it into something else, it got another season and really made something that was it's own thing, that worked..
 
I'm a huge fan of the show. HUGE!

BUT...after watching the episode thursday, I was disappoint. Very.

Literally, the only time I even chuckled was when Troy and Britta was fighting in the little wish pond. & I watched the episode twice.

It was just...so forced imo.

I have hope it'll be good again though.
 
I'm a huge fan of the show. HUGE!

BUT...after watching the episode thursday, I was disappoint. Very.

Literally, the only time I even chuckled was when Troy and Britta was fighting in the little wish pond. & I watched the episode twice.

It was just...so forced imo.

I have hope it'll be good again though.
The only "forced" part of the show was the Troy and britta scene in the pond imo and i'm also a huge fan.I thought this episode was awesome and had the same rhythm has the other episodes.

The laughing audience and the new pierce  guy in the beginning were hilarious. It was community's way of trolling to us fans.
 
The feel is so...different. Just wasn't as smart as it always was. It was an okay episode, but it just wasn't the Community I've grown to love.

Hope things get better as the season goes on.
 
I believe Todd VanDerWeff from the AV club said they received episodes 1 and 3 screeners.

I saw a writers interview saying they tried to do too much with the premiere and it's not an accurate reflection.
 
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