Community Review: "Custody Law and Eastern European Diplomacy" (2.18)
Community has garnered such a fanbase not just because it has particularly tight writing, which it does, but also because of the way it breaks away from being a sit-com. And no, while I’ve talked a lot about the ways it’s different from traditional sit-coms, that’s not what I’m concerned with here. It’s that the show’s also different from post-The Office and Arrested Development sit-coms. It breaks rules that exist around single-camera shows and the sort of reality they ask us to agree on in a way that, for instance, Modern Family or Outsourced won’t.... read more
Found in: TV, ReviewsCommunity Review: "Intro to Political Science" (2.17)
For all of its focus on growth and change, Community has tended to shy away from all but the most temporary sexual relationships. The first season had its somewhat awkward will they/won’t they dynamic between Jeff and Britta, and the second season has had Shirley and Chang’s one night stand, but nothing has stuck and everyone has stayed either alone or, in the case of Shirley, with their significant other largely off camera.... read more
Found in: TV, ReviewsCommunity Review: "Intermediate Documentary Filmmaking" (2.16)
After last week’s much more traditionally sit-com-y episode, “Intermediate Documentary Filmmaking” returns us to the strange and wonderful world of Community’s genre parodies. But while in the past these parodies have tended to overpower the rest of the episode, making it so that the zombies or whatever are more important than the show’s continuity, here we get the inverse. The episode is formally parodying the faux-documentary style of other TV shows, in particular The Office, but the focus is really on Pierce’s relationship with the rest of the study group.... read more
Found in: TV, ReviewsCommunity Review: "Celebrity Pharmacology" (2.13)
With all of Community’s non-stop meta-commentary it’s a surprise that the show wears its heart so very much on its sleeve. Early commercials for it mentioned The Breakfast Club, and while that’s not really what Dan Harmon and company are going for, there’s a lot of that earnestness going into the show. Characters are really supposed to work out their issues and improve as people, which immediately sets the show off from the kind of nihilism of Seinfeld or meandering repetition of The Office. There’s an element of the show that, for better or worse, is a bit didactic. In... read more
Found in: TV, ReviewsCommunity Review: "Asian Population Studies" (2.12)
The elastic reality of Community feels more akin to animated sit-coms, and not just because it had a recent episode that was entirely animated. But while the show’s reputation is largely built on a solid sit-com foundation, it’s also dedicated to moving its cast forward as characters and not just spinning its wheels for episode after episode. That’s one of the most unique parts of the show, and while The Office may have personnel changes or relationship drama, ultimately its characters are the same week in and week out.... read more
Found in: TV, ReviewsCommunity Review: "Conspiracy Theories and Interior Design" (2.9)
One of the best jokes ever made on The Simpsons was the rake gag from “Cape Feare,”, in which Sideshow Bob keeps stepping on rakes and hitting himself in the head. It’s just that simple, and though since then similar jokes have at times played that sort of thing to death, that doesn’t mean that this sort of comedy of repetition, in which things go from funny to annoying to hysterical, should never be used. It just means that it’s time for a fresh spin on the formula, rather than Family Guy bringing out that same dead horse again to... read more
Found in: TV, ReviewsWatch Chevy Chase Do the Stanky Leg!
It’s Wednesday. You’ve made it through half of the work week, but Friday still seems so out of reach. Well, we’ve got the perfect thing to power you through to the weekend: Chevy Chase doing the Stanky Leg.... read more
Found in: TV, NewsThe 20 Greatest Music-Video Cameos of All Time
Record labels may not be shelling out the same massive music-video budgets they once did. But just because they've migrated from TV screen to computer screen doesn't mean we've lost the fine art of the Music-Video Cameo. read more
Found in: Blogs, List of the DayCommunity Review: "Pascal's Triangle Revisited" (1.25)
Last week’s episode of Community in many ways felt like the season finale, not just because it covered the college’s finals but also because it featured the sort of large-scale events that are usually only brought into play during finales. Señor Chang being knocked down to student Chang (his first name hasn’t been mentioned yet, has it?) was the type of unexpected move that isn’t normally deployed in just any random episode. As much as Community is a show that constantly questions our basic assumptions about sit-coms, for the most part it remains a party to the greater constant of... read more
Found in: TV, ReviewsCommunity Review: "English as a Second Language" (1.24)
Like all school-based shows, Community‘s premise eventually has to come to an end. While shows about workplaces or friendships can theoretically go on forever, school automatically lasts a set amount of time and attempts at extending this can only end up strained. I call this the “Mr. Feeny Dilemma” after my favorite example of it from Boy Meets World, in which the teacher Mr. Feeny follows the show’s protagonists not just from middle school to high school, but then even to college. Forcing a show’s situation to continue longer than it organically would completely removes any sense of reality it... read more
Found in: TV, Reviews
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