Community on NBC

[CrimsonFox]

[Izulde]

NBC can suck a big, fat hairy fucking cock. Community isn't coming back until fucking February.

Bunch of damned fucking assfarmers.

[CrimsonFox]

Originally Posted by Izulde

NBC can suck a big, fat hairy fucking cock. Community isn't coming back until fucking February.

Bunch of damned fucking assfarmers.

word

[Matthean]

About time.

The Associated Press: Chevy Chase is leaving NBC's sitcom 'Community'

[CrimsonFox]

*sigh*

[Passacaglia]

Oh, this show is still on?

[CrimsonFox]

not really.

[DanGarion]

Joel did an Ask me anything on Reddit today.

Joel McHale's AMA : IAmA

October 19th is TONIGHT!

[DanGarion]

Mmmmm Annie's boobs.

[ISiddiqui]

Definitely had feeling that something was 'off'. Though the inception like Abed TV was pretty amusing. The Hunger Deans could have been just so much more (as could Troy and Britta at the fountain - in previous seasons that would have lasted throughout the ep and gotten progressively funnier).

[Crapshoot]

That was off in some weird way. Annie in particular.

[Radii]

I thought a lot of their meta jokes were horribly overdone to the point of not being funny and just feeling annoyingly distracting. Fred Willard playing Pierce in Abed's head, ok, but those kinds of things are usually very subtly done, maybe a troy one liner calls attention to it. Going full out laugh track sitcom just felt like... too much. Dealing with the Dean's attraction for Jeff in such an overt, over the top way ruins the joke, I had a severely negative reaction to a bit that is usually one of my favorites on the show. Having the Dean buy a condo to move in next to Jeff felt stalkery, it felt presented wrong. Abed's monologue at the end about accepting the future didn't feel like anything the lovable Asperger's Abed we've come to love over the last 3 years would ever say. It felt horribly off.

Community is always hit or miss. It misses a fair bit but when it hits its amazing. Maybe this was just a miss, and maybe (hopefully) its not a sign that this just can't be done without Dan Harmon's insane genius.

I did really like Britta "britta'ing" making wishes, and Troy unable to let go of doing things the way he and Abed do them, and Abed's inability to accept the new rule about making wishes with the "hmm, we'll talk about it" line. That all felt genuine and very solid.

[rowech]

Not like the show is going past these 13 episodes anyway. Just enjoy them.

[Izulde]

I laughed a few times (The Don't ask, don't tell follow-up to the gay balls thing in particular made me laugh.)

But yeah, overall, much of it felt forced rather than being genuinely funny. And I think the lack of sharpness was apparent from the very beginning when the hipster joke went on for far too long.

The Fred Willard bit was actually far more distracting than it was funny for me and everything in general just felt, as others said, very much off. And a little flat, too, to be honest.

[Marc Vaughan]

I enjoyed it - but did feel something was 'off' ... although I do put this down somewhat to me being over-analytic because I knew writers had changed etc.

(overall 'good' - but not 'classic')

[ISiddiqui]

Actually I think the Fred Willard bit was the best thing in the show. Very Harmon-like Community to reference what was going on in rumors outside the show and just not acknowledging it.

[Butter]

I couldn't tell if I was being hypercritical, or if it was worse. Because I thought it was markedly worse.

[chinaski]

Im a huge fan of the show, but I thought the premier sucked. Parodying something that is not funny, is just not funny. Abed TV blows. I dont have much hope for this season, losing Dino and Harmon is just too much.

[Radii]

I'm glad to hear some Community die hards liked it, makes me feel more like it was just an episode which missed for me, which definitely happens with this show.

[Ryan S]

It was nowhere near their best, but I will wait before making any judgement on the direction of the series. The Harmon era had a few episodes that did not hit the mark.

[Ryan S]

It looks like the premiere got better viewing figures than last season's premiere, against tougher competition.

That might bode well for renewal, especially considering the rest of NBC's comedy schedule, though the fact that the series probably will have enough episodes to sell into syndication by the end of the season may work against it.

[ISiddiqui]

Originally Posted by Ryan S

It was nowhere near their best, but I will wait before making any judgement on the direction of the series. The Harmon era had a few episodes that did not hit the mark.

Well that's definitely true. The thing that will be missed was Harmon's almost encyclopedic and manic knowledge of specific pop culture items and integrating them into the show subtly. Though Harmon's manic-ness also likely caused plenty of issues.

[Comey]

I haven't watched it yet. I'm afraid to. At some point I will break down and watch it, because I love the show and miss it. But right now...I'm afraid.

[chadritt]

Christina Applegate just quit "Up All Night", thats one less show for NBC.

[DanGarion]

Originally Posted by chadritt

Christina Applegate just quit "Up All Night", thats one less show for NBC.

Since they were trying to turn it into a multicam, I don't blame her.

[chinaski]

Never understood the correlation between quality and the number of cameras for a show.

[DanGarion]

Originally Posted by chinaski

Never understood the correlation between quality and the number of cameras for a show.

Honestly, I only watch one multicam nowadays, Big Bang Theory. Every other comedy I watch is a singlecam.

[chinaski]

Originally Posted by DanGarion

Honestly, I only watch one multicam nowadays, Big Bang Theory. Every other comedy I watch is a singlecam.

Now that I think about it, I dont think I watch any multicams. How I met your mother might be one..

edit: Yeah it is, not sure why I had to think about that one. I watch Two Broke Girls as well, but its not that great and I mainly watch it because I have a friend who writes for the show.

Multicams really do tend to suck more than most. I cant really imagine Up all Night in this format. Shifting from a Modern Family feel to a stage comedy is a huge change for that show.

[DanGarion]

Originally Posted by chinaski

Now that I think about it, I dont think I watch any multicams. How I met your mother might be one..

edit: Yeah it is, not sure why I had to think about that one. I watch Two Broke Girls as well, but its not that great and I mainly watch it because I have a friend who writes for the show.

Multicams really do tend to suck more than most. I cant really imagine Up all Night in this format. Shifting from a Modern Family feel to a stage comedy is a huge change for that show.

Exactly!

I forgot about HIMYM.

I have a friend that is a writer and she hated writing multicam because you are always writing for the punchline.

[kcchief19]

In the future, if you ever have a Community marathon on DVD or Hulu, the dropoff from the end of Season 3 to the steaming pile of crap from last night will be jaw-dropping.

I wasn't nearly as gloom-and-doom as some about the new showrunners and writers. I thought they said the right things, even if their track record was uninspiring. I felt like the spirit of the show and the chemistry of the cast would shine through.

Instead, it's like someone flipped a switch and completely erased everyone's personalities. There was no sublety, the whole show just hit you over the head. It wasn't Connors-winning-the-lottery bad, but it's got potential.

Glad this season is only 13 episodes and done. I would hate to see this show drag on in its present form. The only remote prayer is that Sony/Viacom decide they want more episodes for their syndication deal and decide to bring back Harmon and do a fifth season for Comedy Central for a Futurama/Cougartown style miracle. Other than Chase who is leaving anyway, I can't imagine the cast is that expensive to keep together -- no one is a breakout star from this show with a lot of other work.

[chadritt]

You should stop watching if youre that angry and dont think things will smooth out, Harmons never coming back. Personally I just think they tried to do too much to assure everyone things hadnt changed but since the main writers are the same things will be fine.

I could see Donald Glover leaving though, he has options and has even mentioned the possibility in his music.

[kcchief19]

I'm not angry, other than wasting 30 minutes of my life on something that used to be quality material. That's just an honest critic. YMMV.

Not sure what you mean about the main writers are the same. In addition to Harmon, three of the main writers and the main directors also got forced out. Andy Bobrow was credited with last night's episode, and he's had a few other credits, including at least two excellent episodes. None of the other holdovers have significant episodes under their belts, unless you include last year's holiday episode, which was universally assailed by the fan base except for Annie jumping up and down in a Santa costume.

I hope last night was just the pit and it's onward and upward. Nobody has been a bigger fan than me. I just wish that if I'm going to invest my time in a show, I'd like to think the people behind the show put some effort into it and didn't just phone it in like last night's show.

[Comey]

A longtime friend of mine, who works on the Community set, said that the scripts for this season are about 95% as good as the old ones, and there are some real funny ones coming up. I value his comedic opinion, and trust his judgment.

On a side note, he is sending me a few scripts from seasons past. One was Chevy Chase's. Another belonged to Ken Jeong. I believe another was Donald Glover's. Can't wait.

[chadritt]

Megan Ganz came back for the season, shes been there from the beginning and was a HUGE influence on the show. Shed also likely come back if there was another season even though that might be tricky for her.

[Butter]

Last night went WAY over the top with "feel good" moments between the characters, and lost the funny in there somewhere. Even Troy's usually cute attachment to Abed felt off. Not sure if that is a function of the performance or the script.

Either way, I'll seriously have to consider cutting this off after this season, if this show even makes it another year.

[rowech]

Originally Posted by Butter_of_69

Last night went WAY over the top with "feel good" moments between the characters, and lost the funny in there somewhere. Even Troy's usually cute attachment to Abed felt off. Not sure if that is a function of the performance or the script.

Either way, I'll seriously have to consider cutting this off after this season, if this show even makes it another year.

Let's stop sugar-coating it...this show sucks now. Bad.

[Izulde]

Yeah, the joy seems to have gone out of the series. It's not as sharp as it used to be, and I think the only reason we're still watching is because we've become invested in these characters and stories by this point.

[Ryan S]

I don't think this season has been as bad as some are saying, and Community has had slow starts to most of their seasons. The first three episodes of season 3 were not much better than this season. I thought that the first episode this season was markedly worse than the following two episodes.

The 4th episode last year was one of the best ever, so lets hope we have another "Remedial Chaos Theory" soon.

I think that they ran the Inspector Spacetime story into the ground a long time ago, and I really hope that this is the last we hear of it.

I suspect the future of community depends on just how bad the rest of the NBC schedule is this spring, and if Sony is prepared to give it away to NBC to get more episodes for syndication. Anything NBC puts in the Thursday 8pm slot is going to be hammered by TBBT and American Idol for the foreseeable future.

[Izulde]

I have to say, this Freaky Friday style episode was the first real home run of the season. I saw afterwards that Jim Rash wrote it, which makes me want to say he should get his shot at writing more of them.

[Ryan S]

I think that the season has improved, and the last few episodes have been much better than the early episodes. This gives me hope that a season 5 could be better right from the start.

At the moment, unbelievably, it looks like Community could get a 5th season thanks to the lousy ratings of almost every other sitcom on NBC.

[rowech]

Just becuause a show is creative doesn't mean it is funny. I have barely laughed this season.

[OldGiants]

Originally Posted by Izulde

I have to say, this Freaky Friday style episode was the first real home run of the season. I saw afterwards that Jim Rash wrote it, which makes me want to say he should get his shot at writing more of them.

Agreed. This was the first time this season we both laughed a lot. However, the self-referencing humor won't carry very far, so I'm not all that hopeful of an up trend in good writing.

[Ryan S]

Sounds like Dan Harmon is back for season 5.

Creator-Exec Producer Dan Harmon Tweets He's Coming Back To 'Community' - Deadline.com

[mckerney]

Season 4 can just be a bad dream!

[kcchief19]

Given the meltdown a year ago between Harmon and NBC, I still find it odd that he's getting to come back. It's actually a smart decision, which is why I'm surprised NBC is doing it.

I have to think that the real reason Community is coming back is just to boost the syndication value. They needed a few more episodes to fill out the package. Guess NBC figured if they have to go ahead and make 13 episodes, most as well spend a couple of million and make them good.

[Ryan S]

Originally Posted by kcchief19

Given the meltdown a year ago between Harmon and NBC, I still find it odd that he's getting to come back. It's actually a smart decision, which is why I'm surprised NBC is doing it.

It won't be an NBC decision, it is a Sony decision.

Alan Sepinwall discusses this in his latest column, and suggests that it could be future DVD sales and streaming that might have influenced the decision.

Can Dan Harmons return save Community?

[kcchief19]

It's a joint production between Sony and Universal, so NBCU has a stake in the show as well. My understanding when Harmon got chased off last year was that NBC want the show to be less esoteric and Harmon wouldn't listen to the network.

I largely agree with the speculation the renewal and bringing back Harmon has a lot of reasons other than filling a hole in the NBC schedule. NBC may be leaving Hulu for their own or a different streaming service, and Community may be the best performing streaming show they have. If the fifth season is strong, it may make secondary syndication deals more valuable too.

Edit: Just read that a few weeks ago Hulu agreed to give the networks 90% of in-season ad revenue, so that's a definite plus for Community given its streaming success.

[kcchief19]

http://www.avclub.com/articles/dan-h...-for-co,99117/

On season four: “There's something awesome about having all of those preconceived notions ripped away from you. It's exciting. There's something exciting about being held down and watching your family get raped on a beach. It's liberating. It makes you focus on what's important."

[Ryan S]

Originally Posted by kcchief19

http://www.avclub.com/articles/dan-h...-for-co,99117/

On season four: “There's something awesome about having all of those preconceived notions ripped away from you. It's exciting. There's something exciting about being held down and watching your family get raped on a beach. It's liberating. It makes you focus on what's important."

The apology posted a few days later...

Dan Harmon Poops, It Won't Happen Again Again

[chadritt]

I'll give him this; he's learned how to apologize. Now he just needs to learn to stop saying things he has to apologize for.