Just came here to post this! In case you’re wondering, it’s not a new episode; it’s the Season 5 episode, “Cooperative Polygraphy”.
I’m pretty excited about this - what is wild in regards to timing is both my kids are (independantly) binging this again. It’s one of this families favorite shows (it coined the term “Community Pizza”, which is where the kids and I would order, make, or put a frozen pizza in the oven every Thursday to eat while we watched Community).
However, while I’m sure I will like seeing everyone again, and it’s great they got Glover back, of course, I don’t know how into the “table read” format I am in practice. I watched the recent one with the Chuck cast, another family favorite, and it was fun but in some small way just a little awkward to watch, some of it was technical issues. The recent Parks and Rec was much better done, since they sent everyone equipment and props and gave them time to decorate sets and it was a bit more than just people sitting in front of an old laptop they haven’t fired up in a year and reading a script. But, maybe this will be great.
Also, the Chuck table read WAS cool, don’t get me wrong, I mostly enjoyed it, and it made me want to re-watch that show again! It was just a little uncomfortable, some of it.
I wish they could have done one of the D&D episodes. I realize you can’t replace Chase, but season 5 had the other guy instead.
I just watch Advanced Dungeons and Dragons last night with my wife. Some blog suggested it as the best episode to introduce people to Community (not that she needed it) and the blog was right.
But we could always watch about Advanced Advanced Dungeons and Dragons
Yeah, the other guy being Johnathan freaking Banks! And he was amazing. I’d have loved more of his character. Ah well.
JD
2665
Four episodes left for me until I’m done with the final season. It’s my second time watching Community. I think I originally got into the show around the time the second season aired. Being able to watch all episodes and seasons back to back know makes for a different experience.
On the positive side, it’s a lot easier to catch references now to things that happened episodes or even seasons earlier - or jokes that are set up at some point and pay off episodes later. Knowing now that Donald Glover would leave the show during season 5, now made Troy’s S05E01 line about Zach Braff being ungrateful for leaving Scrubs halfway through season 9 click in a way it probably didn’t when I originally saw it. I was giddy with excitement when I realized I had reached Modern Warfare while watching season 1. Still an absolute blast.
I also caught some cameos now because, for instance, way back I had no idea what Vince Gilligan looks like. And whaddayaknow, I had forgotten or not realized that Brie Larson was also in this for a few episodes.
The first three seasons are simply mindboggingly good. Season 4 wasn’t as bad as I remembered it, but I guess my mind had braced itself for a dip in quality this time and lowered the expectations accordingly. Seasons 5 and 6 are an improvement again, but Donald Glover and Yvette Nicole Brown simply leave holes too big to fill behind. As much as I enjoy the new entries to the cast like Jonathan Banks and Keith Davids. Chevy Chase’s departure, on the other hand, I can live with. It seems like the writers didn’t really know what to do with the character, and I guess Chase and Harmon not getting along was a part of that from what I remember. He’s antagonistic throughout most of season 2, and his sexism and racism in the later seasons feel barely toned down. When there’s an episode where he gets to have a central moment of wisdom and compassion, it almost feels out of character. And upon rewatching this, I found his more noticable how absent that character is in season 4 even before Chase was fired. (Although I don’t recall whether this happened while the season was shot or after its completion.)
There are some story beats that get employed a bit too often for my taste, in particular Jeff being tempted to go back to his old sleazy and selfish ways just to end up doing the right(eous) thing at the end. Even season 5 goes back to that well again.
I agree with Armando’s above notions that some of the humor is definitely a bit dated, but overall it’s still a terrific and inventive show. And it’s just exceptionally good at riffing on tropes, themes and concepts, e.g. noir, police procedurals, action, horror and so on. So much craftmanship.
Tim_N
2666
I just finished Season 1 of this show, never seen it before or heard anything about it. It was added to Netflix Australia, and I was surprised to learn that the creator is one of the two writers for Rick and Morty, so it was a pretty easy decision to give it a go.
I love it! I haven’t laughed this hard at a show for a fair while, I was beginning to think that I was too desensitized from comedy to laugh much at TV shows anymore, so it was great to find out I was wrong.
All of the cast is great. I really liked Alison Brie in Mad Men and Glow so it’s interesting to see her in an even earlier role. It’s also interesting to see the singer of “This is America” (I don’t know him from anything else) as a young actor here, but he does well. Ken Jeong and Jim Rash are the other standouts for me.
The show was funny from episode 1, but the absurd humour of the second episode “Spanish 101” was what gave me confidence that it was my kind of comedy. My favourite episode was the paintball episode, but there are many honourable mentions. The one with the chicken fingers is a great one that’s fresh in my memory.
I’ll give two examples from the season of jokes that I think are really finely crafted for my tastes:
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I have a soft spot for jokes that happen in the background of shots. At the start of the chicken fingers episode, the study group are talking about the fingers and going for an early lunch, and we start seeing extras running past the windows, evidently to the cafeteria to get first dibs on the fingers. Once you figure out in your head what is going on it gave me a good laugh.
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I really like jokes that subvert expectations. There’s a scene in the second last episode where two students look at a large board in the hallway containing an unfinished proof and comment on how it is impossible. Childish Gambino walks out of class and sees the board and picks up the chalk. People who have seen Good Will Hunting will know immediately it is a play on the Matt Damon as a janitor scene, and expect Troy to finish the proof. But instead of solving the proof, it’s revealed he picked up the chalk so he could pocket it and then keeps walking only to see a broken sink and shows amazing talent in fixing it.
I’m sure it doesn’t sound funny written out like that, but hopefully those who remember the scene will get what I mean.
That’s Donald Glover and if you don’t know him from anything else, that’s something you’re going to want to correct. Community is a solid place to start with that.
And yes, Community is an amazingly funny show, glad you found it!
Yeah, for me this is the only really disappointing aspect to the show. Dan Harmon was a big Chevy Chase fan starting out, and he must have had an idea of what he wanted to do with him. But Chase was the odd man out in the cast, and my sense is that Harmon and Co were unable to find a satisfying direction for him—and/or Chase was unable or unwilling to make adjustments and be steered. Once their personal relationship deteriorated it just got toxic. It’s a pity, because some of Pierce Hawthorne’s better moments are sublime.
Do yourself a favour and watch Atlanta
Murph
2670
The cast is doing a live Zoom table read of an episode in 3 minutes.
It was recorded 2 or so weeks ago, wasn’t it? I remember that the Darkest Timeline did a podcast right afterwards.
Cormac
2672
That a pretty speedy read through!
Murph
2673
Ha, nice. About to start. :-)
Oh was it? I don’t recall if they said it was live or not, now that you mentioned it. It may have been.
I’ve been looking forward to this episode for a while. They haven’t showed it until just now.
This will be awesome.
Anyone else watching it with us.
This is amazing. I can’t believe how much they’re emoting and fun they’re having.
I never understood whether the song is depressing and fun. Or say something about the show itself.
Does Glover have to go? LOL
Hah hah, it’s telling they didn’t invite Chevy Chase, and from all the possible episodes to do this, they chose his character’s funeral.
Its also a Bottle Episode, which is probably one of the reasons it was select.
Cormac
2680
That was great!
Now where’s that damn movie?
