RichVR
1781
It seems that I have missed this gem. How many seasons do I have to catch up on?
3 at present. First ep or two is very traditional sitcom, but the third ep gets that lovely mix of topical humor, character humor, and schmaltzy “daww” emotion that really sells the show best.
Fourth season’s due to start this coming week, but they’ve fired the showrunner, most of the writers and directors quit, and they even lost a cast member before the already-shortened season was done filming. . . so it might be the case that we hardcore fans recommend you just stop at 3 seasons ;)
It is looking more and more like fans will be recommending that people stop at Season 3.
In all fairness, Metacritic’s got the new season pegged at 70/100 (actually beating S1’s 69, although falling far short of S2’s 88 rating) and the NYT piece seems to be the most overwhelmingly negative.
On the other hand, the complaints they make are precisely the things I feared most, so. . . go figure :-/
Editer
1786
The ads for the opener make me cringe – I like the Dean best when he’s dialed back from complete over-the-top, such as the episode when he tricked Winger into shopping with him. That was brilliant; the man/woman costume-level stuff, not so much.
But the Reddit AMA with the writers yesterday gave me hope that there will be moments of joy. Interestingly, Megan Ganz implied that the season(series?) finale is not her best work. (But she said the Thanksgiving episode, which will air in March, is wonderful.)
tolwyn
1787
Just watched the premiere. So much awful in 30 minutes. NBC, cancel it now before it blemishes the past 3 seasons, I implore you!
That was really, really rough. Like the new showrunners tried to cram what what they thought made Community daring, but without the intelligence. Abed TV was bad before they even got to the animated baby shit.
If they lean on the stronger actors (Puddy, Glover, Rash, and–to a lesser extent–McHale), the characterization can carry some pretty rough writing as it did in this ep. There was definitely less subtlety, less subtext, and some strong reliance on old gags, but I laughed a few times pretty hard and the lady and I enjoyed the schmaltziness, so it wasn’t 100% terrible.
Cautiously awaiting future eps.
I never believe that a later season or movie can tarnish the earlier ones, so I can’t say that I want them to cancel Community. And I hope they don’t! I think there could be some genuinely funny moments in the new season.
That said, the season opener just felt flat and forced. Little references and in-jokes became winking nods to the audience. I thought the whole episode was flat at best, and painful at worst.
Editer
1791
Not great, but I didn’t hate it. Went in with lowered expectations, so that helped.
Even hackneyed Community is better than most sitcoms.
Thongsy
1792
It was terrible. I went in not knowing what to expect and it was just frankly awful. I hope it gets better but if they already filmed the whole season I have my doubts now.
Reldan
1793
So I know there’s a contingent of Fringe fans on this board as well.
Did anyone find the Fringe reference at the end weird - I have no idea how many people they thought would catch it, and there’s nothing particularly clever or funny about it even if you do except in the most self-depreciating way.
The obvious reference is the musical cue they end the episode on - that discordant violin sound is same music Fringe uses to mean that something is afoot before they cut to commercial or at the end of a cliffhanger-type episode. A character everybody has seemingly forgotten randomly appearing to a stranger soaking wet at the end of an episode is how one of the early S4 Fringe episodes ended as well, and that was the season in Fringe that most fans would rather forget because they’d just erased the timeline of the past 3 years so it never happened and all the relationships between all the characters you liked were reset to square one, because they otherwise had no idea where to go after the way they had finished S3.
So maybe that’s the point? But wtf, why would they be saying, “Hey, this is going to be like that really shitty, barely renewed, and almost certainly final season of that other critically acclaimed/low ratings show where we changed things a bunch and drove the fucker off a cliff.” I mean, could be apt, but is it some sort of inside joke?
hepcat
1794
My thoughts exactly. It had a few laughs, I’ll give it that. The feeling that it was somehow “off” may be due more to my knowledge that Harmon is gone. I wonder what I would have felt had I not been in possession of that knowledge?
I thought it was fine. I think a lot of the backlash is just because of that knowledge that Things Are Different Now. Even previous seasons of community had weaker episodes. It wasn’t stellar, but I laughed. We’ll see.
I enjoyed it too. I think they were being very tongue and cheek, cramming elements from other shows that everyone hates (laugh track is most obvious answer).
There were a handful of good laughs.
tolwyn
1797
Didn’t laugh once. And that was going in with lowered expectations. Thank God Archer is back on.
It was okay. Certainly not the best that Community has been. I definitely felt the difference in pacing. It will be interesting to see if this makes it a full season.
It honestly felt like a regular episdoe of Community to me. I something feel Community woudl be better with a smidge fewer “in-jokes” actually, and I still felt that about this episode. There was lots of little things going on here and there I thought were really well done, like the Abed TV stuff such as where Annie exchanges an “Oh, You!” look with Annie’s Boobs, who hands her pen back over to her. It seemed to me to pretty well capture what was fun about the show last year, so I guess I’m not getting when people say things like “Didn’t laugh once” or “Terrible!”.
In what way was it terrible? Just curious, as most people I know that watched it last night also enjoyed it.
Juntei
1800
I agree… I enjoyed the episode. I like the show and am willing to give it the benefit of the doubt and allow it some growing pains.
