Community

[Hutch]

Season 3 DVD goes on sale: August 14, 2012

I have the DVDs. There's some subtle things going on in the commentaries.
1) The last few episodes, the people in the commentary are looking at not-finished versions of the episodes. Like, in "Digital Estate Planning", the computer voices they're hearing are all Dan Harmon. Which is weird, because I am viewing the finished product. So, they recorded the commentaries before the season had fully aired. Which leads to ...
2) Dan Harmon makes references to Season 4 and "13 episodes" as if he's going to be around for it. It's surreal 

He also made a mention of the "public feud" between himself and Chevy, which, among other things, led to one of the episodes having a different tag than was originally planned.

[sickrubik]

Yeah, the Dan Harmon/Chevy thing was pretty widely known.

[K9]

So this has been bumped back a week, but promoted to the Thursday evening slot. I'm not sure if this is a good thing, or just a thing.

Need more community in my life, I love this show.

[Teleku]

Continuing the drama, chevy chase has quit the show in some sort of tiff, and will be missing in some of the episodes of season 4.

http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/11/22/chevy-chase-leaves-cast-of-community/

[K9]

Well, that's not a good sign.

[JWIV]

Well, that's not a good sign.

It's just stupid at this point.  There's literally like 2 episodes left that they haven't filmed and we can assume that this is the end of the show.

[Evildrider]

I think you are all forgetting that this is Chevy Chase we are talking about, and he's a known asshole.

[Miasma]

Ouch.

I have yet to watch the new episodes, I hope he's wrong.

[K9]

Oh dear.

Well, I'll go in with high hopes, there is still a lot of talent in the cast, but that doesn't bode well.

[sickrubik]

Oh dear.

Well, I'll go in with high hopes, there is still a lot of talent in the cast, but that doesn't bode well.

Don't. Do just the opposite, or at the very least, temper your hopes.

[JWIV]

Well fuck.

It's definitely much more forced and any sense of heart and nuance has been run over roughshod in the rush to make it the answer to Two Broke Girls or some such shit.

It wasn't terrible, but it certainly didn't have the charm of the Harmon years.

[Tebonas]

Yeah, it felt a bit forced. Like somebody got notes what is funny about this show and tried to recreate it without having the same sense of humor. Maybe that is my knowledge of Harmon leaving clouding the issue, though.

[MahrinSkel]

'Yo dawg, we heard you like meta, so we put meta in your meta....'

Seriously, it felt like the point was to try and mock Harmon's style by putting in as many layers as possible in a completely incoherent fashion, and in the process make the audience the butt of the joke.

--Dave

[01101010]

Not surprising... they been trying to get rid of this show for what seems like forever. Seems like they found the bullet.

[Merusk]

If they wanted to get rid if it they would have when Harmon left.  Now they're just stretching it out for syndication purposes.

[Tannhauser]

Ehhhh, it was OK.  Going to stick with it. 

[Shannow]

36 hours on the road with Dan Harmon.

Fun read on Dan Harmon, guy is a fruit cake.

[K9]

I've enjoyed the first two episodes of this season. I won't try and argue that they showcase the best of the show, but they haven't been as bad as a lot of these reviews would seem to imply. The only things that have irked me is the dialogue, the timing between the cast seems to have been off at times, and it feels weird, and Abed. It seems that the new writers don't know what to do with him, so they wrote him out of the first two episodes to a degree. Also, the lacking after-show bit with Troy and Abed after episode one annoyed me.

[Merusk]

I'm no fan of the show, but I understand that what people love about it is the continuity.  That references made will come back later with a payoff.   Given that, the first review was damning enough - the character that introduced the Who-facsimile didn't know wtf it was? Derf?

[MahrinSkel]

They don't seem to know when to take a beat in the editing, let the reference or the straight lines soak in. They just rush ahead to the next bit.

--Dave

[01101010]

Alison Brie was on Daily Show.. it was lovely. 

[sickrubik]

The first episode was fine. The second episode, however, was TERRIBLE.

[JWIV]

The third episode last night (Inspector Spacetime Convention) wasn't great, but was definitely an improvement.

[Ironwood]

Alison Brie was on Daily Show.. it was lovely. 

I watched this interview.  With the sound down, it was incredible.

[K9]

Pet peeve: american sitcome writers who do not know how to write dialogue for British characters, classically exemplified by Emily's use of the word 'pants' instead of 'trousers' in the Friends episode in London. Also, nobody in the UK, especially not faculty members at Oxford, ever use the word 'coed'. 

Aside from this, the series is definitely improving, the cast seem to have better timing and the whole thing feels good. Still no great episodes, but they're not bad.

[Merusk]

Now you know how we feel when there's "Americans" on the UK shows here.

[Bunk]

Not the best episode, and it certainly did not live up to the last appearance of the Germans, but I did laugh out loud at the balloons. Probably because I actually have that silly song on the thumb drive in my car.

[naum]

Never watched this show live but now almost through season 3 via Hulu.

This is like the greatest show in the history of television. A few episodes were not up to the rest, but on the whole, pure delight. All of the cast is stellar (with the possible exception of Glover IMV) and remarkably gifted. Even Chevy Chase even if he didn't want to be there.

Haven't seen any of season 4 though I hear a range of disappointment from "totally sucks now" to "good, but not anything near to 1st 3 seasons".

On the ratings disappointment, here is a Wired article on the Nielsen disconnect with some blurbs (and photos too) of Alison Brie…



It seems Community ranks at the bottom of the Nielsen ratings but near the top in net culture buzz. I guess given the premise and nature of this show, not to be unexpected.

[K9]

Community seems like the epitome of a show that is made for new media, and which cannot be gauged well in any sense by systems like Nielsen.

For the record, I think season four is going really well. The first two episodes were shaky and oddly-paced, but since then the show has found good form. There haven't been any complete stand-out episodes, but they're all good and better than any alternative.

[MahrinSkel]

It's gotten better.  Nothing that really stands up to the better episodes from 2 and 3, but since the bobbles in the first few episodes it's stopped making me think "Oh God, I see what they're trying to do there and they totally blew it."  They aren't aiming as high, but they're not screwing up what they do try, either.  Maybe they can close out the syndication/DVD boxed set package without trashing the franchise, which would count as a "Win" now.

--Dave

[K9]

Community renewed for a 5th season.

I'm pleased about this; while this 4th season hasn't been as good as previous seasons, it has been better than the first two episodes implied. Although I'm not sure where they're going to go with the storylines.

Good riddance to Chevy Chase, this season really showed how unnecessary he was to the show.

[01101010]

Oh nice. This last episode was a bit much, but still stayed on course. Still wondering about Chang though...

[Evildrider]

Rumor is that Dan Harmon may be coming back for the next/last season.

[Tannhauser]

Christ, that was a short season!  Uneven episodes.  But the 'Freaky Friday' one was both funny and touching.  5th season!  You know the pressure will  be incredible for them to renew to bow to the 'six seasons and a movie' crowd.

Fortunately, NBC is such a dumpster fire of a network, it made the cut. 

I hope Harmon comes back, coke habit and all. 

[K9]

Dan Harmon coming back would be grand