progressive politics and regressive entertainment. like peanut and butter.
May 20, 2012 6 Comments
Okay, does anyone else feel like Community just came back, and now it’s already been taken away for a while? Well, the networks giveth, and the networks taketh away, and so does Dean Pelton, who arrives with good news (Shirley’s Sandwiches is back in business!) and bad news (there’s a plot device where only Shirley or Pierce can own said business, but not both!).
DEAN PELTON: Did somebody say “sexy construction worker”?
May 19, 2012 Leave a comment
The last three episodes of Community were pushed out of the chute so fast, it’s hard for me to figure out the proper viewing order. Sure, I could just go with the order in which NBC aired them, but I went with “The Last Chang Dynasty” first, just to close that plot line. Next up, “Digital Estate Planning,” in which Pierce’s father’s will mandates that Pierce and friends play a video game.
May 18, 2012 7 Comments
In a slightly peculiar twist of programming, there were three new episodes of Community aired last night. I’ll look at them all, but not at all at once. Let’s start today with “The First Chang Dynasty,” which is the sequel to last week’s compelling “Curriculum Unavailable.” Will the study group figure out what’s going on at Greendale? Can they rescue Dean Pelton? Will they defeat Senor Chang? What if we discovered that it was all a dream, and that they’d fallen asleep in Chang’s Spanish class back in Season One?
JEFF: You see? It’s not the real Dean!
COP: Of course. The head of security at Greendale Community College has kidnapped the Dean, and replaced him with — a Deanalganger.
May 14, 2012 Leave a comment
Last week on Community, we discovered that the study group is still meeting despite being kicked out of Greendale Community College. What’s the plot device devised to keep them together? One word: potluck.
TROY: It’s bagel bites in a deconstructed hot pocket reduction with a Doritos glaze.
May 6, 2012 Leave a comment
This week on Community, we say goodbye to Star-Burns, which means saying hello to Alex Osbourne.
STAR-BURNS: My name is Alex Osbourne, and if you’re watching this, it means I’m dead.
April 27, 2012 4 Comments
Sometimes Community adopts a genre without connecting to a specific work, but this week it’s clear from the start. We’re not doing just any old police procedural show. We’re doing Law & Order, baby.
Greendale Community College is represented by two separate yet equally important types of people: the goofballs that run around stirring up trouble, and the eggheads that make a big deal out of it. These are their stories.
(Spoilers to follow.)
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April 20, 2012 Leave a comment
Community this week focuses on a specific relationship, and it’s not the one you might expect. Yes, it’s obvious that Troy and Britta have a brewing brouhaha, but it’s Annie’s attempt to play matchmaker with the two of them that leads her into confrontation with Abed. Annie and Abed enter into a world of simulations, with characters playing other characters, all coming together to suggest that imagination can be utilized to explore and strengthen friendships.
So, shall we join the group?
April 13, 2012 1 Comment
Last night’s new episode of Community began with Troy and Abed playing a hand-clapping game, reminding us that they are best friends. And we are reassured that their brutal feud over pillows and blankets has been left in the past.
April 6, 2012 Leave a comment
“Pillows and Blankets” is, of course, the conclusion to what began last week’s Community episode entitled “Digital Exploration of Interior Design.” We open on a scene of desolation and destruction.
April 1, 2012 2 Comments
I’m not sure that product placement in television shows always does what the big businesses supposes it does. That is, I presume that the main thing that they want to do is to remind us of their ubiquity, but when Shirley says…
SHIRLEY: That should be my sandwich shop. It was my idea to put one there!
March 23, 2012 2 Comments
Last week, the NBC sitcom Community returned to the airwaves. A nation cheered. Well, a nation cheered with the exception of Salon columnist Willa Paskin, who felt that Community had gone too far in toning itself down for its mid-season return. While I’m all for firming and toning, I felt that “Urban Matrimony and the Sandwich Arts” was a thoroughly satisfying experience, even if it wasn’t one of the more fantastical Community romps. And I’ve been very much looking forward to this week’s “Contemporary Impressionists.” So what’s my impression?
March 19, 2012 2 Comments
Community is back! Community is back! Did you hear that Community came back last week?
