Tonight All New Community: 5 reasons why your TV shouldn’t miss it

 

 

This is a “watch or else” kind of situation….We finally have some Community back in our lives and there is no good reason not to watch.Community’s 12th episode comes to your TV (that should be open to NBC even if you are out of the house) at 8/7c.The story is: As the study group returns after winter break, Jeff (Joel McHale) reveals that he’s been seeing a shrink and taking anti-anxiety medication. The newfound confidence leads him to experience debilitating levels of narcissism(if you can imagine a more narcissistic Jeff)  , which Britta (Gillian Jacobs) tries to help him manage. Meanwhile, over the break, Abed (Danny Pudi) developed a celebrity impersonator habit that has saddled him with debt. In order to help Abed shed his debt, the study group puts on costumes and goes to work for Vincent (French Stewart) as celebrity impersonators – appearing in character at a Bar Mitzvah celebration.

Not that it is needed but i will give you great reasons to watch tonight’s episode instead of whatever is on TV in that God-forsaken hour

1. THIS….

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no more reasons should be listed…..This will be on your TV…

2. Britta (Gillian Jacobs) will do a Michael Jackson impression and I bet you she will “britta it”

3. French Stewart (Harry Solomon in 30 rock from the sun) will be guest starring .

4. Many costumes will be involved as the gang impersonate celebrities in a bat mitzvah .

5.The most amazing reaction to anything on TV: Dean Pelton’s (Academy award Winner Jim Rash) reaction to Jeff’s new hot and confident look. A must see,trust me.

Make sure not to miss “Contemporary impressionists” written by  Alex Cooley and directed by Kyle Newacheck

Community Breaks Into Song: All I Want For Christmas Is More Greendale

This post has no spoilers because I avoided spoilers this week to make tonight more special, I am clueless to the premise and all I know that christmas,singing and Taran Kallim are involved. being a spoiler virgin in this world is not easy specially to an spoiler addict, between the temptations of NBC’s recklessly  too revealing spoiler videos (so I am told) and people going crazy on Tumblr I felt all alone and I managed to survive.

This week 8/7c on NBC is the last Community episode of 2011 to be replaced by 30 Rock mid-season and the show is promised to be back “sometime” in the spring . but fear not the show is still being written and filmed, according to @danharmon’s twitter account they are up to writing 315 and NBC has to air all 22 episodes….whenever that time is I will be there.

Community has a great history when it comes to Christmas episodes,”Comparative Religion” and “Abed’s Uncontrollable Christmas“ are absolute masterpieces so if anything in my cloud of ignorance I know for a fact the episode will be brilliant. The cast will sing original songs that are bound to be hilarious and catchy because again history shows how important music is to a show like Community.

To maintain honesty i haven’t ead this I had to copy it blindly from EW because I am as I said trying to avoid spoilers :

When Greendale’s glee club is shut down for copyright infringement before their holiday show, the study group is targeted as their replacement, one by one succumbing to the finger-snapping spirit that spreads like some irony-obliterating virus. The original songs are downright hilarious — especially Alison Brie’s breathy-sexpot baby-talking jingle — and there are some choice broadsides at the Fox series, like jokes about the blatant MacGuffinism of regionals and Jeff’s observation that ”not liking glee club doesn’t make us bullies, and implying that is reverse bullying.

what I can guarantee is some great fun and amazing costumes I don’t know beyond that.  Though I don’t celebrate the holiday I’ve always had an appreciation for the magic of the occasion, My Christmas wish is that this episode explodes in ratings to show how much love and support people have for this masterpiece of a show. REMEMBER :8/7c tonight on NBC 

I CAN”T WAIT FOR “Regional Holiday Music” Community’s we’ll be back soon sign off.

take the poll and yes the lack of options is intentional

Community: Inside We All Feel The Same

let me start by saying that “Foosball And Nocturnal vigilantism” was a great episode, it is as simple as that. it was great writing , great directing and some really great acting. the show is really making a good case for itself and if this season doesn’t get an Emmy recognition I am staging a sit in.

the episode was a weekend episode and i loved that because it makes me feel as if I am taking a look at the study group’s lives outside Greendale which has been set as the domain that held that group together, it offered a peek into what’s it’s like to have Annie as a roommate as she is living with Trobed, her interaction specifically with Troy was the most interesting, Alison Brie killed it as the story of breaking something and trying to replace it has been told to death as Troy points out but this is not Community’s style, first we see Annie professionally lie and staging a break in to convince Abed someone took the DVD and giving Troy a threatening look to cover up her pile of lies, I have to note here that I am rooting for more “Threes company” story lines between those three, they work really well together. Abed dressed as batman as he did in season one in the Halloween episode, an episode that defined Community as a comedy and i feel like this one is defining it again and showing us what season 3 will be all about.though Britta and Pierce laid low for this week it felt like it was for the serves of the episode, the episode was heart felt and sweet and both those characters (who I love to death) bring severity that this episode did not need, so I think it was a creative decision.

Now to the jem of the episode Jeff and Shirley, who would have thought that in any scenario Jeff would be the victim and Shirley would be the bully?! I really felt sorry for Jeff , this season though only in it’s 9th episode has been really hard for the character of Jeff,he has never felt so small and powerless as he did in this episode. some serious acting muscles from Joel McHale and you can see that he is not annoyed by the German “Doeutsch bags ” but them playing foosball made him feel insecure…later it is revealed why.

I am always game for more of Shirley because I think she is great, and her interaction with Jeff was more focused and intense than it was in season 1 because unlike “Social Psychology” the Jeff/Shirley story was not over shadowed by a then really key Jeff is jealous over Britta’s boyfriend. Their collaboration is toxic and evil, it was fun to see Shirley as mentor turned villain and Jeff as the student turned victim. Jeff and Shirley were on opposite sides of defining moments, Jeff a 10m year old neglected child (perhaps poor judging from the outfit) learned how to build walls around himself and not allow anybody in, he learned to preserve his awesomeness as an identity and Shirley learned  that her anger is toxic and started to overcompensate by being extra nice.They are both who they are today because of that day. At the end they throw all that baggage away and the embrace each other because we are all the same after all, who they are and whom they were stemed out of insecurity and the desire to be accepted and loved I(a universal plight), they are  even not petty enough to give beat the German in a grand triumph, they just let them fight over the ball and go to watch a movie. the last scene where kid Jeff and kid Shirley are walking away felt a little much but it didn’t bother me. It was all just great 🙂

loved the episode and a special nod to the episodes first time writer Chris Kula who captured Greendale magic on his first Community solo try.One more to go December 8th and then…

Community “Documentary Filmmaking Redux” :Some Flies Are Too Awesome For The Wall

This episode couldn’t have come at  a better time when all the fans are freaking out about NBC rescheduling of Community.This week’s episode reminds us of why we love Community so much, because it is special and we feel special for watching as if we are all a part of a secret club or as Jeff says in the pilot ” you’ve just stopped being a study group(audience) you’ve become something unstoppable, I hereby pronounce you a Community ” and that is what we the fans are…A Community

This week we got to see all our Greendale favorites back  fat Neil,magnitude,Leonard and others.Abed’s camera captures all the story on film and what better person to have an insight than Abed. The episode opens with a dusty commercial from the early 90s that includes Chuck’s Ryan McPartlin and  the dean was asked to update and he employs the help of the study group including a reluctant Jeff who’s blackmailed to agree with what I don’t know because it seems like it is something that the study group knows about.

Abed’s tagging (i don’t know what it’s called when someone’s name is written under their footage  in a documentary) Pierce Hawthorne: Local Curmudgeon,Troy Barns:Best Friend,Jeff Winger : Former Lawyer,Britta:  Anarchist Cat Owner (she will love that), Luis Guzman:president of the ceramics club 1993 ,Leonard: Up and Comer,Shirley Bennett :Moral Compass, Annie Edison: script supervisor( Abed never messes with Annie does he?!) Ben Chang: self proclaimed under-study .

Annie is the script supervisor and as she is describing her job to Abed’s camera please notice the writing on the board behind her where allscheduling is happening in  UPPER CASE , this was a detail i loved then again Community is in the details. Jeff is Dean Pelton and to he tries his best to sabotage the commercial by giving a hilarious impression of Dean Pelton while dressed in a bald cap in front of the Luis Guzman statue (how the mainstream audience don’t eat this up is beyond me!) . Troy and Britta are playing diverse students in Greendale and let me stop here and note though I had my doubts in the begining I am loving those Troy and Britta’s awkward crush on each other, who would’ve though you’ll find Britta in the midst of something cute .Pierce is fighting with well..himself as he demands the start treatment…is this a portrayal of what working with Chevy Chase is like?

Jeff’s impression in front of the Luis Guzman statue and his call to his lawyers warning them of the illegal use of Luis Guzman’s image backfires as Guzman calls the dean to appear in his commercial…things go downhill from there.the dean decides to rewrite the script  and as Abed points out the dean’s perfectionism is what will cause his downfall.As time passes the commercial deviates from its purpose and becomes and experimental art movie that has no point and the actors are placed in a psychological terror as they try to comply with the deans demands. the setting of shooting in the school made me feels as if we are backstage on the Community set  as the creator Dan Harmon strives for the best and driving himself and everyone else insane( especially if he’s working on a themed episode), the scripts keep changing while shooting and the suits keep calling because they are behind schedule and over budget, but the difference here is that the dean comes up with idiocy but Abed the true filmmaker is the one that strikes gold .The Dean’s insanity is coddled by Annie’s strive to be a teacher’s pet, she defends him aggressively and refuses to acknowledge his insanity, loved the scene where he hands her an orange and says “scene four”.

 

Jeff on the other hand is caught in this insane spiral with everybody else as he is now Dean Pelton, he’s a method actor now and is in his heart a bald man with bald friends “Lights…camera..DEAN” . Jeff’s psychological state is more fragile than ever, he and Annie share that, they are always the fastest ones to snap and crack under pressure of the trivial but when the going gets tough, they are there to take charge. The one who ends the madness though is Britta as she puts a stop to the commercial and demands that the Dean let them go in a great setting of smoke that reminded me of season one The Vampire Diaries…making things intense,.The Dean is left with only his thoughts and Abed’s camera.

Luis Guzman shows up to post-apocalyptic Greendale (boy that show really likes to trash the school) , we haven’t seen the outside campus of Greendale for a while,it is good to remember that there is sun out there.Luis Guzman soon recognizes what’s wrong with the Dean’s vision; the Dean thinks he’s too good for a school full of nitwits and not so many students and he’s ashamed of it. because when you have something special that is rare and precious like a great school or a genre-bending TV show with an amazing cast and crew you should recognize that it is miracle  to have that all in one place and you should appreciate it instead of trying to change it appreciate it foe what it is. Luis Guzman says to Dean pelton “This is a special school, you don’t deserve to be here” and as he says that a flyer behind him reads “THE SAFE WAY IS THE BEST WAY” I love that about community and it’s amazing art department. NBC chose the safe way and embraced it’s fear of staying number 4, it thinks it is too good for a low rated show …..Alas

As sad music plays the study group watches a montage of a naked Dean Pelton (Notice the Jeff Winger underwear from the pool table episode in season one),the Dean is covered in the ash of his burnt university degree, Abed points out that story telling is the filmmaker’s choice and sometimes happiness can be found in sadness. On that note the study group horrified by the above mentioned montage decide to embrace dean Pelton and surprisingly Jeff is the one who invites him in as my favorite music from the show plays, I call when Jeff kissed Annie music because I don’t know if it has a name, I was told by a fellow community fan that it is called “Greendale is where I belong” love that music.

This episode was all heart, a kiss from the cast and crew of Community to their fans and a showcase of Jim Rash’s talents, thank you Megan Ganz ( the episode’s writer) for always delivering the best and for loving Community as much as we do. When this episode was written I am not sure how much the writers knew about the rescheduling and I might be reading too much into thing but hey it’s my blog… But seriously how can so much heart and dedication be overlooked? a special nod to the brilliant Joe Russo who directed the episode…my hero

Community is where I belong….

Follow @lonestarjrs

Community Benched For Mid-season: NBC rides the bad decision train

I thought of posting the minute I heard the news but I couldn’t. NBC’s decision to bench Community and not include it in it’s mid season was tragic.It is in its core a business decision, Community does not have the ratings the network needs but that does not mean people are not watching Community. Community’s audience is mainly young viewers who watch it on Hulu,Netflix and itunes which are not included when the nelson ratings are calculated. Nothing has been set in stone yet NBC did not release a return date for Community but it is probably coming back in the spring maybe sometime in March which for me is an unbearable amount time to wait. The internet is going crazy with this new and if it has any indication it indicates how many fans Community has and even though I am reading those fans (including me) are being called annoying for loving the show TOO MUCH. well, there isn’t too much of love let me tell you that but the fans are so dedicated to the show for a reason, the show takes you into its private world, it is hard to watch Community and not get addicted and attached because of how much attention the show pays to both the joke and the story. this is a show that has a lot of heart, it feels like those people are your family in a world of your own creation. I did not like Community when I first watched it because I did not know any of the actors other than Alison Brie and of course Chevy Chase and i did not finish the pilot because I was watching it while i was attending to a family commitment and escaped to my bedroom to watch it, but a while later I got back to it  and watched the first season with appetite,then went back and re watched it. to this day i watch an episode of Community daily and every time I enjoy it more.

there must be people who are O.K about Community, you might not be as crazy as I am about it but is it possible you will allow it fade into TV oblivion? Community is not the type of show the coddles the audience and spells every single details for them, it respects its audience intelligence and even if you are not a TV nerd and you don’t understand some refrences that are made you will still laugh ate the joke because it works on both levels. The cast and crew are committed into making this show their pride work and when watching it you feel that energy and love that the cast and crew has for it’s own show.

I’ve been reading some terrifying and reassuring predictions on the internet, some think show will air it’s 22 episodes then go under, other predict that the show will be dropped by NBC and be picked up by another network or even it’ll go on cable. Some are reassuring themselves with the theory that NBC is benching Community to give Whitney a chance and if it tanks Community will be aired on Wednesdays in a more friendly time slot (it airs 8 pm on a Thursday and competes with The Big Bang Theory,the X Factor and The Vampire Diaries) which is a theory I am good with because Community needs to get away from The Big Bang Theory.

I really hope this is not the beginning of the end for Community because it does not deserve it, it is different from what TV has to offer but not alien and though NBC has backed up this show for 2 seasons I think it just needs to do more. here are some articles and websites that are trying to save Community if you care to take a look and please do.

1. Sign a petition to save the show http://www.save-community.com/

2. A very heart warminmg letter to NBC http://www.aoltv.com/2011/11/15/community-save-greendale-letter-to-nbc/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

3.  a photo petiton to save Community http://welovecommunity.tumblr.com/

4. Sign a petition to save the show http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/sixseasonsandamovie/

5. Email NBC to let the network know what you think  http://www.nbc.com/contact/general/

I will leave with this, if you make a little effort to save this show you’ll make a lot of people very happy so please help as much as possible to get this show back on the air.

thank you,

A Community fan who just wants her show back

Whitney “Getting To Know You”: Blue Balls The Size Of A Basketball Game

Though Whitney doesn’t fit with the Thursday night line up and does not by any means match the comedic brilliance of Community, Parks and recreation and The office  I have to admit, I am starting to like Whitney. The story and jokes are repeated and what’s bringing me back is the fact that I can’t deny it’s funny and I especially have to recognize the comedic excellence of  Chris D’Elia who delivers every week. I am not denying that Whitney Cummings is funny, for me she is even adorable but she can be a little much sometimes and her material is all there for someone who is familiar of her stand up which can be a little boring because her jokes are about novelty as to say if you hear the joke again it will not be as funny. The comedy is about relationships, I know that, but what frustrates me is that there is no investment in supporting characters, they are commentators and audience, their life revolves around Whitney and Alex and seem to have very little going on in their lives.I don’t believe in unnecessary characters on any TV show because there are no unnecessary human beings and in comedy I prefer ensemble cast comedy than others. The story is the same every week though and I am not hating it but i see myself getting bored later, this week Whitney discovers that there are things about Alex that she did not know before; for example: Racket ball. she sets on playing racket ball with him so they can have shared hobbies together and ends up sucking at it then challenging him to a basketball game and beating him. the story is pretty safe as all Whitney’s stories, there is no way it will not be funny but it is not that great.It does not insult the viewers intelligence though, it know what it is and it’s very clear on its identity, so some people will hate it and others will love it but no one will be confused to what it is exactly.

Community “Advanced Gay”: My Bones Are Tired Daddy

A gay party and a funeral all in one episode to deliver on Community’s promise to be “less weird” . Troy’s  plumbing talent established in season one is continued in this episode as the  janitor played by Jerry Minor makes a comeback and tries to convince Troy to do some plumbing with him to make him feel the joy of fixing things. I love the fact that even though Troy is becoming a man he is not becoming too serious about his life because that can be a drag…no pun intended.

In the cafeteria Annie is having peas,orange slices and a diet cola for lunch (um eat woman….) , just though it’s worth mentioning we never got to see what Annie eats and it may be trivial for some people but for me everything in Annie interests me, actually all the lunch choices were interesting. Two gay guys approach Pierce and Pierce doesn’t recognize them as gay men, is it homophobic to assume someone is gay if they act or dress in a manner that suggests so? if so then I guess at that moment Pierce was the least homophobic in the group isn’t he? The group tortures Pierce in a light hearted dynamic which is a little of a change from the perivous ones that can be a little mean.

Upon learning that his gay friendly campaign is making money regards to the fabulous Urbana Champaign Pierce is more than happy to support the gays, it is nice to see the CEO side of Pierce because we can easily forget he is a wealthy business man. Britta enlightens the group in Psychology pointing out that Pierce had an “oedipal complex, all men have to kill their fathers so they can do something to their mothers” I am not sure Britta was concerned about how related this information is to the situation she just saw an opprtunity to brag and took it with her half ass-ed version since she did not finish the chapter…she’s the worst.

Troy’s story is the driving force of a more mainstream sitcom, as one who is watching Community since season one like myself might see the character development that is about to take place  and an indication of what I think might be one of the most interesting story lines to be featured on Community, another viewer who is flipping through the channels might see a secret society initiation with John Goodman delivering a role that might be written for him and only him (nod to whoever pitched that idea in the writers room) , a black Hitler and an astronaut making Paganinis, It is a win win for both parties. Troy is offered a choice in the episode and while he chose to stay with Abed I did not like this choice and I don’t mean I didn’t like it as a critisim to the writers choice but this is the first time I see troy’s friendship with Abed hold him back to no fault of Abed’s and even though we see Troy growing into a man that doesn’t stop him from reverting to old habits like he did in season one where he confessed that he injured himself on purpose to ruin his chances of going to collage. Finding something  you are good at is hard enough and I feel sorry for Troy who refused to use his talent to better his future and I wanted him to choose something either air conditioning repair, plumbing or just say “I know what I have to do now, I have to find soemthing I love to do.” yet he chose doing nothing instead and he will regret that one day, but the idea that Vice Dean Laybourne will not allow him to squander his talent is comforting . This is also the first Troy adventure, he goes in a wild ride on his own  and has an important decision to make and no one knows about it except for Abed and Abed doesn’t go through it with him.

At last we meet papa Hawthorne and though I knew before hand he was a racist no adjective prepared me for Larry Cedar’s portrayal of Cornelius Hawthorne, one of the crappiest dads or human beings  to ever appear on TV (another nod to whoever pitched that idea). He offends and horrifies almost anyone and Pierce shrinks in his presence, even though I never hated Pierce and I never thought his role as a villain in season 2 was over the top for those who felt so this episode must’ve vindicated him for some people. Jeff takes Pierce’s relationship with his father personally and Britta is so quick in pointing it out, in this episode Britta is the one that has a perceptive look into what Jeff and Pierce are going through and because she is both right and so damn annoying no one is willing to listen to her.

The party is back on after Pierce’s father demands it’s cancellation courtesy of Jeff, regardless of why Jeff was defending Pierce it was nice to see him protecting one of his own again. The party looks fun and gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay, the dean’s outfit alone needs its own article, Pierce is horrified and afraid that his father will disown him and as Jeff is pointing out what a relief it is to not have a father in Pierce’s life the words become sad as later on Pierce is free from his father forever. both Pierce and Troy have choices to make, Pierces has a choice to stand up for his father but chooses the easy way out  and fakes a heart attack when he is caught in the middle between the gays and his father and Troy has to choose between plumbing and air conditioning and even though I did not like his choice I have to admire the fact that he stood up to the frightening figure that is John Goodman.

In the hospital the most dramatic and brillaint scene in the episode is in a bare hospital room with Pierce laying on the bed and his father by his side Jeff has had it and Cornelious Hawthorne sense of entitlement and ownership that all of us as sons and daughters never understand triggers what in my opinion the most resonant and quotable Jeff speeches ever and because I love it,this was some serious acting on Joel Mchale part . In this moment Jeff had no agenda, he was not trying to prove a point or even trying to fix something, he just needed to say it and said it (which is the second time this season Jeff bares his soul for no reason at all only for the sake of honesty in the first time it was Annie on the receiving end in “The Geography Of Global Conflict” ) I will quote it all because the reason “I am His father’ is not always enough especially when you are a lazy one “Listen up colonel crept keeper: I can live a million years and I could spend every minute of it doing important things, but at the end of it all I would’ve only lived half a life if I had not raised a son,this was a gift that was handed to you , you squandered it.And the reason you have so much hate in your heart is because you are trying to fill a hole where your kid was supposed to go and now it’s too late, now you’re just stomping around trying to prove you exist,well mission accomplished. But here’s a question I’d like to pass on to you from every son of every crap dad that ever existed  SO WHAT?! I am done with you..He’s done with you, the world is done with you.”  and the world was done with Pierce’s dad because after this Pierce’s father has a real heart attack and dies and this might seem like a joke but it’s really not. Community has the ability of make you laugh,cry, thinks  and really feel so wisely sad , it has that ability.

Jeff feels like crap in the funeral because this is the worst thing you can imagine, to tell someone to go to hell and they actually do. He is the killer there is no way around it and unlike with the death of his mother Pierce is more than willing to let his father go, he has no problem with accepting death because in this case it brings him relief and freedom, it ia a horrible yet a very true thought. The similarities in what Jeff is going through and what Pierce is going through are staggering, but in the end Pierce faced his father issues postmortem and Jeff still denies them because I think for Jeff dealing with his father is just too hard and painful for him, his father left him and as was said before by Jeff  in season ones’s “Home Economics”  he insulted him and neglected him, Jeff’s dad made him feel worthless and his mom made him feel special and the only way to find balance between those two is to find none, to chose to believe his mom and trivialize the importance of having a dad because thinking of his dad reminds him of a time where he was not enough (though the speech made it clear he though of what he’s going to say many times). I have to note that in my mind Jeff’s mom is a once sexy woman who now depends emotionally on Jeff and once treated him as a replacement for a husband,not in a gross way. Jeff’s dad is a charming as hell 60 something man who has never had a relationship but gets a lot of action and lives in a crappy one bedroom apartment, it would be really sad though if he was successful.

the episode never really ends, there is no resolution which for me means that the writers are focused on one direction that will take place sometime near the middle of the season but I am not sure, what I know for sure is that it is going to be dark.

Community: Taran Killam to join a December episode and Shirley to remarry

As part of  Community’s vow to bring us the best of the best Cobie Smulders baby dady Taran Kallim is set to join the HIT COMEDY as a choir director (will there be Glee’s  MR.Schuster parody, maybe but not likely) The Saturday Night Live actor will be in a Christmas episode. The charter is said to be a little kooky by TVline’s Megan Masters and I am thinking perfect for Britta who really needs one…you know

On other news Malcom-Jamal Warner who plays Andre Shirley reformed ex husband is said to come back for the 12th episode of season three with one mission in mind, getting Shirley to remarry him, but will Shirley be willing to play the role of a wife again? in “Remedial Chaos Theory” we saw that Shirley is trying to establish an identity which is a running theme throughout season one and a bit in season 2.

 

Community “Remedial Chaos Theory”: Came Up Organically

This fourth installment of the third season of Community exceeded my expectations, when a differen time lines episode is done it may sometimes get boring or even stray from the point, that was not the case in this episode, it seemed well thought out and constructed.

we are in Troy and Abed’s new apartment which looks great and full of personality, and we get to see how particular Abed is about his domain, he gets super scary when Shirley tries to mess with that foreshadowing a possibility of the audience getting to know that living with Abed and dealing with him on daily basis is not that easy. This episode really takes in who the characters are and their status in the group.

Let’s Roll The Dice……

2: first to go get the pizza is Annie, Jeff stops Britta from singing Roxanne which drives her to get high in the bathroom and that happens in all time lines, Troy discovers that gun in Annie’s purse , I love how he holds with a pencil as evidence my massive addiction to cop shows would drive me to hold a gun the same way. Abed interrogates Britta for the source of the smell in the bathroom (yikes) , no one accepts Shirley’s pies and Jeff is mocked for hitting his head with the ceiling fan. The world without Annie is devoid of softness and compassion.

4: Shirley… Jeff reminds the group not to eat Shirley’s pies because she has a “baking problem” , there is the part where he says he doesn’t like being the bad guy but shuts Britta up (let the woman sing dude, and eat the damn pie) I think the problem with being around someone like Jeff (who’s a character I identify with especially the dark parts) is that people may keep themselves in check for fear of cynical ridicule and being deemed as lame or uncool.Pierce gives Troy the “Trog ” a troll Troy is terrified of. As Shirley’s pies a burnt we get to see angry Shirley (Ilove angry Shirley) and Jeff confronts her about her baking trying to establish an identity through baking and she points out that she is trying to find a place within the group as the only married woman in a group of “horny toads”. They are , and we get a great nod to the debate episode scene as they all look at each other all googly ending with Troy looking at Trog and screaming.maybe I am off base with this but Shirley being gone did not make much difference maybe to mean how little regard they have for her, a price she pays for being the mom who worries about everyone and no one worries about her.

3: Pierce, Jeff  turns Annie’s compliment of  Troy’s new apartment into an insult hurting Troy’s feelings, Troy goes to the bathroom to talk to Britta (love the cigarette mint he takes out “I am 21 years old…I am a man”, Troy is frustrated with Jeff’s constant  picking on him and surprisingly Britta turns out to be an awesome advice giver, Jeff is threatened by Troy and why wouldn’t he? Jeff’s awesomeness life source is what you think you know about him, he never let’s his guard down enough for people to see his insecurities.  “his whole personality is based on guarding himself” something Britta and Jeff have in common but portray it differently. Troy has grown up into an amazing man, one who is funny, caring and open about who he is in a way that throws Jeff off his balance. When Pierce shows up with the pizza Troy and Britta’s sexual chemistry catches Jeff and Annie’s eye and they don’t like it.

6: Britta,when Britta is gone the group has nothing to talk about because making fun of Britta brings the group close together, she is the one who tries to start conversations. Jeff and Annie go to the bathroom to check his head injury and we all know that when those two are together in a room away from the judging eyes of the study group something is bound to happen, Annie tells Jeff how she applied a tourniquet on a guy that was stabbed outside her building, Annie is one bad ass cookie, and Jeff expresses concern because as we all know little girl or not Jeff always wants to protect Annie. They almost kiss but Troy’s screams interrupt them. Britta is back but not with pizza, she brings the pizza delivery guy and confesses she loves him and wants to marry him, it is very important to point out that she is sober and not high at the time.

1 :Troy, hell breaks loose when Troy leaves, in a matter of seconds Annie falls, Pierce gets shot (and dies as we see later),and Britta sets the apartment on fire (love how she says water multiple times before actually getting water). what I love about the scene is the blood squirting  from Pierces leg so comically and Abed taking the time to adjust his toy on that Indiana Jones thingy before helping Annie with Pierce.

5 :Abed, as hard as it is to imagine a world without Abed when he is gone to get the pizza who he did not pay for himself but asked the group to pitch it….nice, Britta goes to the bathroom and gets high and is not faced with Abed at the door ruining her buzz, Shirley rushes to Britta with pies to feed her munchies leaving Annie and Jeff alone in the kitchen. Troy receives Pierce’s gift undistributed by his other half Abed he takes the time to thank Pierce for allowing him to stay with him last year which makes Pierce feel guilty for the horrible gift he is about to give. Shirley is honest about her baking obsession and Jeff and Annie lose themselves in a passionate kiss, it seems that when Abed, the narrator, is gone the group has liberty to be honest and act out on their whims just as if Dan Harmon the creator of Community would let us the fans write the show and have our say in what happens in the show and reality is, if that happens it is not a good thing because Britta and Shirley engage in hurtful name calling , Pierce and Troy wrestle over the gift, and Jeff and Annie have an awkward angry moment after Annie tells Jeff while making out that him worrying about her reminds her of her dad and Jeff in return criticizes both her small talk and her bubble gum lip gloss…a moment here..WHY? why would they have Jeff and Annie have this conversation? Jeff reminds Annie of her dad? why make it creepy guys why? there is nothing creepy about those two but when you have them talking about it that much it becomes creepy, thankfully that moment is erased in the next time line. Anyways when Abed returns there is obvious tension in the room, Abed is the pressure release, he is the structure of the study group dynamics.

The real time line: Abed stops the dice and makes a speech on the necessity of consistency in a world of unexplained variables,the speech might have seemed to eloquent for Abed but it was beautiful nonetheless, of course it is interrupted by Britta’s own attempt at an analysis of the speech.Jeff’s con is up he devised away where he wouldn’t be the one who gets the pizza and as a punishment he is sentenced to be the pizza getter, when Jeff is gone Pierce doen’t have to tell his dirty anecdote to impress, Britta gets to sing her song uninterrupted and the group joins in a goofy dance as they sing, the scene was relaxed,fun and unjaded unlike Jeff. They are all dancing and Jeff comes back to find himself on the outside looking in, he is on one side and Pierce on the other and Troy taking center stage.

Nod to the tag at the end, Pierce is dead and Annie is in a mental hospital,Britta has a blues streak in her hair and Jeff lost an arm( yes he looks hot with one arm)….this is one of the funniest episodes of Community, even if you don’t bother with all the character analysis you still get a good laugh. And the best is yet to come.

Resolution and Vow :whenever food is served I will do the “me so hungry” Britta dance…sealed with blood

Community “Competitive Ecology”: The Dangers Of Validation

If this review sucks it is Todd’s fault…..Stupid Todd

This week Community’s episode came with very little expectation since it is 304 not 303 which was supposed to be Abed and Troy’s house-warming party an episode I was super psyched to watch . I was pleasantly surprised since I wasn’t that excited to have a Chang-Centric episode. I think Ken Jong is at his best when presented in small insane doses but this episode proved how wrong I am.

This is how it is done bitches! the episode was absolutely coherent, both storylines of Chang and the study group were equally engaging and interesting. after a long hilarious speech from professor Kane about the simplicity and complexity of the present day Legos, The study group has to do a terrarium project and are pair with strangers which sparked something I never thought of before, they never really hang out with anyone else other that each other and they don’t really want to. I prepared for they story and what was coming: the study group will team up with the strangers and hate every minute of it….WRONG after asking Professor Kane, The only sane human being on campus, they are allowed to team up with each other, cut into the break ups scene each one breaking up with their “stranger” partner each breakup to fit each character…as audience we are back to the comfort zone with the group teaming up in pairs leaving Pierce alone with Todd the victim in this mess.

The group pairs up in the most expected way possible; Jeff and Annie, Abed and Troy,Britta and Shirley and Pierce and Todd. well Todd wasn’t exactly expected …then we think we know where the story is going to go Jeff and Annie have nice moment and a fight as usual, Troy and Abed have a weird amazing adventure, Britta and Shirley bicker a little then Shirley teaches Britta how to act like a normal human being and so on…WRONG those perfect pairs don’t work well together so the group works really well as a group but as pairs on a mission there are problems, Annie is frustrated by Jeff’s distraction, Troy and Abed have nothing to talk about since they are together all the time,Britta is annoyed by  Shirley (I hate it when people talk about their babies too ).

Britta and Troy meet outside in what seems as a romantic encounter only to discover they want to team up with each other,they are overheard by Annie and Abed who I guess were trying to do the same thing..(this is the second time Annie was more than willing to ditch Jeff and I can’t help but wonder why?) they are overheard by Shirley and Jeff who are furious who are overheard by Pierce and Todd…God that was exhausting . Jeff calls a meeting in the study room (our and their comfort zone) to discuss the “Todd problem “, the funny thing about Todd is that I felt about him the way the study group did, in my mind he was in the way every time he talks i”d feel like shut up extra…why are you talking?! so I find it interesting that the group is going through its crazy self-involved dynamics with a stranger in the middle. I loved the scene that comes next, they are in the study room and Todd is sitting that stayed empty  for two seasons (excluding the Jack Black episode) feeding a turtle. They are all uncomfortable with this invasion of space by Todd the “random” “non-grouper” .The fact that they kept saying no offence was really offensive .The scene in the study room is brilliant, the charatcters act like we always known them to ; jokes are passed around equally and appropriately and this scene becomes a team work an evidence of what happens on a set when the cast is in total n sync. There is something that I need to point out; Jeff and Shirley are said to be around the same age which I guess means she is about 5 years older and Jeff is about 33 or 34 years old and I seem to remember Abed being 30 in season 1 so Abed and Jeff are close in age why would Abed consider him old?

As they decide to make it a popularity poll things spiral out of control as Jeff discovers he is paired with Todd and Todd is the more popular individual, Shirley discovers she is the least popular one ,Pierce is overjoyed he is more popular than someone and Annie is the most popular of all because she’ll do all the work. This realization does not sit well with anyone, I loved the scene where Britta thinks she is more popular than Troy and Abed sets her straight. The circle of attack continues Jeff attacks the group, Annie attacks Jeff then Todd then Abed attacks Annie, Annie attacks Shirley ans her religiousness, Shirley attacks Britta and her delusional of being an animal activist, Annie attacks Britta for not dissecting  animals, Jeff stops the madness only to reveal how unbelievably self-centered he is only to to attacked by Pierce….Todd tries to leave which is what should have done a while ago and Jeff puts on his scary face, I love Jeff’s violent outbursts he is really scary when he’s angry. At this point the characters look really tired and I think it is not acting or make up the poor souls looked awful they must’ve been shooting really late. Anyways Jeff physically tries to attack Abed with Britta as a human shield, Jeff carries her out of the way (as the tag shows this must have been the closest she came to male contact) to chase Abed to take a look at the infamous ballot. Todd the unlikely voice of reason puts a stop to it and lets the group have it, and with that we are taught a lesson, he calls their love “weird and toxic and it destroys everything it touches”  this is one of many points that the show tries to make, the group’s relationship might be close but it is not necessarily healthy and I disagree what is a healthy relationship? they are selfish and unappreciative to anything outside their domain and I think that is normal when you have a group of people who accept you for who you are it might be unhealthy but it is necessary or we’ll be always alone trying to fit in, we all look for validation and when we get it and trust it, it can lift us up but also it can be a dangerous thing as we see the group hurts other people cluelessly if they were alone and not together they migh be more attentive and careful because it would be very important for them to be accepted. Through Todd’s outburst we discover that Todd is not an extra he is a character with a back story that is both interesting and touching. You’d think the group learned its lesson and they felt sorry for Todd, you are WRONG they detect Todd as the alien that caused an imbalance to their Eco system.In this episode one gets to see the group from an outsiders point of view, we the audience are not looking from the outside, we are one of them now…. close to a single tear running down Todd’s face as the group tears him to pieces behind him back.

I did not forget the Chang film noir story line, it was a fresh look at the Chang psyche, a trip to the unfortunate world of Chang’s mind. The episode presented an interaction between Chang and the Dean in what might be the best and only voiceover-off on TV. The events ran out in an insane unrelated pattern as Chang tries to connect unrelated events to random objects delivering the best ridiculous quotable quotes ever.

things I noticed after watching 3 times :

• Chang’s manicane leg girlfriend thet he stole from the janitor, funny and sad something Community does really well.
• “Dean low”
• “who’s Nick Nolte?”
• Michael K Williams speech about Legos
• the group assumed Professor Kane heard about their adventures
• Jeff’s half-hearted impression of Abed
• the group makes awful background actors,the way they were hanging out by the water cooler as the dean and Chang talked was weird.
• Annie looking for a beetle in the salad
• “my own words rang in my head like a bell inside a head”
• “the kind of arms that had elbows”
• wardrobe people: Annie’s outfits are unflattering lately she is hot and now 21 come on change her wardrobe a little.
• the weird fungi colony in the men’s bathroom
• “maybe your gay friend should  mind his own business” Shirley definition of a homeopath
• “Arizone backwards is still Arizona”
• Troy’s logic of why he should be paired up with Britta
• “the hair color concept intrigues me because that’s how I distinguish you anyway”
• Jeff’s reaction to being called old
• Abed’s reaction to anything
• the study room table still has the ax cracks Jeff made in Biology 101
• Chang’s board of “related events
• “Oh No she’s got her marijuana lighter”
• “who the hell are you always texting everyone you know is here” I have a theory Annie…his mom.
• “don’t get your number 4 stink on this Todd “
• Pierce’s face when Annie and Shirley are fighting about religious beliefs
• “do they  have tiny little faces?”
• “Pierce wake up Jeff is gonna heal us”
• “I just had a terrible nightmare that Jeff was a pompous ass”
• Annie passing out after failing the assignment…I have a feeling that one was improvised.
• Britta’s obvious lack of action in her life “maybe i need to take one…..” Abed’s face.
• OFFENCE TAKEN