Community / Parks and Recreation

Started by diggler, April 15, 2011, 04:20:04 PM

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diggler

Quote from: RegularKarate on May 16, 2012, 11:37:53 AM
I disagree about the finale being that good.  I laughed a few times, but it was inconsistent and didn't feel like a finale.  The pacing was way off and it was just a bunch of gags with a stupid twist thrown in.

Are you talking about Parks and Rec? The Community finale hasn't happened yet.

I don't really care whether Community pulls in viewers or not, it speaks to me, and I was pretty meh on the show at first.  I think the comedic pacing of the show has gotten much better.
I'm not racist, I'm just slutty

RegularKarate

Quote from: ddiggler on May 16, 2012, 12:38:48 PM
The Community finale hasn't happened yet.

Hah...this is why it didn't feel like a finale.  It WASN'T.  I was so into Community last season and the beginning of this one, but it dropped the ball enough to where I'm  not paying enough attention to even know if the fucking season is over.

I liked the Parks finale a lot.

AntiDumbFrogQuestion

Well! All I can say about Community's season finale is that it followed through with what Dan Harmon said about wanting this season to be like The Wire in some sense.

This was such a scattered season with so much insanity that didn't seem to connect, but I'm going to give it a B+ for effort.  Hopefully season 4 will be streamlined and less distracted by thoughts of cancellation.

Tictacbk


AntiDumbFrogQuestion

Quote from: Tictacbk on May 19, 2012, 01:15:39 AM
Welp, Dan Harmon got fired.

hah! well, it was a fight for the show and showrunner as a package deal for most, and the person willing to take the most risks on the show is gone now. hope for a good last season, don't hold any high expectations.

Tictacbk

I'm sure most of you who care about Community have already read this because you're familiar with how the internet works, but here is what Dan Harmon had to say about his "exit":

http://danharmon.tumblr.com/post/23339272200/hey-did-i-miss-anything



Quote from: Dan Harmon
A few hours ago, I landed in Los Angeles, turned on my phone, and confirmed what you already know.  Sony Pictures Television is replacing me as showrunner on Community, with two seasoned fellows that I'm sure are quite nice - actually, I have it on good authority they're quite nice, because they once created a show and cast my good friend Jeff Davis on it, so how bad can they be.
Why'd Sony want me gone?  I can't answer that because I've been in as much contact with them as you have.  They literally haven't called me since the season four pickup, so their reasons for replacing me are clearly none of my business.  Community is their property, I only own ten percent of it, and I kind of don't want to hear what their complaints are because I'm sure it would hurt my feelings even more now that I'd be listening for free.
I do want to correct a couple points of spin, now that I'm free to do so:
The important one is this quote from Bob Greenblatt in which he says he's sure I'm going to be involved somehow, something like that.  That's a misquote.  I think he meant to say he's sure cookies are yummy, because he's never called me once in the entire duration of his employment at NBC.  He didn't call me to say he was starting to work there, he didn't call me to say I was no longer working there and he definitely didn't call to ask if I was going to be involved.  I'm not saying it's wrong for him to have bigger fish to fry, I'm just saying, NBC is not a credible source of All News Dan Harmon.
You may have read that I am technically "signed on," by default, to be an executive consulting something or other - which is a relatively standard protective clause for a creator in my position.  Guys like me can't actually just be shot and left in a ditch by Skynet, we're still allowed to have a title on the things we create and "help out," like, I guess sharpening pencils and stuff. 
However, if I actually chose to go to the office, I wouldn't have any power there.  Nobody would have to do anything I said, ever.  I would be "offering" thoughts on other people's scripts, not allowed to rewrite them, not allowed to ask anyone else to rewrite them, not allowed to say whether a single joke was funny or go near the edit bay, etc.  It's....not really the way the previous episodes got done.  I was what you might call a....hands on producer.  Are my....periods giving this enough....pointedness?  I'm not saying you can't make a good version of Community without me, but I am definitely saying that you can't make my version of it unless I have the option of saying "it has to be like this or I quit" roughly 8 times a day.
The same contract also gives me the same salary and title if I spend all day masturbating and playing Prototype 2.  And before you ask yourself what you would do in my situation: buy Prototype 2.  It's fucking great.
Because Prototype 2 is great, and because nobody called me, and then started hiring people to run the show, I had my assistant start packing up my office days ago.  I'm sorry.  I'm not saying seasons 1, 2 and 3 were my definition of perfect television, I'm just saying that whatever they're going to do for season 4, they're aiming to do without my help.  So do not believe anyone that tells you on Monday that I quit or diminished my role so I could spend more time with my loved ones, or that I negotiated and we couldn't come to an agreement, etc.  It couldn't be less true because, just to make this clear, literally nobody called me.  Also don't believe anyone that says I have sex with animals.  And if there's a photo of me doing it with an animal - I'm not saying one exists, I'm just saying, if one surfaces - it's a fake.  Look at the shadow.  Why would it be in front of the giraffe if the sun is behind the jeep?
Where was I?  Oh yeah.  I'm not running Community for season 4.  They replaced me.  Them's the facts.
When I was a kid, sometimes I'd run home to Mommy with a bloody nose and say, "Mom, my friends beat me up," and my Mom would say "well then they're not worth having as friends, are they?"  At the time, I figured she was just trying to put a postive spin on having birthed an unpopular pussy.  But this is, after all, the same lady that bought me my first typewriter.  Then later, a Commodore 64.  And later, a 300 baud modem for it.  Through which I met new friends that did like me much, much more.
I'm 39, now.  The friends my Mom warned me about are bigger now, and older, bloodying my nose with old world numbers, and old world tactics, like, oh, I don't know, sending out press releases to TV Guide at 7pm on a Friday.
But my Commodore 64 is mobile now, like yours, and the modems are invisible, and the internet is the air all around us.  And the good friends, the real friends, are finding each other, and connecting with each other, and my Mom is turning out to be more right than ever.
Ah, shit, I still haven't called my fucking Mom. 
Mom, Happy Mother's Day.  I got fired. 
Yes, Mom.  AGAIN.

pete

I think he's gonna be like joss whedon or apatow and find greener pastures in films and cable networks. he was fighting an uphill battle to somehow find 10 million people informed enough to get his references every week. there are a few reference-heavy comedies out there where you don't necessarily have to understand the references to laugh (like midnight in paris or arrested development), but community definitely isn't one of them.
"Tragedy is a close-up; comedy, a long shot."
- Buster Keaton

Tictacbk

Goodbye good NBC comedies...

"We're in a transition with our comedy programming and trying to broaden the audience and broaden what network does," NBC entertainment chairman Robert Greenblatt told critics at the Television Critics Association's press tour in Beverly Hills on Tuesday. "Those Thursday comedies, which the critics love and we love, tend to be a bit more narrow than we'd ultimately like as we go forward."

http://insidetv.ew.com/2012/07/24/nbc-defends-community/

AntiDumbFrogQuestion

Quote from: Tictacbk on July 24, 2012, 04:21:33 PM
"Those Thursday comedies, which the critics love and we love, tend to be a bit more narrow than we'd ultimately like as we go forward."
http://insidetv.ew.com/2012/07/24/nbc-defends-community/

idiot.

polkablues

The problem is that networks and advertisers still put way too much stock in Nielsen ratings. The way that young people with buying power watch tv has changed. On average, we don't watch shows as they air anymore; we DVR them, we watch them on Hulu, we wait until the season's over and buy the DVDs. NBC is really shooting themselves in the foot by going after the CBS audience, which is growing closer to death with each tick of the clock. A much smarter move would be to embrace their status and expand on it, bringing in more creative and risky shows, and striking better DVD and online deals so that they can be profitable for the network even without NCIS Nielsen ratings.
My house, my rules, my coffee

ono

I admit I never did give Community a fair chance before.  I saw one episode early on that employed Aimee Mann's Wise Up.  It was okay.  Apparently it's been the backdrop of many a cliche, earnest movie montage -- since when?  Anyway, I didn't like the douchebaggery of Chevy Chase and felt that it would carry over and ruin my enjoyment of the show.  Besides, I still had P&R and 30 Rock was still good back then.

Anyway, I decided to give it another chance, and am loving it.  One of the more unique shows on TV.  Abed is my hero.  I'm right now in the middle of S2E09, the one with the massive pillow/blanket fort and conspiracy theory professor.  Brilliant.  Invoking nostalgia and wonder all at once.  During the chase, Troy and Abed come across Britta while searching for the Turkish district, and a few notes from the Eyes Wide Shut theme play as she's lounging back as if straight out of a scene from the orgy.  Wonderful.

Parks and Recreation is still my favorite comedy right now.  It has heart in addition to humor.  But this and Louie are up there I tell ya.

Too bad Harmon's out.  I look forward to season 3, to reading the article on his thoughts on season 2, and dread what may come of season 4.

polkablues

Dan Harmon finally confirmed on Twitter that he's back on the show.

I'm not one of those who thought season four was a disaster, but it's an objectively better show with him than without him, so this is fantastic news. He always seemed to be the arbiter of the show's big picture, in terms of the overall arcs of the characters, and the biggest issue with season four was definitely that the characters often didn't feel like the same people they had spent three seasons developing into. I look forward to them getting back on track.
My house, my rules, my coffee

ono

Community is back~!

I had mixed feelings about S4.  Seems like no one here had much of any feeling, which is understandable.  With Harmon's return, this should change.

Harmon is back with Re-Pilot, and the second of 13 episodes.  The pilot was a bit dark in multiple ways.  I thought even though this was the best way Harmon could keep all these people around, it was a bit contrived.  Though Jeff's faux turn was believably dark and he had me going until the moment he went to the dean and told him just how disappointed everyone was in Greendale.

The second episode was much better.  They had to get the first one out of the way for this to work.  Loved the Faculty Lounge, and Jonathan Banks is great in his new role as a foil to Jeff.  "It's one duck, his name is Jim, and publishers are interested!"  Abed's impression of Nic Cage is an instant classic moment.  Love how they dissected his career, though I don't think you can put actors on a spectrum, no matter how facetious it may be ("Johnny Depp, the bad kind of good" -- heh).

tpfkabi

Yes, the Nic Cage scene was hilarious.
I guess I haven't seen enough Cage movies, because I didn't recognize what movies/lines he was parodying.
I am Torgo. I take care of the place while the Master is away.

AntiDumbFrogQuestion

I'm pretty sure the imitation was just in the spirit of what Nic Cage would do. Either way, as skeptical as I was, these first couple episodes had the dialogue and kind of jokes that had me back in the mood moreso than season 3 or 4. Seems like the  writers or more trusting of their sense of humor because the pressure's off and they get to wrap up their form of a story for the season. Good stuff in that regard.