Category: Community
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Season Premiere review — Community, “Biology 101”
If you’ve read any of the articles, spoiler dumps and interviews with the Community cast and crew published since season two ended, you’ve probably gathered that season three is going to be more character-based and less “big event”-based. In the most simplistic terms, you could say that Community season three is going to be more…
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2010-2011 season wrap: Ranking the episodes of Community’s second season
The 2010-2011 television series officially ended last week. Obviously, there will be a lot of great television coming in the summer months ahead and it is sort of silly to stick to the ancient constructs of the broadcast television season (which ran from September 20, 2010 to May 25, 2011 this season), but I’ve never…
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Season Finale, Part Two — Community, “For A Few Paintballs More”
If you missed my thoughts on part one of this glorious two-parter, you can check them out here. I’m actually not sure how much I have to say about “For A Few Paintballs More.” Clearly, it was a tremendously fun episode with a number of great gags and lines, but it had less stylistic and…
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Misery loves company: Musings on why Community season two has been better than season one
I wanted to write something in celebration of Community‘s season finale tonight, but I have gone back and forth as to what is I actually wanted to write about. A ranked list of the episodes? Nah (at least not yet). A list of the best moments? Boo. More about Pierce? Meh. No, instead I’m here…
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Season Finale, Part One — Community, “A Fistful of Paintballs”
Sequels suck. That’s not always true, but it’s at least usually true.* Whether due to poor planning on the producers’ part or a shockingly high level of expectations from the audiences, there’s just something empty about coming back for seconds. So when it was announced that the Community team was doing a follow-up to last season’s epic “Modern…
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Community, “Applied Anthropology and Culinary Arts”
In light of last week’s very funny episode of Community, there’s been some discussion about the series’ desire to tell us about the emotional connectedness between these people instead of showing it. That’s a criticism I can totally see and if there’s one thing I would knock about this season it would be that sometimes…
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Community, “Paradigms of Human Memory”
Note: I’m at a conference and running on a bit of wonky sleep schedule, so I’m going to cut this one a bit short. I could just write, “IT’S AMAZINGLY FUNNY.” and move on, but I’m a professional. I mean amateur. You get it. I spend a lot of time in my Community reviews talking…
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Community, “Competitive Wine Tasting”
I’ll just go ahead and put this out there: “Competitive Wine Tasting” is probably my least favorite episode of Community‘s second season and quite possibly my least favorite episode OF ALL TIME. Of course, it’s still better than a lot of television out there and if I were giving it a grade, it would still…
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Community, “Critical Film Studies”
When I knew that “Critical Film Studies” was reportedly going to include a lot of Pulp Fiction references I was a bit worried that my general ambivalence (and thus lack of real knowledge) towards that film would mean I wouldn’t enjoy this episode as much as I could have. I wasn’t necessarily concerned about not…
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Community, “Custody Law and Eastern European Diplomacy”
I have been criticized, both online and in-person, for being totally in the tank for Community. Readers, friends, family, whomever they all just assume I adore every single episode of Community and perhaps I have lost all of my ability to review the series “objectively.” Of course, I hate to break it to everyone, but…
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Community, “Intro to Political Science”
After last week’s high-concept, high-profile and flat-out fantastic episode of television, it makes sense that Community came back with an episode more in-tune with its basic framework. Well as “basic” as the series can get at this point. There appears to be rumblings of a minor backlash towards the series after the last handful of…
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Community, “Intermediate Documentary Filmmaking”
Another week, another fantastic and innovative episode of Community. I feel like I’ve spent so much time writing about the series’ innovations and high-concept episodes and then the next week, Community does it again. I don’t think I was ever convinced that the series’ had a ceiling or a limit to the different kinds of things…
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Community, “Early 21st Century Romanticism”
On the surface, “Early 21st Century Romanticism” doesn’t feel like a complex or ambitious episode. And for the most part, it’s not really. But even though this appears to be a season one-esque episode that is fairly low-key in its approach and execution, there is actually a lot going on. Not only episodes of the…
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Community, “Advanced Dungeons & Dragons”
I have never in my life played Dungeons & Dragons. Never came close to even thinking about playing. My knowledge of the game is slim, obtained only from that fantastic final episode of Freaks and Geeks and a few passing conversations with members of my co-hort who do enjoy the same and were rightfully excited…
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Community, “Celebrity Pharmacology”
When a series is as lowly-rated as Community is, the internet-fueled hype about its greatness is a good thing. But as with anything, that hype comes with a price: expectations. When you’ve been anointed as the next Arrested Development by the internet commenter hive-mind, it’s a blessing and a curse. After tonight’s “Celebrity Pharmacology,” I…
CB, PhD 