Tag: Dan Harmon
-
Friday List: Top 10 individual television seasons
If you’re a regular reader of TV Surveillance, you know I love a good list. Or a mediocre list. Or even a horrible list. The point is, I have a lust for lists. This fall, I’d like to provide you folks with more lists than ever and hopefully that will result in a weekly or…
-
Surveillance Summer Watch: Season Finale — Cheers, “Showdown” Parts One and Two
This is the newest post in 2011′s Surveillance Summer Watch series featuring Cheers and Hill Street Blues. For the next couple of months, I’ll be writing weekly reviews of episodes from each series’ first seasons, with Cheerson Tuesdays and Hill Street Blues on Thursdays. For more information, see this post and for all the SSW pieces, visit this page. Whoa, here we are at…
-
Surveillance Summer Watch: Cheers, “Coach Returns to Action,” “Endless Slumper” and “One for the Book”
This is the newest post in 2011′s Surveillance Summer Watch series featuring Cheers and Hill Street Blues. For the next couple of months, I’ll be writing weekly reviews of episodes from each series’ first seasons, with Cheerson Tuesdays and Hill Street Blues on Thursdays. For more information, see this post and for all the SSW pieces,visit this page. People like to talk about…
-
Surveillance Summer Watch: Cheers, “The Tortelli Tort,” “Sam at Eleven” and “Coach’s Daughter”
This is the newest post in 2011′s Surveillance Summer Watch series featuring Cheers and Hill Street Blues. For the next couple of months, I’ll be writing weekly reviews of episodes from each series’ first seasons, with Cheers on Tuesdays and Hill Street Blues on Thursdays. For more information, see this post and for all the…
-
Surveillance Summer Watch: Cheers, “Give Me a Ring Sometime” and “Sam’s Women”
This is the first post in 2011’s Surveillance Summer Watch series featuring Cheers and Hill Street Blues. For the next couple of months, I’ll be writing weekly reviews of episodes from each series’ first seasons, with Cheers on Tuesdays and Hill Street Blues on Thursdays. For more information, see this post. Let me tell you…
-
Surveillance Summer Watch: History Lesson — Announcing this summer’s viewing projects
As most of you know, the summer months are light on quality television or even decent television worth writing about. Because of this, many television critics and fans use this time to re-watch some of their favorite series or catch up on things they have missed over the years. Not only does it keep the…
-
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…
-
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…
-
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…
-
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…
-
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…
-
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…
-
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…
-
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…
-
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…
CB, PhD 