Not to cherry-pick from my own Twitter feed (not that I haven’t done it before), but “Contemporary Impressionists” is just a weird episode of Community. Weird doesn’t mean “bad” or “awful,” just as it also doesn’t mean “great.” This one featured some really intriguing character development, but was undercut by tonal and balance issues throughout. … Continue reading Review: Community, “Contemporary Impressionists”
Tag: Ken Jeong
Review: Community, “Regional Holiday Music”
Note: I’m a little short on time today, so I plan on keeping it brief. We’ll see if that actually happens. Chances are you folks know that I watch Glee. Maybe you just come to the site for my Community work, but you probably still see that just a few posts down, I have written … Continue reading Review: Community, “Regional Holiday Music”
Review: Community, “Horror Fiction in Seven Spooky Steps”
Halloween is a big deal for Community. Although the series was off to a solid start, “Introduction to Statistics” is the first great or borderline great episode the first season had. From Pierce’s ridiculous freak-out to Abed’s Batman costume/voice, “Statistics” nicely combined the series’ pop culture-soaked sensibilities with its thematic and character aims. Of course, … Continue reading Review: Community, “Horror Fiction in Seven Spooky Steps”
Review: Community, “Competitive Ecology”
How many times can you do a story or tell a joke before it becomes stale or obvious? Television is defined by its formulaic nature and its ability to tell the same story over and over again, only with enough variation to make things seem different. Check out any police, medical and legal procedural on … Continue reading Review: Community, “Competitive Ecology”
Review: Community, “Geography of Global Conflict”
The nature of the television sitcom is often, if not always, in direct conflict with substantial character development. Critics and people like me want to pull at thematic threads and discuss the big moments for our favorite fictional people, but when it comes to a sitcom, even one as complex, complicated and interesting as Community, … Continue reading Review: Community, “Geography of Global Conflict”
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 … Continue reading Season Premiere review — Community, “Biology 101”
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 … Continue reading 2010-2011 season wrap: Ranking the episodes of Community’s second season
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 … Continue reading Season Finale, Part Two — Community, “For A Few Paintballs More”
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 … Continue reading Misery loves company: Musings on why Community season two has been better than season one
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 … Continue reading Season Finale, Part One — Community, “A Fistful of Paintballs”
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 … Continue reading Community, “Applied Anthropology and Culinary Arts”
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 … Continue reading Community, “Paradigms of Human Memory”
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 … Continue reading Community, “Competitive Wine Tasting”
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 … Continue reading Community, “Critical Film Studies”
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 … Continue reading Community, “Custody Law and Eastern European Diplomacy”
