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SpeedingUptoStop said:
I really enjoyed it. Outside of the "Annie is gonna get murdered" bit being pretty weak reason for the gang to leave the test, everything was solid. Pierce was well played - laid back the whole episode and then BAM, turns out he was banging the teacher. That reveal was great.
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Was that the first time the plot of the ep extended into the 30 sec tag at the end? Can't remember.
 
Costanza said:
This ep seems to be about as divisive as Interpretive Dance. Both eps tried something different with their tone. One failed, one worked (imo).
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Agreed on that. I thought Interpretive Dance fell flat, but this one was surprisingly enjoyable, despite it's unusual tone.
 
I liked having a "quiet" episode after the over-the-top fun that was Modern Warfare.

Would MW be the last of the "extra" episodes from when NBC expanded the season order (as Harmon mentioned on his blog post)? Makes sense that it felt so standalone, and in that the characters were kind of back to normal again this week - especially with the slight sexual tension back on Annie and Jeff at the end.
 
Great AV Club review....

A-

After last week's episode, pretty much anything Community did would seem like a disappointment, but the show avoided that sense of disappointment, mostly, by taking a hard left into the series master plot. Ever since the show began, the big, unspoken question of the series is just where this show goes after season two or season four, when the characters have all graduated (assuming Greendale is the greatest community college ever and offers copious numbers of four year degrees). The conflict in the show has always been between the idea of community college as a purgatory and the idea of it as one of the best places you could possibly be. The early episodes skewed heavily toward the former, but for quite a while now, the show has been heading more toward community college as a place where people can be free to be themselves, a place where everyone has some sort of value.

"English as a Second Language," as a matter of fact, feels quite a bit like a season finale. Annie puts the group's ability to pass Spanish 102 and move on to the rest of their lives in danger because she so wants the group to stay together. Troy realizes that maybe he's cut out for a life of manual labor. And Senor Chang has to figure out a way to not let the dean know that his credentials are fake. The latter and former plots intersect nicely, while the middle plot is little more than a conceptual gambit that is really, really funny, but the episode nicely dealt with the show's central conflicts without being too heavy-handed. Community is not a show that's ever going to have anything so weighty as a "mythology" - I have absolutely no desire to see a flashback episode where we learn that Greendale was built atop a mystical glowing cave - but I like that it has something like a continuing story to go along with all of the shenanigans.

But let's start with the part of the episode that must have seemed the most inconsequential. Troy realizing that he's a plumbing savant is the sort of storyline that doesn't need much more than just that to be funny, and, indeed, the show didn't really do anything beyond making Troy a plumbing savant and spinning Good Will Hunting on its head. But I still really enjoyed the whole thing, especially Abed's joy at seeing that Troy was going to be pursuing his true life's work. The idea that someone in college would really be happier with a life in the working classes is the sort of thing that actually happens (one of the guys I roomed with in college eventually realized this), but you never see that story dramatized. Now, obviously, Troy isn't leaving the cast to be a plumber, but to see the show flirt with that idea was still funny.

The main plot seemed a little too dedicated to making Jeff the asshole he was at the start of the season for the sake of the story. It makes complete sense that he would have no desire to take Spanish 103 and would still be committed to his desire to make it out of school in four years flat. But I'm not sure he'd be as big of a jerk about it as he is in the episode's earliest moments. That said, I completely bought the way he turned the group against Annie when he realized what she'd done, so I was mostly OK with his story throughout. Community, like all TV shows, occasionally has to act as if its characters haven't really changed one bit, but it's rarely as flagrant about it as it was here.

On the other hand, I loved pretty much everything about Chang being removed and replaced by someone who revealed very quickly that he had taught the class basically no Spanish whatsoever. While Community is rooted in the world of college and going to class and that sort of thing, we've seen very little of the characters actually applying their knowledge (granted, that's not exactly the sort of thing that would be tremendously exciting). I think the show has always let us assume that the characters were learning enough Spanish to get by, so having it acknowledge that there's pretty much no way Chang would have taught these characters anything was terrific. Even better was the way it figured out how to keep Chang in the cast. He's going to be a student like everyone else next year. While Chang has his detractors, I like the idea of him as an undercutting of the sitcom breakout character (your Fonz or your Urkel), and I like the way the show uses Ken Jeong's manic energy most of the time.

I'm not sure why Community saved many of the developments that might have led to a great season finale for the week before the season finale. I can only assume that next week will conclude with everyone sleeping with each other or something. But at the same time, I'm glad we have one more half hour of nonsense and fun before the summer arrives. Community is a show that started out funny, went through some growing pains, and came out the other end one of the best comedies on TV with nothing but up-side from here on out. I don't know what next week will bring, but I'm glad there's one more left before a long, long summer.
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http://www.avclub.com/articles/english-as-a-second-language,41153/

Nice writeup from Memles too. http://cultural-learnings.com/2010/05/13/community-english-as-a-second-language/
 
chang-safetyfirstavt.gif
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DIBS!
 
I came here expecting a .gif of annie doing the "Disney Frown". I left disappointed...you all failed.
 
You bastards won me over. After hating the pilot so much that I stopped watching before it finished (something I haven't done with any other show in recent memory), all the avatars and thread bumping and sitcom debates finally convinced me to give this show another shot. Glad I did. Awesome show, definitely up there with the best of the decade.

Serves me right for not giving it a real chance. But my wife and I found Jeff, Britta and British Guy Who Only Featured In Three Episdoes so fucking unlikable that we couldn't bring ourselves to watch the last ten minutes of episode 1. If we had, it would have been obvious to us that the show's premise was to make Jeff and Britta less obnoxious (which didn't take long at all); and that Pierce, Abed, Annie and Troy would more than balance out the character roster. And British Guy would not have been a mainstay.

I love the range of humour the show employs. Pop culture stuff has never been done so well, and it's never overused. There's plenty of the experimental in there, but always on very strong comedic foundations - it reminds me of Seinfeld in that respect. It never disappears up its own ass. Plots are always excellent, and each show feels very satisfying when it ends. These days the mark of a good show is how much meat you can cram into 20 minutes, and Community never leaves me dissatisfied.

Just for the fun of weighing in on the sitcom war...I prefer 30 Rock, Sunny, and AD overall; but so far Community has been more consistent than any of those shows on an episode-by-episode basis, which is a major feather in its cap. It's far better than The Office, if that didn't go without saying; but I'd take Jack, Tracy, Liz and Kenneth over Jeff, Troy, Britta and Abed. That said, I can see the potential for this to change when Community gets a few more seasons under its belt. AD is still objectively worlds away from anything else in terms of quality, so let's not even go there; and Sunny will probably always be the show I love the most. But I'm very glad to be able to add Community to the pantheon of great contemporary sitcoms. Awesome first season, and I hope it keeps its momentum for many more.
 
Watched this again after a few episodes of not watching. Good episode

I feel like this entire show should have been done with:

Senor Chang
Troy
Abed
Chase

Would have truly been levels beyond what it is now.
 
AD was way wackier, crazier and batshit insane! Community is a bit more normal, and the characters are more relate-able. You can't really compare the two. They are both good in their own way.
 
Inanna said:
AD was way wackier, crazier and batshit insane! Community is a bit more normal, and the characters are more relate-able. You can't really compare the two. They are both good in their own way.
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Um, did you see last week's episode?
 
Pierce was reading a book on how to speak Spanish dirty when everyone had fallen asleep. It was laying on top of him.

I never saw Good Will Hunting but I got the references. The only thing I didnt get was when Abed told Troy the best part of his day is looking back and hoping Troy isnt there... is that from Good Will Hunting also?
 
TimScribble said:
I never saw Good Will Hunting but I got the references. The only thing I didnt get was when Abed told Troy the best part of his day is looking back and hoping Troy isnt there... is that from Good Will Hunting also?
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Yup, it's from the end of Good Will Hunting.

Thought it was a good episode, less of the LOL moments from last week but still solid.
 
Fantastic episode

The Plumbers :lol

Keytar :lol

Safety first :lol

Annie Disney face :lol

The Hannah chant :lol

Pierce Banging the spanish teacher was greatly revealed , also liked the wire reference
 
Good episode. Coming off last weeks brilliance, practically anything was gonna be disappointing in comparison. While a few moments fell flat, it still had me chuckling for the majority of it.

"She's the Ark of the Covenant!" :lol

I'm interested and also a little bit apprehensive about how they'll utilise Chang next season, but i think it was a great move to change the subject they all study together.
 
This whole show has been really hit and miss for me I'm afraid, but the last three episodes have pulled me back in entirely. Great stuff.

Loved the ending of last nights with Pierce and the Spanish teacher.
 
Rash said:
Speaking of that, whatever happened to John Oliver and why did he just completely drop out of the show?
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According to Wikipedia he's still involved with Community. I think the writers simply haven't felt inclined to use him. Good - that means they've been reading my thoughts. He was fine in that episode in which Jeff defended Britta after she cheated on the Spanish test, but any more than that is intolerable.

Few people will get this reference, but to me he feels like the US TV equivalent of Mac MacDonald - an American actor who is constantly drafted to play generic American characters in British TV shows; all of which are identical. He cheapens everything he appears in, and I feel John Oliver's by-the-numbers Englishman is equally bad. That fact that Oliver hasn't had nearly as many roles or TV appearances as MacDonald highlights just how irritating I must find his work in order to recognize and dislike his acting style.
 
They must have really not liked his work in those few episodes because he was built up to be a pretty big character early on. Certainly not someone who would disappear for 95% of the season. It would be almost clumsy and awkward to bring him back at this point, although knowing Community they'll be fully aware of that and leverage it for comedy.

Or it's just a contract/scheduling/cheapness thing a la everyone on Veronica Mars back in the day.
 
The constant AD comparisons and circle jerk over Community really makes this thread unpleasant.

Anywho, watched the latest episode and loved it. It was great to be back to a more grounded episode compared to the crazy last one, and it was still full of really great jokes. I also like how they kept the whole Spanish Final thing contained to just this episode, when they could have stretched it out over two. Made it feel more complete.

I still have an issue with Community's complete lack of seasonal story arc, at least beyond "THEY DO SPANISH AND JEFF + BRITTA". Hopefully the final doesnt dwell too much on Jeff and Britta.

Chalk me up as somebody who's glad the British guy doesnt show up anymore. I can see how he was written at the start, as a way of introducing Jeff's character, but there's not much point keeping him in. The cast is already huge with regulars, and has a pretty large support cast too (the Deen, Chang, Starburns, Lenard, etc).
 
Like a couple others, I really enjoyed last night's episode, especially after the craziness of the MW episode.

- Bizarro Good Will Hunting was great
- The scene where Annie gets grilled:

Jeff: Permission to treat the witness as hostile.
Pierce: I'll allow it.

Troy: Someone make her a dude, so I can punch her.

- HANNAH! HANNAH! HANNAH!
- The little bit at the end where Annie's trying to look more like a "professor"
- Pierce taking one for the team

So was this big "game changer" that was mentioned a page or 2 back? That Chang is a student with the rest of the gang? I kind of figured that this would happen somehow.


I know there're a lot of detractors out there, but this has been a great first season. Season finale next week! It's gonna be a rough break until Season 2, though.
 
AstroLad said:
They must have really not liked his work in those few episodes because he was built up to be a pretty big character early on. Certainly not someone who would disappear for 95% of the season. It would be almost clumsy and awkward to bring him back at this point, although knowing Community they'll be fully aware of that and leverage it for comedy.

Or it's just a contract/scheduling/cheapness thing a la everyone on Veronica Mars back in the day.
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John Oliver's first commitment was to The Daily Show. At the very most, excluding all other scheduling issues, Community could only have him when he was on hiatus from TDS.
 
the_log_ride said:
- The little bit at the end where Annie's trying to look more like a "professor"
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I haven't gone back to look, but I'm curious if that was the same top that Jeff's professor-girlfriend wore on one of the episodes. If not, the color was verrry similar.
As someone who's avatar used to be Jeff patting Annie on the head (debate episode), I'm glad they keep dangling that plot thread out there.

The "Good Will Hunting" bit with Troy was hilarious (glad to see Jerry Minor get work). The setup just killed (in a good way).

Keytar. ('nuff said.)


When I came into the thread this morning, I fully expected to see the full 'Disney Face' in .gif form. One of the reasons I so enjoy Alison Brie's performance on the show is her ability to do these sorts of emphatic, overdone reaction shots. (The scenes where they ping-pong from person to person - without anyone saying anything - seem written to take advantage of the cast's non-verbal range, Brie in particular.)
 
I absolutely called Chang being a student. He was too awesome to just be a random teacher. In fact, I was certain that there would be some "difficulties" with Chang being enrolled as a student last episode and would continue over to the next season. Still, a fantastic episode overall.
 
mightynine said:
I would like to see Prof. Eustice Whitman (John Michael Higgins) "seize the day" one more time in the finale.
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Slightly related, I started watching AD a few days ago and I recognized him in there as well (the lawyer, "I shall hide behind that couch.")

Very good episode, very different from last week's, but I think I liked this one a little more.
 
Unfortunately nothing can live up to that paintball episode. That was great though, I still enjoyed this week's episode and laughed out loud a bunch fo times. The keytar and tasering scene was hilarious.
 
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