Do I really have to be the one to say it? WTF???
Horrible, though the B-story with Leonard had its moments. For such a smart and enjoyable show, this ep had its head far up its own ass to be funny or clever or…well, anything. Ugh. Just goes to show how far off the rails they can go if they put the leads on the sidelines with nothing to do and let the inmates run the asylum.
I’m with you. Main storyline not good at all, side story with the old people was all right.
I haven’t been very impressed with Community at all this season. Guess it’s still early.
The show is trying too hard to be whacky and “meta” unfortunately. It had some natural flow with Abed in s1 most of the time, but this season they’ve spent half the time directly talking about how meta meta meta everything is.
I thought it was great. I loved how weird it got, I love all the various references to Christ films (especially Last Temptation and Life of Bryan), I loved the group of students standing around and saying in a reverent tone, “Meta.” I loved Jeff insisting he wasn’t the “Dad” and Pierce “acting out.”
But then, according to the threads around here, every television show sucks every week.
Another vote for “WTF”, although the bit at the end with everyone wearing the same clothes and saying the same thing at the same time was pretty funny.
I loved it! I really like all the references to other Jesus films, and how even Abed realized how self-indulgent his film had become. And the “shiiiiirrrleeeey” singing thing when she came in to smash the equipment with a baseball bat. Not ashamed to say I teared up when Shirley and Abed exchanged, "you humble me"s
I’m with you, pepperlandgirl.
I didn’t think this was the best episode, but as the final credits rolled and 30 Rock started, I had the distinct thought that Community had taken 30 Rock’s place as my favorite show on television.
One of the weakest episodes ever. The main story just referenced things but didn’t bother being funny. The B story was only mediocre, saved from being terrible by the conceit that Jeff was the “father” of the group.
The end bit was good, though.
I’ll join the minority and say it was a solid episode. And I’m pleased that theyre not afraid to turn the spotlight off of Jeff.
I liked it. They didn’t really have enough jokes to fill out the Aped plot so it dragged a little, but it was still funny. Best part was the students trading rumors about the new film:
I heard it was the same movie forwards and backwords.
I heard the deleted scenes were the actual scenes and the actual scenes were the deleted scenes.
But don’t you see?
The meta and self-referential episode of Community about a filmmaker so caught up in making something so meta and self referential that he didn’t realize until too late that it was a horrible peice of crap, was* itself *a horrible piece of crap!
Absolutely brilliant!!
I didn’t actually think the episode was a horrible piece of crap though. Not the best ever, but I kind of liked it.
I thought it was brilliant- plan to watch it again a couple of times. A send up of Charlie Kaufman movies AND a truly interesting take on the messianic myth that even included a nod to the Gospel of Judas…what other show would do that?
The best part is that I finally get to say what I’m so sick of hearing from Kaufman fans: “You just didn’t understand it!” (My response of “The fact I thought it was crap doesn’t mean I didn’t understand it” is probably just as apt here.)
Yeah, I don’t really see how this is any weirder or less funny than last season’s Goodfellas, The Color of Money, or war movies episodes. And as brilliant as those eps were, I thought this week’s had even more going for it. How could you say anything bad about an episode that alludes to The Life of Brian to mock its own audience about the fact that we’re living in a post post-modern world that prizes meta commentary over story while providing meta commentary?
But the Dope is a tough crowd. If there’s not oil wrestling, it’s a hard sell.
i’m caught somewhere in the 5/10 category. not crap, but not brilliant either. it took too long to get to the payoff of shirley destroying the movie being necessary to complete the movie. plus, as clever as it was, it wasn’t very funny (nor was it meant to be).
the b story was kinda funny but also predictable and (dare i say re: community?) cliche. the closing scene was one of the few close-to-classic-community bits. i would have preferred if they didn’t explicitly explain that Jeff was “the dad”. it was obvious enough. i thought it was really funny with Jeff with the newspaper, but it was ruined when troy explained it.
I didn’t think it was as terrible as some people are claiming it is, but I didn’t love it either. My main problem with the episode was that they’ve already spent way too much time this season on the “Abed is meta” issue and we really didn’t need another episode dealing with how much more meta Abed can get. In the long run, I think I’ll like this episode much much more if they promise to stop writing about how very meta Abed is.
As it is though, I think the episode would have been stronger if there had been better lines and more comedy. Or maybe the humor just didn’t hit me the right way, who knows? The dress-like-Jeff gag at the end was the best part of the episode.
Not the worst episode of TV out there but not up to usual community standards. I’ve feel like we’d done all these plots before, and this was made up of lines that didn’t quite fit into other episodes. Yeah yeah yeah, Shirley’s religious, Abed’s meta, Jeff’s the dad of the group, Pierce is an overgrown manchild… it’s funny when they do something with it, not when they just point it out.
I give the episode a 7/10. I hope Abed’s learned his lesson that when you are meta about becoming meta about being meta you risk your meta-ness collapsing in on itself like a dying star.
I have only watched one episode of Community this season (I enjoyed it, but I haven’t been at home on thursday evenings much lately—It’s dollar beer night at one of my local hangouts) but I saw that Community was one of the shows that is in real danger of getting axed…
I thought it was one of the best shows on TV (at least it was last year, when I watched nearly every episode) and am surprised that it is not doing better in the ratings.
(If nothing else, Annie and Britta are two of the most physically attractive characters on television)
I thought it was funny. Not my favorite episode. But, it had lots of funny moments. And, I liked both of the plots.
I don’t think Shirley would be able to pick up on the Charlie Kaufman reference, let alone bring it up herself. It just doesn’t seem like his are the kind of movies that the character would watch. Other than that, I thought the meta stuff was fun.
My favorite Dad moment was when Jeff was reading the paper and just commenting on things as he read. Suddenly, he realized what he was doing and threw the paper down. Funny stuff.
I found the last scene between Abed and Shirley sweet.
The everyone wearing black was the best end scene for the show this season
The last five episodes are available on hulu.com if you want to watch it without missing dollar beer night.