Sorry, late thread, forgot this was on again. Haven’t watched yet.
5.01/5.02 “Repilot”/“Introduction to teaching”
5.03 Basic Intergluteal Numismatics
5.04 Cooperative Polygraphy
5.05 Geothermal Escapism
5.06 Analysis of Cork-based marketing
I’m not generally a fan of character development at the expense of humour in my comedy programs, but there were enough funny bits with Duncan and Chang to carry it through. Meta-jokes like Annie’s comment about how it’s someone else’s turn to be the focus of the story tend to fall flat with me, though.
On a related note, I was reading an article on the BBC News web site about math scores in Shanghai when I did a bit of a double take:
An Easter egg from a Community fan or an actual phrase being born? Either way, Pierce’s ghost would be proud.
I’m going to say it’s neither, because I don’t know what you’re talking about. There’s nothing in those sentences that are in any way standing out.
Oh, poor Pierce Hawthorne. How quickly he’s been left streets behind, now he’s gone.
It was sadly not a very funny episode but it wasn’t a bad one so what the heck. The Shining picture reference near the end was pretty excellent though. Shirley’s lack of focus comment probably means there is a Shirley-centric episode coming soon.
The BBC article quoted by hogarth includes this sentence, “Even much younger children are streets ahead, it seems.” You might remember that “streets ahead” was a phrase commonly used by Pierce Hawthorne. (But perhaps the phrase existed before Community?)
It was a pre-existing phrase used across the Atlantic that Harmon put into an episode to make fun of someone who was not a fan [cite].
I thought the episode was pretty good. Duncan and Jeff’s interaction in the study room when they were tricking Britta into going to the event made me laugh and I think was a little more nuanced than when I’m-mad-but-pretending-not-to-be is typically done on sitcoms. I also appreciated how, when building the Kick-Puncher costume, they made a point to show how that kind of thing isn’t as fun for him now that Troy’s gone without turning Abed into a guy who’s always sad because his best friend left.
I think it would have been funnier if they expanded on any of the side stories instead of focusing on the John Oliver story. Hearing more about Britta’s friends selling out, or expanding Chang’s storyline would have paid off more. I’m also not crazy about the “resolution” of the Abhed story.
Huh. 3 sentences worth of gripes. B+ episode!
Not only do I not remember that, but it’s an extremely old and common phrase. I have used it myself multiple times.
You probably don’t remember it because it wasn’t new to you. Pierce made a point of trying to get it to catch on.
I thought it was a great episode. It was a genuine gut punch when Britta got taken down by her old friends. Well, getting gut punched isn’t what you usually look for in a comedy, but it was still great. Chang’s whole storyline was very funny at least.
I enjoyed Duncan punching the steering wheel when he decides to be good guy and explains its because its on the wrong side :D.
I thought it was a good episode, but then again, I like character development.
The Chang storyline wasn’t worth it for the single joke it engendered at the end.
Two favorite lines:
Duncan saying “Have you seen the type of women who are attracted to me? Neither have I.”
I also thought it hilarious when Abed referred to Hickey getting notes from publishers and probably not realizing they’re form rejection letters. Sadly, that sort of thing happens depressingly often.
Overall, though, not a particularly notable episode.
Holy crud, what a terrible episode. Did one of the scripts from The Gas Leak Year somehow manage to get into this season’s pile?
Bonding my foot. No one bonds with Jeff or Duncan, let alone with each other. Hickey and Abed? Not sure about that either.
And Annie and Shirley were barely in it. That’s rarely good when they leave out 2 of the group like that.
This season pretty much peaked with Intro to Teaching. Speaking of which: how much teaching is Jeff supposed to be doing anyway? Is that storyline forgotten?
I think the worst part of that episode is that it ominously foreshadows the rebirth of the Jeff-Britta story arc.