You hate your life if you're not watching Community.

Hey, are you watching Community yet? Sources, specifically Blast Magazine and its television ratings report, tell me that Outsourced has more viewers yet AGAIN. Therefore, the Community posts shall continue!

Last night's episode was a spoof of Apollo 13, I think. I'm not sure because I never saw that movie - womp womp womp. However, it was still hilarious to me. The gang gets trapped in a space simulator, fight with one another and Pierce is actually funny as he has to deal with space madness, Ren and Stimpy style.

But with teamwork and finger-lickin' goodness, the team managed to complete the heavily KFC-branded simulation. It was an especially strong episode for the dean and his gay tendencies, Senor Chang had a great five second cameo, and my love affair with Troy continues. I thought he was hilarious in his role as the captain of the simulator, and I definitely liked the slight tease they had when Brita landed on his lap.


Also, that thing to the right? That's the community college's flag. What aren't you watching this show??? Why do you hate your life and deny yourself this enjoyment? So as a final enticement, here are some quotes that would only be super hilarious if you had seen this great, great episode:

Jeff: Pierce! You're talking to an Atari cartridge. Sit down.

Jeff: Our school may be a toilet, but it's our toilet, and nobody craps in it but us.

Brita: How many schools would let you get a degree in theoretical PE?

Dean: *shows them on the map where the city impound lots are*
Abed: It looks like you circled public rest rooms and truck stops.
Dean: Ohhh, okay... That is a different side of the map, and that is... for... a different project.
Abed: Why do they have star ratings?

Troy: There is a time and a place for subtly, and that time was before Scary Movie.

Pierce: I WILL KILL YOU, SANDERS!

Community: Now the best show on television.

I painted a tunnel on the side of the
library. When it dries, I'm going to try it.

The above is second favorite line from last night's Community. The best line? After Annie (Alison Brie, right) complains about how it sucks to always be the physical bait in all of their plots, she storms off. Abed says he didn't hear what she was saying. Troy says, "All I heard was suck." So good.

The actual plot of the episode is somewhat secondary to all of the awesome lines and moments. But it does have good cameos by Drew Carey (as the boss of Jeff's old law firm) and Rob Corddry (as the greasy partner who actually got Jeff fired). Shirley and Pierce are mostly secondary characters, and the secondary storyline is funny. It involves Senor Chang trying to win a pop-and-lockathon in order to gain entrance into the group. Oh, and Dean Pelton is doing his normal ridiculous boosting for the university.

Troy also had some other great moments, like when the security guard catches him and Abed going on a lawyer's computer, and Annie chloroforms him. This causes all three of them to freak out hilariously:


Troy says, "Ahhhh, I don't know what to do, my whole brain is crying!"

Other great lines? From Jeff, "Shirley, don't sue a stripper. Life sued her, and she lost." And also, "Pierce, do I even have to say it? It's bad to hunt man for sport."

Basically, if you like snappy, funny comedies, then you need to dump The Office and start watching Community. The early second season episodes don't rely on any previous knowledge of the show, so just start doing it.

An OMG moment in the Community all-hands-on-deck finale!

I will eventually have a post ranking all of the various shows I watched this year, but right now, Community is definitely in the Top 5, and possibly the Top 3, depending on how a couple finales shake out. While reviews are a bit mixed for the finale this past Thursday, I love it for a number of reasons, including the big news at the end of the episode, which I will tackle at the end of this entry. In no particular order otherwise:

- The continued expanded character roles for Abed (Danny Pudi) and Troy (Don Glover). While Troy learned in this episode that too much of a good thing can be bad for you, via his giant cookie, I'm not sure if this is true of the Community characters. If they ever did make a spin-off show, Troy and Abed are the obvious candidates.

With this pairing and a lot of the season, I think the writers deserve credit for seeing how the actors interacted and developing relationships from there. At the beginning of the season, I think there was an effort to develop Troy as a counterpart for Jeff, given the athletic background of Troy. However, as he and Abed clearly have a sort of goofy chemistry together, Troy's athletic background has been put on the back burner. This is definitely the right move.

- All of the guest stars for Community, who mostly play professors, were on full display in Thursday's episode. The most consistent performer, I've never even mentioned before on this blog: Jim Rash, the actor who plays Dean Pelton, and who somehow has 51 credits on IMDB. With his bald dome and mannerisms, Rash kind of reminds me of Stephen Stucker, who played the flamboyantly gay and energetic Johnny in Airplane!

Along with Dr. Ken (a.k.a. Senor Chang on the show), Rash is consistently funny as the overly-enthusiastic Dean Pelton. While the show lacks a traditional nemesis, Pelton serves as a mild antagonist, constantly enrolling members of the Spanish study group in his service. I like that there is an instigator, someone who motivates the gang to do things, instead of focusing solely on their interpersonal drama from week to week.

Thursday's episode also saw guest appearances from Jeff's former professor flame (meh) and John Oliver as the school psychologist. Oliver is great in this role, especially when he was getting loaded at the community college prom. I also loved the LOST reference, as Chang promised that he would find a loophole to get his revenge, and he did by the end of the episode.

- Finally, I suppose I should talk about the kiss. Given my profound love for Alison Brie, it was hard to see her lock lips, but at least it was with the dreamy Joel McHale. (I'm also slightly annoyed that I missed Brie during her art school phase. Damn!)

I also think this fits in well with the on-screen chemistry the actors have with one another. From the pilot and initial episodes of Community, it looked like they were playing up a possible Jeff and Brita romance. However, I just don't think they (meaning the actors) ever had that great of a chemistry. Therefore, I applaud the decision to go with a Jeff and Annie pairing, since there is electricity in all of their scenes together.

Now that they have made-out a bit though, I imagine the second season is mostly going to be concerned with logistical dilemmas. I think the two 1) initially downplay what happened and then 2) have a secret romance. My friend Matt advanced the hypothesis that Brita would be the last one to know about Jeff and Annie, which I agree with. I also wonder if the age difference gets brought up at some point - On the show, I believe Annie is in the 18 to 20-year-old range, whereas Jeff is closer to 30. That's a pretty significant gap, and I hope they don't just ignore the issue completely.

That being said, I honestly can't wait for the second season of Community. Of the various shows I watch, I definitely think it had the strongest end to its season, keeping in mind that several still have some wrap-up episodes to go. Community had a bit of a bumpy start, but it has grown-up to be a really clever comedy.

Finale grade: A+
Season grade: A

Annie grows up on Community

This week's Community was disappointing as compared to previous weeks, but hey, I've been saying that it is hard to get hitting grand slams week after week. If I was evaluating Two and a Half Men instead, I would say, "Hey, this episode of Two and a Half Men is the greatest thing I've ever seen on this miserable hack show!" But because Community has been consistently great this year, even a strong episode like last night's is a bit of a disappointment.

The whole scenario of the episode - Annie rats out Senor Chang for not having a teaching degree because she wants the Spanish group to stay together - resolved a bit too neatly at the end. You know, the part where Chang is now going to be a student at the community college, and presumably will be even more wrapped up in the study group's activities. (Speaking of, Starburns got another speaking part in Thursday's episode - I might have to eventually learn his name at this point.)

While the ending was a bit stereotypical and clean, the rest of the show was amusing. Abed was doing Abed stuff, and as my friend Tom said, there was a reverse Good Will Hunting going on with Troy and his innate knack to fix mechanical issues. Chang getting fired allowed him to play a big part in this episode, as he commiserated to Jeff and others about his situation. He also rocked a mean keytar (combination guitar and keyboard). Clips from all of these can be found at this here neat Atlantic blog.

Grade: B+

The picture of Annie and Senor Chang comes from this site.

Community's aim still flawless

Jeff Winger... You son of a bitch!

Well, in case you still haven't heard, last week's episode of Community was mad ill. Like the previous Goodfellas episode, this one spoofed the conventions of action movies. It was the paintball Armageddon, as roving gangs of students clashed over the ultimate prize – prior registration for the coming semester. Or, as Jeff dreams, all classes on a single day, creating a six-day weekend for him every week.

My favorite part of the episode has actually been kind of panned on the Internet – Jeff and Brita finally hooked up, in a fairly unclimatic way, on a desk during a break in the Paintball Wars. However, I like how little attention it was given, since it suggests that it will be more of an isolated occurrence, as opposed to a full-out relationship. Also, because the hook-up came out of nowhere, it reminded me of the excellent Newsradio. The writers for that show intentionally have Dave and Lisa hook-up in the second episode, much to the chagrin of the network, who want them to start a long-range, love-hate relationship like on Cheers or Friends.

Outside of that questionable call, depending on your perspective, the episode was practically perfect. Highlights include the appearance of Senor Chang, suicide paintball bomber, and the action cliches exhibited by Troy and Abed. I feel like I'm repeating myself on a weekly basis in terms of hyping the show, but heck, it just keeps getting better and better.

Grade: A+

For the ladies... An extra picture of the dreamy Joel McHale:

Community snatches Thursday night crown back, because it is a winner

A little more than a month ago, it seemed like Parks and Recreation was destined to go on a sort of epic Thursday night run, since it had been building on a long string of quality episodes. Consider me disappointed with this week's episode then, which was funny, but not quite as poignant or deep as the last new Parks and Recreation episode was.

Meanwhile, Community has just kept plugging along. While this week's episode wasn't as ridiculously funny as last week's, which had Annie's Boobs and Goodfellas, it was still great. The infantile competition between Jeff, Brita and the high school kids was a nice, silly complement to the more serious storyline of everyone hating on Pierce.

As usual, the best portions of the episode were with Abed and Troy. Abed is trying to check off everything on a quintessential college experience list, such as breaking a guitar like in Animal House, pantsing and getting pantsed, pledging the most popular fraternity on campus, stealing a rival's mascot, and making a robot in order to impress chicks.

The actual dramatic arc of the episode - Pierce getting kicked out of the group for being an ass to Shirley - isn't really that great. But all of the other stuff going on in the episode more than makes up for it. In fact, I couldn't decide on just a couple photos, so please enjoy the others at the end of this entry.

Grade: A

TV Review: Annie's Boobs and Goodfellas make Community great

Community came back from its unnecessary couple-of-week break strong, as the gang at the community college did their best to setup a literal gang, as in a mob syndicate. The scheme? Controlling the chicken finger production at the school, the only decent thing at the cafeteria.

The linchpin for the plan was Abed, who of course immediately started acting like a movie mob boss with his new found power. While the primary spoofing of the episode was of Goodfellas, there was also some Casino and Godfather thrown in there for good measure. Starburns also got a slightly increased role in the episode, which was kind of neat.

However, the purest "laugh out loud" moment of the episode featured a stupid gag by Troy. At the height of the gang's good times, the Spanish study group all arrange lavish perks for themselves - Pierce gets cronies, Annie gets a new backpack (which is why she's doing the robot dance above), Brita gets a hair stylist, etc.

Troy somehow gets a monkey, which he names... Annie's Boobs. Well, to be precise, HE didn't name the monkey that - The monkey has his own Twitter. (p.s. It actually does!!! Right here!) This joke is so simple that it makes for cheap laughs throughout the episode. "I've got to give a banana to Annie's Boobs."

Anyway, this was probably my favorite episode of Community so far from start to finish. If you haven't seen the show yet, it is a good episode to jump in on, since you don't need a ton of past knowledge of the characters to get most of the jokes.

Grade: A+

TV Review: Thursday night slightly disappointing

The first result for "Thursday Night Lineup".

Normally, I can count on Thursday being my best night of television weekly, since it has an array of shows on. The NBC comedy lineup is quite formidable for a stereotypical 20-something like myself - Community, Parks and Recreation, The Office and 30 Rock. I watch all of them except 30 Rock usually, but I watched even that last night, which was a good thing because the other three shows were disappointing. A mini-review on each, with the warning that HUGE SPOILERS for all the shows lie ahead:

- The Office "returned" from a longer break than the other shows, and I'm not angling to get on the "blog" of "unnecessary" quotes with that statement. For some reason NBC or the show's producers thought it would be a good idea to come back from a long break with a clip show.

Now, clip shows have a time and a place, but I don't really think they're necessary in a show's sixth season. The Simpsons do them frequently, but they have been on for about 47 years now, and have done everything, as South Park so eloquently noticed at one point. The Office had a major story arc throughout the show's lifespan - the Pam and Jim courtship - surrounded by minor arcs revolving around Michael and (later) the higher up's ineffectiveness. I don't think you need a recap show, unlike, say, Lost, where there are dozens of characters to keep an eye on.

That being said, I found the B-story arc of the episode to be fairly entertaining. A corporate health assessor was trying to scope out the health of the Scranton branch of Dundler-Mifflin, and of course, Michael, Dwight and Andy were playing hijinks on him. Unfortunately though, unless I blinked, I don't even think Jim or Stanley were in the episode.

- Parks and Recreation focused on Leslie's second date and zany dinner party with some lawyer friend of Ann (Rashida Jones). To be honest, I find him impossibly dull. What's up with people who travel to exotic places suddenly being presented as "interesting" people? Traveling to some place awesome does not in turn make you awesome. A mathematical theorem, if you will:

Lame Person + Exotic Location = Lame Person
Fun Person + Exotic Location = Fun Person
Therefore, X Person + Y Location = X Person

Basically, I'm tired of people on television and in my actual life thinking that travel is some magical substitute for a lack of a real personality. Great, you touched a dolphin. Maybe next time Flipper can teach you some god damn tricks.

... But outside of that angle, which dominated the show, Parks and Recreation had some good singular moments. The continued slow-burn on the sexual tension between April and Andy is good, although Andy still seems way too old for her, even if he has the mindset of a kid.

- Community was also somewhat disappointing, but maybe it's just because I found last week's episode with Jack Black so awesome. (That's not even counting the Alison Brie cheerleader outfit, which was also so awesome.)

I found the main storyline of the episode, which was Jeff's relationship slash non-relationship with a faculty member, kind of flat. Yes, I realize they kind of hooked up around Halloween time, but she has been completely absent from recent episodes. So now, I'm just supposed to accept her on my screen, making out with Joel McHale? I say nay! Luckily, other portions of the episode were humorous, and as always, the last bit with Troy, Ahbed and Jeff delivered.

- Surprisingly, I found 30 Rock to be the highlight of the whole comedy block, even though I'm not a regular viewer. Everyone keeps telling me to get into it, but I missed the initial episodes, and I hate jumping into shows half-way through seasons.

If last night's episode is any indication of the regular quality though, I think I'll have to take the plunge. Liz Lemon (Tina Fey, looking as foxy as always) wanted to transplant the show to a sunny locale. She convinced her boss, Alec Baldwin (looking as foxy as always), to do so, but he changed her idea from Miami Beach to... Boston!

I like Boston, so I thought that was a bit of an improvement, as opposed to being in the bizarre crime capital of the world. In Boston, the gang got into plenty of trouble, especially Tracy Morgan, who was harassing historical reenactment guys on the street. Good times! I heart Tracy Morgan.

All of the pictures are on the first Google Images page of results for their respective show's search term. The picture at the top is from here. 30 Rock is from here. The Office is from here. Community is from here. And Parks and Recreation is from here.

TV Review: Community improves on promise of first half of season

Note: Big time Community spoilers coming.

So hey – Jack Black was on Community last night. And strangely, he was oddly compelling, playing (for him) a more-relaxed character. To me, Jack Black is my generation's Robin Williams. (“Your group needs a fat agile guy!”) When he's on, he can be unquestionably great, although he sometimes goes overboard. Dr. Ken (a.k.a. the Spanish teacher on the show) can have this problem as well, but he was hilarious in this week's episode, faking his own death. And yes, Jack Black got outrageous as the episode went on, but still not bad by his standards.

Anyway, I thought Thursday's episode was a great start to the second half of the first season. Annie was impossibly cute as the over-aggressive reporter, and Jeff “Hawkeye” Winger continues to impress me with his slickness. I'm still hoping that those two get together – the scene between them at the end gives me a bit of hope – but they're still portraying Brita as Jeff's main love interest. And outside of the main story arcs, the supporting cast, Troy and Ahbed especially, remain strong. Gotta love all the MASH references.

Oh, and by the way – Nice Owen Wilson cameo at the end of the episode.

The picture is from a fantasy of Jack Black during the episode.

Watch these shows – Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Blog Equation 107: Lolcats = Win. ALWAYS.

Since the last television recommendation I made, for that of Life on Mars, came right before the show was canceled, I'm almost reluctant to make this entry for fear of more carnage. However, we are in summer now, and I know people are craving something new to watch. So, my recommendations, some of which are old shows you can watch on YouTube...

- Home Movies, O'Grady or Dick and Paula. All three are animated shows by Soup2Nuts, who's art style is pretty distinctive. By “distinctive,” I mean that it looks like crap. However, the same voice actors – Brandon Small (now on Metalocalypse), Melissa Bardin Galsky and the always incredible H. Jon Benjamin – are often shared between them, which really helps the humor come across.

Home Movies is the best of the three, as it relies the most on Benjamin. His super-gruff, super-low voice would never make you think that he's some skinny white dude. He plays Coach McGuirk, who I constantly link to in my away messages, and who dispenses great advice to the little kids on the show, like why you shouldn't swear and how to survive a tornado and how to handle losing. (My only regret is that YouTube doesn't include his stand-up spots, which are the greatest thing ever. I might have to make my YouTube debut with that.)

I've just recently gotten into O'Grady, on the recommendation of Danielle Membrino, a.k.a. the girl who loves South Park and leaves comments all the time. Keeping in mind that I've only seen a couple episodes, it seems like a combination of Home Movies and Eerie, Indiana (or The Twilight Zone, if you're not hip to 1990s TV).

Dick and Paula is the ancestor of all of these shows, and while it's crudely animated even by Soup2Nuts standards, it is cleverer in certain respects. It is a spoof of shows like Regis and Kelly and The Today Show, as it uses historical figures and made-up celebrities to be funny.

- The Soup on E!, new episodes on Friday, re-runs throughout the week. I think a lot of people are already turned on to the spiritual successor of Talk Soup (the good versions, with John Henson, Roger Lodge and Greg Kinnear, not the shitty one with Aisha Tyler). At its best, the show was funny on two levels: first from the absurdity of its clips, and second from the host's reactions and skits.

But the new host, Joel McHale, has the best chops of all of them. The show is consistently funnier than the old incarnation, and at times it has a sort of zaniness that reminds me of early Conan O'Brien and David Letterman. While I think just about anybody can point out the pathetic humor in the VH1 reality shows and Entertainment Tonight-type fare, McHale and his staff also get great bits out of mundane shows. The best examples would be I Love Toy Trains, a show I didn't even know existed but one I now wish I had access to, and hyping up Spaghetti Cat and then using him in non-sequitur bits.

My only complaint would be that McHale is appearing at the Newport Yachting Center this weekend, but tickets are $45 each. Holy hell, Joel! Give me a break, plz? I know you got babies to feed, but seeing as I'm practically unemployed and what not, help a brother out. Still, if I did have some money banked (or if I could have wrangled a press credential from someone), I definitely would have seen him in person.

- MXC on Spike and the Internetz, and Ninja Warrior on G4. If you like ABC's Wipeout, then you should be watching these shows instead, from which Wipeout just ripped their idea off and made it more PG. I realize it is hard to rip off a concept originally popularized by the Three Stooges, but ABC did it so transparently that I was curious how they never got rapped for it. Instead, I've mostly heard raves about how funny the show is, proving that if it happened on cable it never really happened. I imagine ABC's next show will have puppets making prank phone calls.

Anyway, if you went to college at any point between 2002 and 2007, like I did, then you've probably seen MXC while you were drunk, thus you don't remember the name. Whenever various roommates and I would come home from the bar or a party, a flip through the channels would reveal it was on, and we would end up watching weird Japanese people smash their faces in while a humorous, English dub was laid on top of it. The best events would always be when they had to jump across rocks or walk across the huge roller things, because the wipeouts would always be spectacular.

The original show that MXC gets its footage from, Takeshi's Castle, apparently led their TV ratings at one point, and it was supposed to simulate a sort of real-life video game competition, which seems like an absolutely insane concept to me. They have a crummy show like this on the Sci-Fi Channel or USA Network right now, and it stinks because they always do first-person shooters. Hey, if I wanted to see that, I would just watch Rambo, you asshats! You should instead be trying to do a modern version of Takeshi's Castle, with super-bright colors, floating platforms and moving, Roomba-like robots that you have to jump on top of to kill. I want to see World 1-1 of Super Mario Brothers, not Call of Duty 4.

While the humor of MXC is obvious, Ninja Warrior is better to me because it is played so seriously. It is like the Airplane! or Naked Gun of the genre. Almost all the characters take this deathly serious, and the over-dramatic announcing and subtitles just push the show over the top. And when a contestant falls in the water, the (male) announcer lets out such a shriek each time that I can't help but laugh.