DamnDave

Community 120: The Science of Illusion

damndave — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 16:24:32 +0000

I’m willing to forgive a lot of little things for my favorite shows. When I sit down to watch on I prepare to laugh at anything I find remotely funny. That having been said last night’s episode was . . . disappointing. Disappointing is one of those sneaky words that mothers and girlfriends use to really attack their target. I expect this show to be odd, off-beat and self -referential. However, I expect it to do this without damaging the integrity of it’s characters. Last night was an overplayed sketch which turned most of the cast in to caricatures of themselves. The one thing that concerns me about shows with great writers and actors, and trust me Community has both in spades, is that they can come up with concepts that are very funny on paper but that don’t play out on screen. It’s easy to imagine Pierce running around as the Cookie Crisp wizard being funny, but it wasn’t. It didn’t fit his character. We get that he’s old, set in his ways and slightly inappropriate. Everyone has one insecure kindof dickish friend like that, Pierce is just that guy grown up. I cannot; however, imagine him being a cult member who believes in telepathy. It’s too over the top. Granted, Chevy can pull of the funny costume gag and I support any justification to put him in an elegant ladies pantsuit, but at least make it slightly plausible. Like a lost bet or a practical joke gone awry. Also, Pierce is at his best making off color comments when it seems like he doesn’t mind offending the people he’s with. Like saying white Abed looks “employable” or pitching an activity because “there’s black people”. While they’ve set up his propensity for gay jokes before there aren’t any gay characters to mitigate the joke. So Pierce ends up looking like a douchebag rather than a comically ignorant old guy with no filter. Chevy’s one liners can be great, but most of his dialogue in this episode felt forced, which is a pity because he’s a great character. I hope they find a consistent way to get him good lines in the future. Aside from the anemic prank of Pierce plot most of this week was spent following two other characters, Annie and Shirley, who were taken out of their normal element and turned into a buddy cop paraody. This of course was due to “buzzkill” or “fun vampire” Britta’s hilariously failed attempt at a practical joke which inadvertanty led to her tossing a cadaver out of a second story window. Thankfully this did give us an excuse to see Britta crawling around in skintight jeans (again) and it showed of Gillian Jacobs other assets, mainly her ability to pull off a great slapstick scene. I also enjoyed Britta’s reaction to Jeff’s accusation, who doesn’t like formal cats? Annie and Shirley didn’t fair as well as they competed to see who would be the badass in their buddy cop set up. Again, I’m willing to accept outlandish scenarios at Greendale but the characters should be consistent and I couldn’t suspend my disbelief in this situation. The only saving grace was Danny Pudi’s uncanny ability to take a meta reference and turn it into a great archetypal impression, this week a pissed off police chief with “agitated sciatica”. It’s well known that I’m a fan of Annie’s character but having her hop into an outlandish scenario doesn’t work. She works best when an outlandish act makes sense, like kissing Jeff to win a debate tournament. That was not Annie behavior but it worked because it made sense at the time. Same with Shirley, she can act crazy as long as she’s still behaving like Shirley. She can pull a garden hose into an office or suggest vandalizing a car in the sweetest way but she’s not going to interrogate someone with a pizza cutter (that will make sense if you watched closely). So, all in all, while there were some funny moments, this episode was a disappointment for me. Especially considering that an April fools episode gives considerable leeway for outlandish acts. I would have expected such an episode to leverage Don Glover’s considerable sketch experience or McHale’s ability to pull an epic prank. I didn’t expect a overly saccharine “be yourself” ending which, ironically, made everyone act wildly out of character this week. Again, I think this is one of the most interesting and talented group of writers and actors so I have no doubt that they’ll be back on track next week.

Community 119: Beginner Pottery

damndave — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 15:53:06 +0000

This week things got a little bit weirder on the Greendale campus. According to Jamie Weinman http://twitter.com/weinmanj this episode was supposed air significantly later than it did which may have been while this episode also felt a little less satisfying than last weeks. Community is usually a show that is more of a collection of scenes but typically these scenes work nicely together to build upon the show’s foundation. I enjoy learning more about the school and the characters so an episode like is a bit of a throwaway. Despite this there were still some great moments during the episode.

The lead in may be one of the least consistent parts of the show. Sometimes we get a great scene before the credits that sets up the episode, sometimes we get a cold open. The latter was true this week which leaned heavily on the Jeff entrance, which is a crutch I don’t entirely enjoy. I think Joel McHale is a great fit for the character but sometimes he’s too much Joel and not enough Jeff, like when he enters a room announcer style and you expect him to start dishing the soup. Maybe they couldn’t think of a better way to introduce the plot which was the new semester’s throwaway classes: beginner pottery and sailing. For me the sailing was the better of the two because I actually do enjoy sailing and after hearing that Greendale was completely landlocked and they’d be sailing in the parking lot I was really curious as to what was going to happen. It also set up some great jokes about black people on boats, which I have also found to be rare. I especially enjoyed Pierce’s sales pitch after Troy and Shirley join: “there will be black people!”

The pottery class was lead by Buster from Arrested Development who was a great choice for casting. He perfectly walked the line between crazy art teacher and batshit insane anti-ghosting lunatic. That would be a reference to the pottery scene in Patrick Swayze’s movie Ghost. Some times I wonder home many of these meta reference I miss or are missed by the younger viewers. This of course sets up the obligatory recreation of the pottery scene in the “hilarious guy on guy” fashion after Jeff shows his competitive side and sets out to discredit a fellow student who appears to be naturally talented. This plot didn’t really draw me in. It was fun to see Jeff kind of crack but really the best part of this storyline was watching Annie work on some very suggestive pottery with both hands. It certainly did not look like “a vase” which was Allison Brie’s breathy reply when asked what she was working on.

The sailing plot was much more fun to watch given that they were on a full sized sailboat in the campus parking lot where the overly serious instructer warns them that anything that falls into the “sea” is lost. Even after Troy observes that “we’re in Pierce’s world now” Shirley is made captain, much to Pierce’s dismay. For the most part they even got most of the nautical term right. This truly weird and unlikely scenario set up some of the nights best scenes. The instructor decides to send the boat into a hypothetical “perfect storm” and then uncleats the main for an “accidental jib” sending Pierce overboard. With the storm bearing down Shirley decides there is no time to rescue Pierce and order him left for dead basically leaving him for a better grade. This scene made me laugh hysterically. The camera work was fantastic as the crew realizes that they’re going to leave Pierce, the dramatic cuts, watching the lifeline slip through Troy’s hands. All of it was perfect. Pierce, who’s life appears to be fraught with disappointment (he has failure for breakfast), manages to find a canoe and mount wheels on it to return to the boat. He also resolves Jeff’s pottery issues with the hilarious story of how he overcame the obstacles in his own life. Unfortunately while rowing his canoe/shoebox car back to the boat he runs into an irrigation head sending water shooting into his canoe and starts to “sink”. By this point I’d made my peace with the ridiculous plotline and was loving the over the top drama of the moment as Shirley throws caution to the wind and goes to rescue Pierce in the storm. The camera cuts to a classroom as students look out the window to see the S.S. Nose Candy under full sail moving by, another classic absurdist moment for the series.

While this episode was really more of a collection of parts and didn’t quite add up as a whole it still added some great scenes to the Community highlight reel. I could honestly put together a tape of great moments from the show and be quite happy watching them out of context so I don’t really require an episode to be flawless. A little crazy was just fine.

Favorite Quotes:

“It’s like a redhead that drinks scotch and likes Die Hard“
“When you got on this boat I saw seamen inside of you”
“Damn, he’s ghost riding the jib”
“I can swim, racist”
“Welcome aboard the S.S. Nosecandy, which we just purchased through government auction”
“You’re Goldbluming”

Community 118: Basic Genealogy

damndave — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 18:35:30 +0000

In an effort to force myself to maintain what little writing skills I have left I’ve decided to start writing a review of Community. It’s easily my favorite show on television currently which probably means it’ll be canceled soon. Though they are confirmed for a second season, so there will be at least one smart comedy on the air next year.

One of the things that I love about Community is the shear strength of the ensemble cast and the writer’s willingness to put the secondary characters on display. Too many sitcoms lean on their primary characters, usually the male and female leads and relegate the supporting cast to one liners and setup scenarios. This episode is great example of this. The episode is split almost evenly between the main plot and two subplots. The main plot was entertaining but almost felt shoehorned in. Before the credits role Jeff is summarily and brutally dumped by Professor Slater. This wasn’t entirely unexpected after her conspicuous absence last week. Plus it sets up the return of the misogynistic single Jeff. The change is welcome, the Slater relationship did a great job of setting up some personal growth for the character and the potential for a future Britta/Jeff relationship. However, it’s immediately clear that Jeff is taking this harder than he lets on. Shirley reaction is consistent with the last time a woman threatened the Jeff/Britta relationship by offering him a shoulder cry on and instructing the boys to “go put a dead bird in that bitch’s glove compartment.” Regardless, Jeff is back on the prowl and immediately sets out to hook up with the guest star, Katherine McPhee, who happens to be Pierce’s ex-stepdaughter. This leads to another one of the strong points of the show where the table has a quick cut discussion of the appropriateness of the nickname “Bootynator” (like the terminator) wondering “wouldn’t he try to kill the booty” and “who would want dead booty?”

It’s also apparently family day at Greendale, normally I would question the likelihood of this, but for Community I’m willing to just suspend all disbelief because it gives them an excuse to come up with a parade of outlandish onetime family characters. It also gives us a reason to pair up the characters for their subplots. This week featured Troy and Britta against his monster of a grandmother and Abed and Shirley against alternative parenting techniques. It’s a little hard to buy that Britta doesn’t know what a switch is after she inadvertently offends Troy’s nanna, but it did lead to a scene in where she gets spanked by an elderly women while Troy watches. That’s about as close to interracial porn as you’ll ever see on network television. Plus, for most of the episode she was wearing jeans that appear to painted on. Normally the show has kindof a Ginger/Mary Ann dynamic where I’d prefer Annie to Britta, but I have to say this episode made a strong argument for Britta.

Meanwhile the main plot involves Pierce’s attempts to impress his ex-step daughter, Amber, who is more interested in leaving with his money and attracting the eye of Jeff, who has conflicting emotions about the issue. Pierce enlists the reluctant Jeff to help him win over Amber. After refusing to do it Jeff is convinced by Annie to do so. I think Dan Harmon is slyly playing to fan comments about the chemistry between Annie and Jeff. First there was the suspiciously long gaze in the Valentines Day episode, her looks last week during the strip pool battle, and their curiously sweet scenes this week. Jeff is right, she’s dangerous, and he’s clearly interested in making her happy observing that “disappointing you is like choking the little mermaid with a pipe bike chain.” His bashful confession to her is not the same boastful womanizer character that he normally portrays. The Britta/Jeff relationship is much more plausible now than in the beginning of the series, but I wouldn’t mind seeing Jeff and Annie hook up. You don’t always have to go for the movie star.

The rest of the episode moves quickly, Amber is actually just interested in getting money from Pierce. Annie doesn’t know what a grifter is, maybe she is too young? So, Jeff has to be the bad guy and tell Pierce even though he tries to convince Amber to be a better person first. I like that they didn’t coddle their guest star with a nice role, instead McPhee played more of a slutty, shallow grifter, and, to her credit, she played it well. Fortunately Pierce has already figured out Amber’s intensions and has a nice heart to heart with Jeff who finally admits he’s upset by the breakup and breaks down with a funny complaint about her taste in television shows. “I hate Glee, I don’t understand the appeal at all.”

The show’s found a nice rhythm of quietly setting up a message or theme for the episode and exploring how different character combinations react to it. The best scenes are still those where the whole cast gathers around a table and play off each other about. Another great technique they’ve been perfecting is the multiple reaction shot. A fantastic example was last weeks reaction to Abed’s impressive Don Draper impersonation. Reactions included “gross”, “awesome”, and Pierce’s “stick your tongue in her ear”. So overall this episode wasn’t as strong as last weeks, which also benefited from two weeks of mind numbing Olympic curling. But Community is still on a role and next week we can look forward to Lee Majors dropping by the Greendale campus. Hopefully he won’t sleep with Jeff too.

Pursuit of Happiness Cover

damndave — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 17:22:01 +0000

I think I enjoy this more than Kid Cudi’s original version. Perhaps its just hearing a tiny French girl sing “Fuck that”. Plus the ukulele is really underutilized in the rap community.

Board Meetings and Unlicensed Peruvian Mining Camps

damndave — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 23:42:40 +0000

For three years I’d worked at the company, three years of mind numbing boredom and office politics broken only by random nights of unifying drunkenness: the Christmas party, the occasional happy hour, Becky’s retirement. Two years ago the woman that came to our office each Thursday to water the plants stopped coming. No one asked questions, everyone assumed we’d just removed that line item from the budget. To be honest I don’t think anyone ever checked, for all we know Rosita could have been kidnapped by Somali pirates. While this is admittedly unlikely in the warm, quiet waters of the Gulf of Mexico, I’d still like to think if I were to spontaneously disappear someone would at least call my mother to make sure I hadn’t been sold into male prostitution. Regardless of Rosita’s fate, the company, having successfully liquidated our landscape maintenance department, was now saving almost a hundred dollars a year and could finally afford to purchase a German espresso machine for use during board meetings. Unfortunately the machine would prove to be too complicated for most of them to handle as it was, after all, of German design and it featured a frightening number of buttons and at least one dial whose purpose could not be determined. These elderly white men were only qualified by their Ivy League degrees to pilot our company through these trying times. United in solidarity by the need to elicit the elusive coffee from this complicated piece of machinery, it was quickly decided that someone of lower importance should be placed in charge of the coffee. I suggested rehiring Rosita. Unfortunately they were unwilling to reverse their earlier budget savings and several were skeptical that of Rosita’s German skills. In the true spirit of budget savings, the work that was being done by someone who was fired would now be done by someone who was already doing a full time job. Our receptionist, who clearly had nothing better to do, would now be in charge of the coffee. A phone was quickly installed in the kitchen so that she would be able to answer it while attending to her new duties as head barista. Meanwhile, our plants were wilting at an alarming rate and the office was starting to acquire a disreputable look. Unable to contact Rosita, who was undoubtedly now working in a forced labor camp for unlicensed Peruvian mining bandits, it was decided that the employees would be responsible for watering the plants closest to them. Now the guardian of a half dead fern, I made it my mission to restore this plant to health. It became my constant companion. The one thing that I looked forward to seeing in my padded, easy-assemble cubicle containment cell. Within a month its leaves were green again, within a year it was growing wild across my desk. A week ago I left the company. Technically I guess I was fired. It may have had something to do with the ritualistic goat sacrifice I staged in the copy room, or maybe my weekly happy hour from 2 to 4 pm on Tuesdays, maybe I forgot to submit my weekly status report. I don’t know. I don’t care. I’m happy it’s over. The only thing I regret is that I forgot to take that god damn plant.