DJariya

By djariya at 2010-09-19

Synopsis:



Episode 5 of 22

rduncan

AHHHHHH, just saw it's preempted in Albuquerque tonight. Gubernatorial debate.

Mayoman

Yeah it's pre-empted in my area (MA) too. How does this affect a show's ratings?

kstublen

I imagine this episode will garner a lot of "hate" from Community fans because it wasn't really all that funny. Sure, there were a few pretty awesome jokes spread throughout the episode, but on the whole it was less comedic than what we've seen before.

That said, I think this is probably one of the most important episodes of the series. It's a real turning point for the show and the characters.

As I watched it I thought that Abed's stuff was just so stupid, but I expected the payoff to be great. I expected a joke at the end, but it wasn't there, that wasn't the point. The entire storyline was an examination of religion and society. Everyone was just blindly following what he was doing because it seemed cool. Only Shirley served as the voice of reason and Abed himself eventually recognized the ridiculousness of what he was doing. It served to illustrate the good and the bad of religion; how people can do the right things for the wrong reasons; and how maybe God acts through us indirectly. We got to see Abed and Shirley grow as characters and strengthen their bond as the two religious members of the group, while recognizing the need for some rational thought and self-examination on both their parts. Shirley knew that if she let Abed finish the movie it would ruin his life and so she put herself out there to protect him, willingly putting herself in the role of a martyr, so to speak. Abed returned the favor in a way by finishing her movie. They took a risk with this storyline and I think they pulled it off, but I imagine the feedback will be divided at best, skewed toward dislike at worst.

I also thought that the Pierce storyline, which was probably the funnier of the two if only for some of the things the old people were doing, was well done. It further solidified the strength of the group as a family and I liked the role reversal of the young kids as the parents and the old man as the child. It was nice to see Jeff begrudgingly realize that Pierce is a part of the group and without them he might turn out differently.

Too little Donald Glover though.

Not my favourite episode of the series, but a strong, if risky, episode with much more dramatic elements than what we've seen before.

OldBoy

pretty good ep. stinger was great.

Thrush

They cant all be gems.

MrX

meh

A few laughs with Pierce, but that's it.

Yavin

Too much make me think, not enough make me laugh.

mdc3000

kind of hated it - they were trying for something that I don't think they really achieved but kudos for trying. However, it did have one of my favourite Abed lines ever. When Shirley is trying to sell him on making a religious film based on The Bible because it's the "Greatest story ever told"

Abed: "Really? That's what Ben Lyons said about I Am Legend.

Draven

When Pierce called the playing card "Veronica," my wife laughed and said that's funny because Elvis Costello wrote a song called "Veronica" about a woman with Alzheimers.

She's way smarter than me.

yourlocalcinema

I got some laughs but didn't love it overall. I thought the tag with the shirts at the end was fantastic, though.

JTH182

Loved Troy's response to Shirley when she asked what happens when you type "God" into Youtube, lol

Match

I thought it was ok.

Anyone see this?

13 Bubble Shows — Which Will Survive?
From http://www.tvguide.com/News/13-Bubbl...s-1024490.aspx

Sex Fiend

Really surprised that this show hasn't become more of a breakout hit. It seems to be even more broadly funny and audience friendly than The Office, for example. And it relies far less on inside pop culture jokes than 30 Rock. It's a bit of a mystery to me that it has less of an audience than either of those shows. And heck, we don't even need to mention that it doesn't pull as much of an audience as Outsourced.

In fact, I had so much confidence that it would be enough of a hit to last at least a few seasons, that I actually bought the first season DVD set, something I almost never do for currently running shows (The Office being the only other recent example).

wmansir

Well, that was pretty bad. I didn't care for either story and even the random one liners were more miss than hit.

k_lodge

Did anyone notice that Joel McHale (Jeff) was hardly in this episode and when he was, it was cutaway shots (except for the classroom shots). If you look at the scene when he gets Pierce out of jail, it looks like there were camera trick shots to get him and Piece in the same shot.

Ayre

This was a whole episode filled with uncaring people who find redemption in the final 5 minutes. That's a lot of ugly to wade through.

The problem with Community is all the characters are smug and selfish. Just when you hate them, the writers pull a 180 and make them likable. That is the formula for a few of the characters each episode. The first 5 minutes of Modern Warfare is really unfunny and hard to watch. The group is sitting at a table bickering back and forth. The remainder of the episode is now legendary as they come together for a cause and realize that they need each other [violins].

At it's best Community is a parody of stereotypes (Modern Family) as presented through movies. That is very clever and when it hits, it's gold.

RichC2

I thought the first few minutes of Modern Warfare were fine, I like watching them as bickering assholes, it's funny.

kstublen

Outsourced has the benefit of having The Office as a lead-in.

movieking

Worse episode in quite a while, maybe ever. It seemed more like a bad Simpsons episode with Shirley playing the part of Lisa.

magiccmom

I saw it different...

I saw that it was a parallel to Jesus followers....
People were following Abded like others follow Jesus...To me it was almost a mockery of religion....

rocket1312

I thought this episode was a bit too ambitious for its own good. There were some good ideas and a lot of funny stuff sprinkled throughout, but the main plot just wasn't that entertaining. I just felt uncomfortable during most of Abed's scenes. I'm all for social critique in mainstream entertainment, but if a show like Community isn't funny first and foremost, then it fails.

As far as what I liked, I thought the beginning with them watching Youtube videos was great. I also thought the Pierce plot was hilarious. I feel like that story could have carried an episode instead of being a b-story. My favorite bit was probably Jeff's line about Pierce knowing that he hates Leonard.

As far as the ratings are concerned, I was just having a conversation with my friend and saying I wouldn't be suprised if Community doesn't make it past this year. What I didn't realize was that Outsourced was doing better in the ratings. I just assumed it would be gone by Christmas. I know the time slot is a big issue, but if that abortion of a show comes back and Community doesn't, I may just become violent. And that's coming from someone who usually just rolls his eyes when internet geeks (of which I'm one) get all riled up about stuff getting cancelled.

Deftones

for a show that was supposed to be a comedy, that was horribly light on comedy. i wasn't a fan.

Yavin

It was ok until they hit upon the video with the auto-tuned farts. Then I knew the episode was in trouble.

Coral

Not very funny at all.

The friction amongst people in the group and eventual coming together at the end is really tired.