emachine12

I read a review that this felt like two people trying to copy the job of one person and that's how this felt to me.

It wasn't the Community I remember and even comparing it to the poor episodes of the past, this season premiere gave me the feeling that this was being Jack Donaghy'd. It's as if the new showrunners were purposely asked to go too far into the extreme of capturing Harmon's method just to tank the show.

Or maybe, just maybe, the far too long wait to see this on the air just made the show stale. I can wait months or a whole year for new episodes on Adult Swim and SyFy for my favorite shows and they still click with me. I just don't know what happened here.

DRG

I didn't hate it, but it just felt a bit 'half-hearted' to me. The main problem I had was that a lot of the dialogue felt too overtly like 'jokes', and not like natural-but-weird dialogue coming out of these character's mouths (and I'm not talking about the Abed TV stuff, which was supposed to be that way).

In fact the Abed TV parts, while they did run out of steam by the end, were the most inspired part of the episode. The Hunger Games bits missed the mark for me.

DeputyDave

I'm just glad it's back. There are so few good sitcoms out there (including this one there are three I actually look forward to) that I'll take what ever they have left.

RichC2

Oddly enough, these comments don't stray far from the Season 1 or 3 premieres.

Jeremy517

There were a number of parts where it felt like they were trying too hard to be classic Community, but season three was filled with a ton of those times also. This episode felt pretty similar to a season three episode to me.

Kory

I liked it a lot, and I'm happy it's back. I probably laughed the hardest at either the Microsoft Paint joke or Jeff looking at Britta wearing those glasses, and then taking his pair off and giving them to Fat Neil.

golden_rod

I find it hard to reconcile the complaints NBC had for Harmon about how bizarre & lacking in mainstream appeal the show was with this episode. It was surely one of the wackiest episodes of the show and would do nothing to lure in first-time viewers. By the time it got to "Greendale Babies," I thought they were just trying too hard to appease us diehard fans.

Not a bad episode, though. Just...too much going on. The Hunger Deans, the fountain, AbedTV, Prankin' with Shirley & Annie, etc. So much that they all became B stories and it lacked an A story.

RichC2

He wasn't fired for the show being bizarre and lacking mainstream. He was fired for having a conflict with the star of the show and being late on delivery for a few episodes (Digital Estate Planning and the multiple timeline one, among others.)

The show at it's lowest still pulls better ratings than NBC's "broadly appealing" shows like 1600 Penn, Guys with Kids, etc;

Xander

I chuckled a few times. I'm just happy the show's back, and am willing to give it while to find its footing.

According to EW, this premiere had slightly better numbers than last season's premiere. And given that just about every other NBC new comedy has tanked, I wouldn't count Community out for a season 5 if the rest of the season is as watched as last night's episode was.

Dan

That exactly sums up how I felt about this episode.
Since this is the first episode of the season, I can forgive the fact that they felt they had to establish why these people are all still going to be together for another X-number of episodes. From what I recall, Season 2 and 3 both started with similar awkward beginnings. I'm hopeful that the rest of the season is more focused in each individual episode, though.

I'm in for the rest of the season, but that doesn't mean I expect to love it.

golden_rod

Who said that? Did I say that? No.

It's fairly common knowledge that throughout the history of the show, NBC wasn't happy with how hermetically sealed the show essentially became and wanted Harmon to make it more accessible. Something this episode certainly wouldn't have any effect in accomplishing.

RichC2

I said that... You even quoted it.

And yeah I guess I hadn't heard anything on NBC wanting that, though it certainly makes sense.

PhantomStranger

It felt like a normal episode from last season. Unfortunately I felt that was the least consistent season of Community and there weren't too many lol moments for my tastes. The set-up had all the ingredients for a great episode, but some of the one-liners could have been funnier.

Dragon Tattoo

Fuck, I hope not. Just cancel it. That way NBC has nothing for me to watch next year and I can finally start ignoring the network altogether.

The last thing I want to do is have to tune into Community sandwiched between three of their shitty new mainstream comedies.

Deftones

Thinking back, the two biggest chuckles were the tv spot ads in Abed's mind for those 2 shows. Blind/Blonde and something about cooking with swords.

Meglos

Deftones

Haha so awesome.

Ropes Pierre

I Laughed, I Cried! It Was Better than Cats! I'm going to watch it again and again!

joefrog91

LOL! I'm old enough to remember that.

TheBang

How many of you missed those bugs? I totally unconsciously tuned them out, and my wife had to rewind and point them out to me.

RichC2

I was half watching the 30 Rock finale and had to rewind to see that one too.

Hokeyboy

I enjoyed it

Dragon Tattoo

Michael Corvin

Wow, totally missed that. Awesome. Guess I'm too used to tuning them out.

DJariya

http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/201...d-down/168755/

Ratings were adjusted up to 1.9 in demos and 3.88M viewers.

Even though most of you weren't happy with it and are nitpicking it to hell, that's a good sign.