Community vs. Parks & Recreation

[Cuttooth]

Just watched the paintball episode of Community. And people think Parks is better?! How?!

Community’s gimmick episodes are their best.

It’s a shame the D&D episode has been scrubbed, because that was also one of the greats. Felt a little harsh to me. Chang, a character already established as intolerant, plays as a dark elf, and paints every inch of his skin jet black, other characters comment “are we just going to ignore this hate crime?”, he is killed within seconds and storms off annoyed at all the time wasted. Removing the whole episode for that brief moment, while it is actively acknowledging that the character has done something racist during it, just felt like an overcorrection, to me.

But of course as a white guy, it’s not my call to say what is or is not going too far with respect to blackface.

This is how I remembered the episode but watching it last night as I steam through the second season I don't think it holds up. It's not really played as Chang being deliberately insensitive, since he's actually trying to do a nice thing, and they just move past the shock humour to have him present in the room for way longer than I remembered. His death and leaving the game are also met mostly with sympathy. Pierce in the rest of the episode though, holy gooseberry fool I don't remember his character sinking to that kind of low.

Community is a much more bitter show than I remember it being at the time. Quite a few jokes and premises seem to be set around being annoyed that competing sitcoms and shows are more successful than Community. Like the mockumentary episode seems less an homage and more a "strawberry float you Modern Family for being successful, look anyone can pull this style off". Still mostly funny though, although it'll be interesting to finally go past the third season.

[Christopher]

Pierce in the rest of the episode though, holy gooseberry fool I don't remember his character sinking to that kind of low.

You can see why Chase was not happy with the direction his character took from season 2. In the first season and the first half of season 2 he was just an out of time guy with out dated views, but with a good heart underneath. Then they just turn him into an absolute psycho

[Tomous]

although it'll be interesting to finally go past the third season.

Spoilers: it won't

[Moggy]

Pierce in the rest of the episode though, holy gooseberry fool I don't remember his character sinking to that kind of low.

You can see why Chase was not happy with the direction his character took from season 2. In the first season and the first half of season 2 he was just an out of time guy with out dated views, but with a good heart underneath. Then they just turn him into an absolute psycho

So they just turned Pierce into real life Chevy Chase?

[Christopher]

Pierce in the rest of the episode though, holy gooseberry fool I don't remember his character sinking to that kind of low.

You can see why Chase was not happy with the direction his character took from season 2. In the first season and the first half of season 2 he was just an out of time guy with out dated views, but with a good heart underneath. Then they just turn him into an absolute psycho

So they just turned Pierce into real life Chevy Chase?

Is he a nut in real life then?

[Cuttooth]

Pierce in the rest of the episode though, holy gooseberry fool I don't remember his character sinking to that kind of low.

You can see why Chase was not happy with the direction his character took from season 2. In the first season and the first half of season 2 he was just an out of time guy with out dated views, but with a good heart underneath. Then they just turn him into an absolute psycho

So they just turned Pierce into real life Chevy Chase?

Is he a nut in real life then?

The rest of the cast will have absolutely nothing to do with him. I think he's meant to have said something racist to Donald Glover at one point.

[SandyCoin]

Pierce in the rest of the episode though, holy gooseberry fool I don't remember his character sinking to that kind of low.

You can see why Chase was not happy with the direction his character took from season 2. In the first season and the first half of season 2 he was just an out of time guy with out dated views, but with a good heart underneath. Then they just turn him into an absolute psycho

So they just turned Pierce into real life Chevy Chase?

Is he a nut in real life then?

The rest of the cast will have absolutely nothing to do with him. I think he's meant to have said something racist to Donald Glover at one point.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/consequenc ... unity/amp/

I think Chevy has always been a dick, and difficult on set.

[Christopher]

Oh dear Chevy

[Victor Mildew]

More like Chevy Race amirite

[Jenuall]

Chevy was a dick and the showrunner Dan Harmon is a dick as well - they really rubbed each other the wrong way at it was massively to the shows detriment. It is a real shame because as noted the Pierce character actually had something flawed but real going for him in the first season that they really failed to tap into as it went on. It really was a chicken and egg type scenario with the Chevy/Pierce deterioration - he acted up more as they made the character more of a prick, and they made the character more of a prick because he was acting up.

Harmon trying to get in one of the female writers pants for most of the 2nd and 3rd season didn't help either.

[Jenuall]

Community is a much more bitter show than I remember it being at the time. Quite a few jokes and premises seem to be set around being annoyed that competing sitcoms and shows are more successful than Community. Like the mockumentary episode seems less an homage and more a "strawberry float you Modern Family for being successful, look anyone can pull this style off". Still mostly funny though, although it'll be interesting to finally go past the third season.

I never really saw this as a bitter aspect of the show, and the comments they make about the documentary style being like "shooting fish in a barrel" when it comes to how you can chop things together to make something artificially work without the same effort of doing it "in narrarive" is valid!

Ironically the writer for those Community episodes actually went on to write for Modern Family!

[Corazon de Leon]

Chevy was a dick and the showrunner Dan Harmon is a dick as well - they really rubbed each other the wrong way at it was massively to the shows detriment. It is a real shame because as noted the Pierce character actually had something flawed but real going for him in the first season that they really failed to tap into as it went on. It really was a chicken and egg type scenario with the Chevy/Pierce deterioration - he acted up more as they made the character more of a prick, and they made the character more of a prick because he was acting up.

Harmon trying to get in one of the female writers pants for most of the 2nd and 3rd season didn't help either.

Yeah neither of them have come out of Community looking good, Harmon is a sleazeball and Chase is just awful.

[jiggles]

Just watched the paintball episode of Community. And people think Parks is better?! How?!

Community’s gimmick episodes are their best.

It’s a shame the D&D episode has been scrubbed, because that was also one of the greats. Felt a little harsh to me. Chang, a character already established as intolerant, plays as a dark elf, and paints every inch of his skin jet black, other characters comment “are we just going to ignore this hate crime?”, he is killed within seconds and storms off annoyed at all the time wasted. Removing the whole episode for that brief moment, while it is actively acknowledging that the character has done something racist during it, just felt like an overcorrection, to me.

But of course as a white guy, it’s not my call to say what is or is not going too far with respect to blackface.

This is how I remembered the episode but watching it last night as I steam through the second season I don't think it holds up. It's not really played as Chang being deliberately insensitive, since he's actually trying to do a nice thing, and they just move past the shock humour to have him present in the room for way longer than I remembered. His death and leaving the game are also met mostly with sympathy. Pierce in the rest of the episode though, holy gooseberry fool I don't remember his character sinking to that kind of low.

Community is a much more bitter show than I remember it being at the time. Quite a few jokes and premises seem to be set around being annoyed that competing sitcoms and shows are more successful than Community. Like the mockumentary episode seems less an homage and more a "strawberry float you Modern Family for being successful, look anyone can pull this style off". Still mostly funny though, although it'll be interesting to finally go past the third season.

Yeah, I also watched it again since I posted this and I did misremember it a bit. He was in it for longer than I thought before dying, and it wasn’t played as a joke on him putting on all that makeup for a second of use. But one of the characters also called him Al Jolson, that I didn’t remember, so I guess they doubled down on “the other characters know this is wrong” in that respect.

[Robbo-92]

Has anyone been watching Superstore on Netflix?

That's been surprisingly consistent and they're wrapping up after the current sixth season so they'll be going on a high.

Is series 6 on there? When I watched it they only had the 5 series on there? I do agree it’s great though, they’ve nailed the feel of the retail setting.

[Zilnad]

Had a dream that I was dating Britta

Shirley and Annie were all excited and supportive but then Abed just had to be all Abed about it and explain that I was only dreaming. Then when Jeff got wind that it was all a dream, he just had to rub my face in it.

Troy was just playing it cool and Pierce didn't feature.

[Squinty]

I'm on S3 of Community and so far this show kicks the living gooseberry fool out of Parks and Rec.

[Corazon de Leon]

Has anyone been watching Superstore on Netflix?

That's been surprisingly consistent and they're wrapping up after the current sixth season so they'll be going on a high.

Is series 6 on there? When I watched it they only had the 5 series on there? I do agree it’s great though, they’ve nailed the feel of the retail setting.

Watched a couple of episodes, hated it, watched a couple more, and now actually really like it. The mrs is on her second consecutive viewing.

And yeah, they've managed to get a surprisingly accurate representation of what it's like to work in a supermarket/big shop very well.

[Squinty]

Still making my way through Community and my opinion hasn't really changed. S4 was merely okay for the most part, S5 has been back to the usual level of quality. The Lava World episode was excellent as was the Ass Crack Bandit one. There is nothing in Parks and Rec which hits the same level as Community at its height.

[Christopher]

Just re-watched Parks & Rec again. I think I am on team Parks & Rec now.

If only they had ended with season 6 though.

[mcjihge2]

Parks and Recreation.

I really like Community, there are definitely higher high point episodes over Parks and Rec. But Parks and rec is alot more consistent, contrary to what has been said by others, i think all the seasons are fairly strong. I remember Brendanawicz and "money please" being a bit of a drag, but on a repeated viewing they arent too bad. Community really went downhill after Chevy Chase and Donald Glover left, and i dont think it recovered from that. Parks and recs cast was alot more strongly headed by Amy Poehler, so imo Rob Lowe and Rashida Jones lifted out no problem. But the main reason why i prefer Parks and Rec is because every episode is so cheerful and happy with an underlining message of wholesomeness. I still maintain that Leslie Knope is my ideal woman.