NBC's Community on hiatus

They are hallucinating other people's laughter.

Show's solid, but no tragedy if it leaves us.

 

I think that goes a little too far.

I'm torn on this -- I like the show when the pathos is on display -- Troy's b-day was probably the best example. It really isn't a funny show as most of the characters are actually pretty sad and aware of their sadness.

However, I really don't like the episodes where the show is trying to demonstrate how clever and meta it is. The first paintball was very good, but the second was painful. The "My Dinner with Abed" with the Cougar Town riff was unwatchable. Things like that work in very small doses, but because critics, who love things like that which are creative, give such positive feedback, the show has gone crazy with it.

At its most basic level, a show is supposed to entertain, and Community has rarely done so for me. It is often become a parody of a bad art film.

 

Community in no way deserves to be in the same pantheon as Arrested Development.

 

There were episodes -- such as the original paintball episode -- that were among the best half-hours of sitcom I've ever seen.

There were also 'meh' episodes. More uneven than most shows.

 

I guess I just disagree. The show definitely took a turn toward the artsy or whatever with the second season — the first was played much more straight up — but that didn't make me like it any less, and only further helped set it apart from all the other shows out there.

The second paintball episodes were incredible. I savored every moment, from the movie rip-off beginning, through the Han Solo gags and western bar rips to the janitor cleaning up at the and saying "Why don't you just get a hose and spray the whole school with paint?" and Abed saying "Well, we pretty much did. Have you been to the library?"

I also loved "My Dinner with Abed." Abed's probably my favorite single character on TV right now.

Damn man. Did you even like "Remedial Chaos Theory" from a month or so ago? Because if you don't like those kind of episodes, then I'm not sure what you "like" about Community.

I don't know that I can draw a huge line between Community and the other "shorted" shows. I know I like it better than Sports Night. It's simply different than Freaks and Geeks and I have trouble comparing them. And, honestly, I don't like it radically less than Arrested Development. Maybe a little.

 

Ensemble casts are expensive. I'm guessing Parks and Rec isn't cheap either. I hope that one is getting better ratings.

I don't know of too many shows that come back after being put on hiatus, although I'm sure it has happened.

The mistake here for NBC is that Community is probably only a year from syndication. They made that mistake with My Name is Earl as well. It's a strange time to axe a show.

 

My understanding is you need 5 seasons to make it to syndication (don't remember where I read that). Community is in Season 3, so that might explain it.

 

100 episodes is the standard for syndication. That's four or five seasons depending if you go with 22 episodes or 26.

 

You can get away with less and get picked up by a cable channel. [adult swim] has run Mission Hill, The Oblongs and Clerks: The Animated Series despite not having 100 episodes combined. Someone -- AMC? -- ran Arrested Development reruns.

You can also get syndicated with less episodes if you're still on first-run. Big Bang Theory hit the syndication market this year with 87 eps heading into this season.

 

This may be hard to articulate, but while I find it interesting, I don't really enjoy the show all that much anymore. An episode like "Remedial Chaos Theory" had some funny moments and went places that very few shows would go, but I just wasn't entertained by it. Abed is a character which isn't easy to write and is light years more complex than someone on "2 Broke Girls" or "Two and a Half Men", but he just bores me much of the time.

I use the DVR test -- and Community episodes are often watched weeks later and well after the other half-dozen comedies that I tape.

 

You're mistaking "smart" for obtuse. Smart is a show that doesn't insult a viewer's intelligence with the kind of blatant fart and dick jokes that are on most Chuck Lorre shows.

Shows like "Community" that consider themselves a secret club ultimately fail, leaving the martyr creators to complain that people just don't get them. If you're shooting for network TV, part of the deal is you try to make some of it palatable for the mainstream audience. You know that going in. It's possible to strike a balance.

 

Also getting the NBC cold shoulder: Prime Suspect.

Last year my favorite new show was Terriers. This year: Prime Suspect. I'm beginning to think I'm too intelligent for TV.

Me and Dick Whitman.