Community's Season Four Premiere: Review/Rant

Well, this week Community's long anticipated fourth season premiered. But before I review that, I need to put it into some context for you -

Community was created by a man called Dan Harmon. Now Dan Harmon is very intelligent, and in Community at least, he is always pushing the boundaries of what he can do with it. He is very very smart and he seems like a generally good hearted, if a little distant and a little introverted person. But because he's so smart, and because Community was his project, he was a little bit difficult to work with. I think Dan Harmon was a perfectionist, and the way he arranged things were a little bit.... unorthodox. That is to say, he was constantly changing things and adding things - like it could be happening a minute before they shot the scene. He also had an arrogant streak if someone crossed him, and sometimes did things that were not... totally.... appropriate. And I think for these reasons, and also because the show he was making wasn't getting very high ratings at all, he was fired as the showrunner.

This is a disastrous move. Dan Harmon was the primary creative force behind the show, he's what made the show what it was. He's what made it so self-reflective and spoofy and awesome, and almost everything unique about the show that the fanbase had grown to love was conducted by him. And now he's fired, and NBC wanted a show with higher ratings. So here was the question hanging in the air for us Human Beings that didn't want anything about the show's tone to change - are they going to try to make this mainstream? Are they going to add a laugh track and make it based around sex, make the characters stereotypical and flat and start to talk down to its audience about the pop culture references and just try to ungeekify it? Every Human Being knew that would be disastrous and idiotic - why cater to an audience that hasn't shown interest after three years, instead of catering to an extremely dedicated fanbase that loves everything about the show just the way it is?

So we waited with bated breath, hoping that the show would live up to everything we've built it up to be without Dan Harmon. The amazing makers of Community, who already had such an open dialogue with the fans (did you notice they added #sixseasonsandamovie as the final few seconds of Introduction to Finality? That's amazing) even gave us a bit of a teaser, something to keep the fans occupied for a while, about the plan for postponing the premiere of the show to October 19th, and then moving it again to February 7th - it also added in a little tidbit about the famous Community flashmob orchestrated by the fans, and another about the incomprehensible minds behind NBC.

But I digress.

The point I'm trying to get across is after this long long wait for the show to come back on, the fans were anticipating it like crazy, with a bit of doubt but hoping a lot. Everyone who follows Community knows the name Dan Harmon, and they know the impact he had on the show, and we could only guess at the what the new people were going to do - I think we were all sort of pulling an Abed, running scenarios in our own little Dreamatoriums to see all the different ways this could turn out.

And then along came October 19th.

Here comes the review part of my post.

Overall the show was actually not too bad - again with the dialogue to its fanbase, and it was certainly wacky and zany as ever. It stayed true to what had been set up at the end of last season, for the most part. Overall, I actually expected worse.

That being said.....

The rhythm of it seemed off somehow. Don't ask me to explain that, because I don't know. It just seemed like they fell back a little too hard on old habits from older seasons. Like Pierce's "I know this has a joke", for instance, was a gag that lasted the duration of the episode and with little pay off, and was basically the same gag as Troy's "Don't eat the crab dip!" from season 1 - except that one lasted the duration of a scene, and was pulled off brilliantly by the way Donald Glover played it out. No disrespect to Chevy Chase, he's great at what he does, I just don't think the writers really gave him a lot to work with for the one thing he had.

But what really bugged me were a few tiny things about the characters that really just weren't consistent with what had already been set up.

This was a little moment in the episode that lasted probably two seconds, but it stuck with me because it was... weird. Annie's talking about being a senior now, and pullin' pranks, skippin' classes, not pronouncin' her Gs, etcetera. That's Annie enough - it's normal for Annie to try to be a little bit outside her own comfort zone. Then Shirley says "Ooh! I'll pull pranks with you!" Which again, is Shirley enough - mischeivous when she can be, responsible when she should be. And Annie says uncomfortably, "Yeah, or, you know, Jeff, whoever's around, whatever."

That bugged me. Sure, Annie may have had a crushy type thing on Jeff for a while there, and they certainly had chemistry. But Annie's fascination with Jeff ended around season 2 - she didn't always feel the need to be around him all the time after that, or to try to earn his approval all the time. She likes Jeff, and yeah, would probably go out with him if he asked, but it's weird for her to start doing things while looking over her shoulder for any approving smile or something from Jeff when she stopped doing that quite a while back.

Which brings me to Jeff.

Jeff's character was possibly the least consistent with what had already been established. It was startling, "jarring" is a word I read in a review already. Maybe he would get to the point where he would save seats for his friends in class - MAYBE. He already gave up his career for Shirley's business, so anything's possible. But calling himself "The New Jeff" didn't sit well with me. Yes, he obviously had an evolution through the seasons. That almost goes without saying. But that wasn't by Jeff's CHOICE. He was changed by becoming part of a family, which is an experience Jeff had been deprived of for most of his life. He didn't make a decision one day to stop being so superficial and selfish and to think for more people than himself. That never happened. It was a gradual, natural change that happened to Jeff unconsciously, until he finally looked at himself from a different angle and went "whoa". (See Pillows and Blankets, Introduction to Finality).

But he never made some sort of new year's resolution saying "I'm gonna not be a douchebag now. I'm going to be pleasant and friendly and sincere." Because that would just be ridiculously out of character. Jeff hates change, he likes knowing he can predict what will happen, and manipulate the situation to his will. So deciding one day to change himself? I'm sorry. I don't see it.

Also, he's going to graduate early because he took online courses over the summer? That's completely out of character. It wouldn't bother Jeff to spend the few months more at Greendale, because he'd already devoted so much to the group and the school. And he's mentioned a few times, in a few different ways, that "doing more work than what he has to is his definition of failing".

And sure, if we wanted to be lazy about it, we could credit this change of heart to his evolution through the seasons. But I'm not going to back down for that, because that is a weak argument. Consistently throughout the series, Jeff spends his time passing with the bare minimum and looking for "blow-off" classes - classes in which he doesn't have to do any work, he can just sit and goof off. Jeff starts a riot in one relatively recent episode upon finding out that he'd have to take summer classes - the riot that makes him and the study group known as "The Greendale Seven" and gets them expelled.

And suddenly Jeff decides that that's okay and takes a bunch of online courses in summer? I'm sorry, that doesn't fit in this puzzle. It really just doesn't make sense.

It was lazy writing, in all honesty, and that is one of the first times that I've seen Community be lazy at all. It was weird. And I didn't like it.

Abed was too..... normal. Now Abed is an extremely difficult character to get right, but that doesn't change the fact that they didn't. They got close, and if I weren't analyzing this episode the way I do everything else, I probably wouldn't notice. But I am, and I do. In spite of the fact that they had his "happy place" going for the duration of the episode, (which was good, and totally fit with Abed) he wasn't being himself. Abed is a fly on the wall, an observer. To have him zoned out for just about the entire episode really just didn't fit.

I know what your arguments are going to be. "But it was like the Dreamatorium. He was running scenarios in his head." And sure, that's true. But rarely does Abed EVER bury himself so deep that he can't come back. You'll notice that even in the Dreamatorium he was learning. He listened carefully to everything Annie said, and filed the "new data", if you will, in his head. The only time Abed ever went close to going that deep in was Introduction to Finality, when he became Evil Abed and tried to make the current timeline the darkest timeline.

So here's what's wrong with what they did. While Abed's "happy place" was very well done, and stayed true to character, Abed even HAVING a happy place isn't true to character at all. Abed doesn't use fiction as others do, to take himself away from reality - he uses fiction to help him UNDERSTAND reality. When he's unhappy, he doesn't ignore it and push it away, as others might - he deals with it in his incredible mind and THINKS about it, running scenarios, maybe, and figuring out what to do. So, even though Britta told him to go to a happy place, he would NEVER be able to bury himself like that, because if there's one thing about this fly on the wall, it's that this fly is too awesome for the wall. Abed almost ALWAYS takes action for his emotions. There's never been an episode where Abed simply doesn't DO anything, because that's not how he's learned to deal with things. It's not that Abed wouldn't listen to Britta - I'm almost certain he would. It's just that beneath his happy place his mind would be whirling about what to do, and it wouldn't take twenty two minutes for him to figure it out.

Those were my main problems with the show - since the show is character-driven by nature, of course all the problems were with how the characters were written. But Annie, in general, was well in character and funny, as was Shirley and Britta and Troy - I think Pierce as well, though he didn't actually do much - like I said, his whole thing during the episode was "I know this has a joke", until finally at the end he came up with "Gay balls!" Which, while in character, was a little disappointing.

On the bright side, there were some good things about the episode.

Britta and Troy's fountain scene was very..... Troy and Britta. Which was good. Except for the fact that Troy wouldn't let Britta do that at all, for fear that she'd Britta it, and that Abed didn't join them even though it was his and Troy's thing in the first place. Set-up didn't make sense, but the scene itself was good enough.

I very much enjoyed Jeff's scene with the dean, while they were dancing. The dynamic there was perfect, so good on them for that.

Abed's happy place was quite well done, and worked well with Abed's character (except for the issues that I've mentioned, but never mind).

At the end, when Abed tells Annie to maybe go into Forensics? THAT was a good moment. Reminded me of the moment in the ever-famous Remedial Chaos Theory, when Abed tells Annie she should move in with them. One of those incredible moments that prove that Abed sometimes knows them better than they know themselves.

At the end when it turns out the dean now lives next to Jeff? Good moment, that one,  and in character for both of them. "Please tell me you're breaking into that condo." Well done.

So, there were a FEW good moments in the episode, but overall it was just... off. It wasn't as obvious as I've made it sound, I've just broken it down. But it was clear, to me at least, that there was something wrong about it. Some inconsistensies and things, that really shouldn't have happened.

I realize I'm reading way too much into it. Totally. But that's what I do, and usually Community has been able to fulfill that with satisfaction.

That's what I have to say about it.

3/5 stars.

HOLY FREAKING SHABALABA GUESS WHAT?

Guess who went to this last night?

Uh, yeah. Yours truly.

It was amazing and fantastic and incredible and pretty much every positive adjective you can think of. 

It was just epic and I almost cried and he was in the same room as me and he was just right there and probably not even twenty meters away from me and I was like "Oh my god" and I thought I was going to flail like I always do, but I think subconsciously I thought I was dreaming and I was practically frozen where I was so that I wouldn't wake up.

What hair he had left was white, and the light was making his bald head shine. He had a black suit jacket on with a black shirt and blue jeans, and converse-ish shoes. It was amazing, because he was there in person and he was real, and it was incredible.

His voice was real. I could actually hear him speaking, and it wasn't from the speakers in my computer. It wasn't the same videos I'd seen over and over again on Youtube, the jokes were new and the words were new. He was THERE.

And he was adorable.

And it was like.... all those facial expressions I'd seen him make all those times before, it was in person now. Like the pursed lips he has when he's uncertain about something. Like the little half-smile he gets when someone makes fun of him. The shameless grin he has when he knows he has no idea what he's doing in a scene. It was all there.

And that little giggle he does without opening his mouth when someone takes him off-guard with something. He did that too. And also the little comments he makes when someone says something kinda not-so-smart. The way he uses his hands when he talks. The little laugh he has while bantering with someone onstage, before/after the scene.

He was there in person and it was actually him and it was amazing.

Not to mention all the Colin Mochrie classics that were thrown in there. Everyone who hadn't seen as much Whose Line as I had wouldn't have really noticed, but there was leg-humping (which I clearly remember from British Whose Line) and crotch touching (American Whose Line) and his french accent certainly hasn't gotten any better. And, of course, every guy improviser got to kiss Colin. The only thing missing was "Och!" (his hilarious scottish accent for you non-Whosers).

Of course, it wasn't just him. There was a host - kind of a Drew guy, who took suggestions from the audience, etc. And then there were seven other improvisers from Granville Island theatre sports - at least one of whom had worked with Colin when he had started out in Vancouver. And of course they were all hilarious. But I was there for Colin.

And, since it was Colin's show - he was the title name - they gave it to him.

Whenever it was a game where they had to tag people out, they almost never tagged out Colin. And he was amazing. But the thing is, Colin was never a spotlight performer. He's always been happy to share the spotlight with others. There was one scene that he wasn't in that night. He could have jumped in at any time, but he chose not to. And the scene was great, and I could tell Colin was enjoying it (you can't blame me for having my eye wander back to him, alright?). And that's because he's the best kind of improviser - the generous kind. The kind that waits for his opening and doesn't make his own, the kind that is quite happy to sit back and watch the others do their thing. And even though I shamelessly admit that I was there for Colin - so was everyone else, probably - I appreciated the others improvisation, and admired Colin's style, as I always have.

Surprisingly, there were no bald jokes. They did get to ribbing Colin, though, when the emotion in the scene was "confused" and one of them looked at Colin and said "Are you Ryan Stiles?" The entire audience burst out laughing, along with a couple people onstage, while Colin looked at the guy with his "I am not amused" look. After all the laughter died down, Colin said "Ha ha". Not in a dripping in sarcasm kind of way, in a subtly sarcastic kind of way - Colin's style. And the next time the emotion was confused, well....

"Are you Greg Proops?"

"Are you Wayne Brady?"

"Are you Brad Sherwood?"

And then the emotion changed back to horny and they all went back to leg-humping and the like.

But it was really amazing to see Colin do his thing in person. You have no idea. It was so familiar, but it was in person this time. And I can say with confidence that it really does make a difference.

The only thing that would have made the night any better was an autograph from the man. And a hug. :)

I am signing out as a huge fan of this man and his work and everything about him and I love him and oh my god I saw him live.

EVERYTHING I EVER LOVED WAS ALSO LOVED BY A MAN I LOVE.

I can't even freaking explain it, so please, just........ look at this.

He watched Firefly. FIREFLY. AS IN JOSS WHEDON'S FIREFLY. AS IN THE SCI-FI-WESTERN SHOW THAT I WAS UNHEALTHILY OBSESSED WITH LAST YEAR.

And hold on..... it gets better. 

COMMUNITY. C-O-M-M-U-N-I-T-Y. He finished the second season in two days. Not even I beat that.

And not only that, but........ 

He loved it so much he started pitching it on Twitter. COLIN MOCHRIE IS AN HONEST TO GOD COMMUNIST/HUMAN BEING.

And finally........

I ADORE HIM SO MUCH AND I ADORE COMMUNITY SO MUCH AND I JUST LOVE THEM BOTH SO MUCH I'M GOING TO CRY.

 Never mind that these tweets were tweeted quite a while ago....... that doesn't actually matter. WHAT MATTERS IS THAT COLIN MOCHRIE IS A HUMAN BEING AND I'M A HUMAN BEING.

Also, did you know that Colin Mochrie was in the Film Club in high school? For reals.

I swear to god, if he were a teenager and living in British Columbia, me and him would be bros. We'd be best friends. We'd make movies together and watch Community together and Firefly and we'd be best friends.

I just love everything right now.

Communism is Beautiful

BEFORE you give me hate comments, I would just like to explain that I don't mean communism, as in, the political movement. I mean communism, as in, being a fan of the show Community. I realize how it sounds. That's the whole reason I say it. Shock value. xD

Well, Community has officially become a new obsession. I still adore absolutely ADORE Whose Line, and Colin Mochrie and everyone else (Colin will never stop being adorable. EVER.) so don't get me wrong on that. But Community is just..... really incredibly awesome.

Here's Community in a nutshell:

-Ridiculousness/hilarity
-Pop culture references
-More ridiculousness/hilarity
-Identity
-Friendship
-Did I mention ridiculousness and hilarity?

And I may or may not have already ranted about my love for Abed. He's to Community what Colin Mochrie is to Whose Line for me. I love everyone else, but Abed will always be my favourite..... of course that has NOTHING to do with the fact that he's a filmmaker, and that he's obsessed with movies and shows all too easily. Am I the only one seeing connections here?

And it's pop culture references - at times they just have me in stitches. Inspector Spacetime may be one of the greatest Doctor Who spoofs I've ever heard of. And the action movie homage (Modern Warfare)? Epic. Amazing. The western homage (A Fistfull of Paintballs)? Even better. And don't even get me started on the second part of that episode, the Star Wars homage (For a Few Paintballs More). The fact that they dedicated the pilot of the series to John Hughes, using Don't You Forget About Me, and actual lines from the Breakfast Club is a brilliant and amazing foreshadow of just what kind of show this was going to turn out to be. Ending the chicken fingers episode with them sitting on the counter, as a reference to Sixteen Candles. Freaking yeah. The Law and Order episode? Made. Of. EPIC. And the documentary episodes? Sure, maybe not as much a pop culture reference as an actual study on the storytelling used in documentaries, but it was still awesome as HECK and very much proves that some flies are too awesome for the wall.

Pillows and Blankets has got to be one of my ultimate favourite episodes though. It was an actual documentary, not a study of one. A documentary about the essence of war when a fight broke out between Troy and Abed about whether or not to use pillows or blankets for their fort. It was, of course, a pillow fight. But it was more than that. It was a pillow WAR.

And that episode was so goshdarn awesome because not only was it HILARIOUS. Not only was it RIDICULOUS. It was actually also looking at Troy and Abed's friendship/relationship, because let's face it - Troy and Abed are wired differently. And eventually, they had to disagree on something. The way Abed studies everyone and uses that against Troy - and the way Troy replies with hurt disguised as scorn, saying things to Abed that people had probably been saying to Abed his entire life - and a few that only Troy personally was in the position to say.

Not to mention talking about how the rest of the study group act in a war zone - Jeff takes advantage of it, Annie tries to help everyone, Shirley kicks some serious booty and Pierce does his best to always be on the winning side. Oh, and Britta tries to capture the horror of war - by apparently taking pictures. To spread awareness? I don't know. Britta's kinda weird.

But enough about that episode. Community is awesome all the way around.

ABED WILL MAKE YOU CRY I SWEAR TO GOD. He is such a tragic character. He's hilarious and awesome, but so MISUNDERSTOOD AND YOU WILL CRY AND ROLL ON THE GROUND FROM THE FEELS AND YELL "NO ABED IT'S OKAY I LOVE YOU!!!!!!!"

Troy and Abed's bromance will make you cry as well. BECAUSE THEY'RE AWESOME AND THEY'RE BROS AND THEN ABED DOESN'T DO THE HANDSHAKE AND WHYYYYYYYYYYYY?!?!?!?!

But the thing about Community is that, unlike a certain other sitcom claiming to be a nerd's show, Community celebrates nerd culture rather than making fun of it. I can't explain it very well, but it was very well explained in this post on Tumblr, so here you are:

And all that was said there is true, and that is why a show about such average and not-particularly geeky people is such a geek's show. It's a big fluffy hug saying "you're not alone". In fact.......

Virtual Systems Analysis - Annie: (to Abed) "You're afraid you don't fit in, you're afraid you'll be alone. Great news. You share that with all of us. So you'll never be alone, and you'll always fit in." 

Now, that's quite a forward way of putting the theme, but that was an absolutely heart-breaking episode. The Abed ones usually are. Abed had been convinced for the majority of the episode that, in order to put other people's needs before his own (Annie had been rather heatedly preaching "empathy") he needed to eradicate himself from other people's lives. So he had become every other member of the study group and told Annie that Abed didn't exist. Meanwhile, the Abed that is actually Abed is shackled in his middle school locker - where he apparently spent the most part of his middle school years. Because "this is where people put people like me when they finally get fed up with us."I nearly burst into tears the first time I saw that scene. 

But enough about that. Every episode of Community is brilliant in its own way and amazing and fantastic. Let's establish that and move on. 

So, for my birthday, I got these things:

First season DVD box set of Community. It literally reads like a yearbook, with notes from all the characters all over it. It's really awesome. 

Greendale Community College T-shirt. Go Human Beings!!!!

Troy and Abed in the Morning mug. 'Nuff freaking said.

Aaaaaaand a whole bunch of figurines from the claymation episode of season 2 (Abed's Uncontrollable Christmas). For thos who care, the figurines were Troy Soldier, Ballerannie, The Christmas Wizard, Snowman Chang, Britta-bot, Jeff-in-the-box, and Teddy Pierce. 

I love being a communist, hah. 

Another Earth: Review

Saw a movie on Netflix last night with my father, as we do every Friday night. Tonight it was Another Earth.

Short review: it sucked.

Here's my telling of it.

Summary: A girl, called Roda or something? She finds out she got a scholarship to a University. She celebrates, goes to a party. Gets drunk. Drives drunk. Hits a family - a mother, father, son. The mother and son die, the father goes into a coma. She goes to jail for four years. When she comes out, it turns out that they've discovered a second earth in our solar system - they're creatively calling it "Earth 2". You can write an essay and win a trip to Earth 2. Roda, who's always had a fascination with outer space, writes in and tries. Meanwhile, she finds out about the guy she hit those four years ago. He lives alone. She tries to ring his bell to apologize, chickens out, and tells him that she's from some sort of cleaning service. The guy buys it and actually gets her to clean his house. They bond, and eventually they have sex, even though that's kind of disgusting. NASA or whatever, they make contact with Earth 2. There are people living on it, and not only that - they're exact replicas of the people living on Earth 1. With the same names, birthdates, memories and occupations. Roda wins the trip to Earth 2. She tells the guy. They celebrate for her, then he stops pretending and begs her not to go. She tells him that she was the one that killed his entire family. He tells her to get out. She comes back, he tries to strangle her, she says stuff, and somehow or other she ends up giving her free trip to Earth 2 to him. Then as she's walking home, she sees a replica of herself - the her from Earth 2 came to Earth 1.

Now, as my father keeps saying, it told a decent story. And sure, I agree. But the telling of the story was really bad, and I'll tell you why.

First of all, we are not made to care about what happens to these characters. All we know about the girl is she's into space, and she got drunk once. All we know about the guy is his family tragedy. There is never any attempt to make us like these characters, or care what happens to them. Maybe if we saw any of the characters show emotion besides sadness, that maybe would have helped. Roda is a Bella (as in from Twilight. That bad). She's a shell. She shows no emotion besides vague sadness, and doesn't bother to interact with anyone. We didn't care. And as for the guy.... he was alright. He was alright because he actually showed a metamorphosis through the movie, as protagonists generally do. He started out very sad and directionless, then when he likes her he starts to be happy with himself again. Then, when he finds out her true identity (since "the one who killed your family" is really the only identity given her) he starts out sad, goes angry, and goes devastated. He doesn't want to hurt her. And then happy again as he goes to Earth 2. The point is, he changes through the story. And that's what a good story wants, quite often.

Second of all, the story moved SO. SLOWLY. Dad fell asleep through half of it and missed nothing significant at all. If you cut out all the stuff that doesn't move the plot at all, you'd have four minutes of movie left (okay I'm exaggerating.... but you see my point).

But here's my biggest issue; the movie focused so much on being weird, artistic and shocking that it really did sacrifice all those elements that a movie NEEDS in order to be good. The cutting in weird places and weirdly angled close-ups were quite artistic, sure, and all the rest of it. But it was focused so much on being memorably weird that it paid no attention whatsoever to more important things - things like characterization, plot development, theme. Movies should begin with a story. Stories should begin with an idea. Ideas should begin with an emotion. That's the chain as it should be. And maybe the story did have an idea, or a feeling in it. But that got completely lost when they decided that this movie should always keep you completely offbalance, and lets always have the camera cutting as if it's some kind of documentary, and let's do this over here and do that over here. It didn't need that, and frankly crumbled whatever hope I had for the movie.

Don't get me wrong, I'm fine with artistic movies. I find them fascinating. But not every movie can pull it off. Not every movie can do the whole artsy-fartsy bit and still be enjoyable. That's the problem.

But, on the other hand, there were some okay bits in this movie. Some parts of this movie were actually legitimately good. For instance, when the guy is playing the saw with a violin bow. It sounds ridiculous, but that's what happened. It was weird, but strangely drawing, and strangely pretty. And to see the Earth 2 hanging in the sky next to the moon, that was quite good. Some shots were quite striking - when Roda finds out she won, and on the dock. I very much liked that. And the story she tells the guy about the Russian astronaut and the ticking sound was something to bring shivers down your spine. But if not for these things, the movie would be nothing.

So, in general, sometimes the movie succeeded in the poetry it was obviously trying to convey - but most of the time, it was just boring and annoying. Wholly unsatisfying. Attempting to be thought provoking and really not succeeding at all.

0.5/5 stars.

Community: General Review

So, lately I've gotten really into a show. That show is called Community.

Maybe you've heard of it. Maybe you haven't. But I suggest you watch a few episodes. You'll probably like it.

Or....

Well, some people start out liking it and then get tired of it. I was the opposite. I started out not really thinking much of it, and then loving it.

Basic concept:

Seven very different people meet up at a crappy community college. They're all taking spanish, so they form a study group. And that study group becomes a kind of family.

The writing in this show is good, but what I really really love about it is that the characters all have their very own, very distinct identity:

Jeff: He was a bigshot lawyer before he got kicked out of his law firm for not having the proper papers for being a legitimate lawyer. He knew he didn't have the proper papers - Jeff is very used to scamming his way through life. So, in order to get back easy, he went to a crappy community college to get the easiest way back into being a real lawyer. Jeff is a master at manipulating people, and he will if he feels it will help him gain something. He seems to think - or at least tells people that he thinks - that he is the most deserving person on earth. He very rarely likes to admit he cares about something - he prefers to be extremely non-chalant and cool toward people. He's the one who starts the study group in the first place, but not for the proper reason - he did it so that he could get in Britta's bed.
What I like about this character is that he starts out, as you can probably tell, as a huge D-bag. But he does have a kind of evolution through the series, as does every character. He uses his "powers" to bring the group together. He starts thinking about other people - sometimes over himself. He starts to show that he does care about some things. But you need to be following the series to see this - if you start an episode without knowing what's going on, then he's just going to look like a D-bag.

Britta: She's what you would call a modern hippie. A rebel without a cause - or as the show once described her, the "needlessly defiant". She talks about being all for female empowerment, charity, organicness and naturality, to the point of being annoying to the others. She's attractive - she knows it, and uses it. She can be very immature - she has what one could call a brother/sisterly rivalry with Jeff, and they're often bickering and making fun of each other - but she can also be very mature. She and Jeff act as the mother and father figures of the study group, respectively. What Britta most cares about is putting others before herself, and helping others - even if some other people accidentally get hurt in the process. But she's also very defiant by nature, and if someone offends her, then she will do what she can to shove it back in their face.

Annie: A nineteen year old girl, very driven, very smart, very determined. She probably could have gone to a better college, but in high school she got addicted to pills and had a nervous breakdown. She had to go to rehab. Her mother didn't support her in rehab, and as a result they've turned their backs on each other and Annie now lives in an apartment by herself in a dangerous neighbourhood. You wouldn't be able to tell she ever had that problem now. She's quite by-the-book, though she does have the ability to adapt and be resourceful. She had a crush on Troy, and now appears to have a crushy thing on Jeff. She, like me, analyzes everything, though as a result she reads too far into things and ends up expecting more than people actually offered. She's an adult by her actions, but childlike by her morals - her distinction between right and wrong is very bold, and if someone lies or is disrespectful then she will be the one to "tell on them". Her friends are a top priority for her. She wants the best for the people around her, but her judgement of what's best may not be the same as others.

Troy: He and Annie went to high school together. He was the jock in high school, and was very popular then. Now he goes to Greendale...... for some reason. Troy is a believer in passion, and a believer in fun over work. His brotha-from-anotha-motha is Abed.... who I will get to. Troy is not smart.... in the traditional sense. He's not smart intellectually/academically, or particularly street smart..... but he knows instinct, and he knows motivation. And every once in a while he dazzles them with a good idea. Troy is a little bit like Jeff in some ways..... being the popular jock in high school left him under the impression that he was a little more entitled than the rest. But he also has a very dutiful sense of right and wrong, and he always corrects himself if he offends someone, and will tell someone if he thinks they're doing something wrong. He's a little childish - in fact, he's quite childish, but he knows when to be mature.

Shirley: She's a born again christian woman, single mother - her husband cheated on her, so she kicked him out, and then when he came back she forgave him because of her christian values. She fancies herself the perfect christian - she forgives everyone (or says she does) and works hard to always be considerate and nice to people. She responds to good news with an "oh, that's nice," in a very super sweet way and responds to bad news with questions about why that would happen. Shirley.... has thinly veiled anger issues hidden shallowly beneath the surface. If someone offends her, or someone she cares about, then forgiveness and turning the other cheek sort of goes out the window - she knows how to kick ass. She believes in perfection - she strives for it, and can't understand why other people wouldn't. I mean..... she accepts people for their imperfections, but she strives to make sure that nothing that would make people unhappy happens, and can't understand when other people let that happen. She's had some darkness.... she used to be an alcoholic. Which is probably one of the reasons she tries so hard to keep that kind of darkness out.

Pierce: Pretty much Community's equivalent of a crazy old man. Ah, wait, scratch that - that would be Leonard. Pierce is older than the others (like in his sixties) and has very... outdated points of view. That is, he's pretty much racist and homophobic. He thinks he can rule other people's worlds with his money and riches. He likes to manipulate people that way - he's not dependent on people, but he's dependent on people being dependent on him. He demands respect in spite of the fact that it's very hard to. At least in the second season, he was pretty selfish and self-centered, but he was mostly playing the antagonist in the second season, so........ What he wants is to be accepted somewhere, to be liked. He makes it hard for himself though, because if he has any negative feelings toward anyone he tends to blow it out of proportion and just make things worse. He's been married seven times, divorced every single one. When he meets someone he likes, he tests their boundaries. Pushes them. That's why most of them don't last very long. But he gives respect where he can see that respect is due.

Abed: Last but not least. Certainly not least. He's my ultimate favourite out of this show. He's just made of awesome.
Abed is undiagnosable. Jeff's said Aspergers, but that's not the point. The point is Abed is..... weird. He doesn't know how to act around people, he doesn't understand people. He doesn't understand emotion, and he seldom ever really shows any emotion through any facial expression - the only emotion he shows is through cliches from TV that he happens to find relatable at that point in time. He likes TV more than he likes life - he understands TV more. To him, TV has more structure than life, and so because of this he's developed a kind of obsession with television. He's always making references to TV, slipping into blatantly obvious stereotypes or characters from TV and movies, because to him it just makes more sense to apply it that way. Abed does not understand people at all, and he does not know how anything he does will affect anyone, so Abed learns by observation. He observes how people talk to each other, and he usually makes the connections of their psychologies/personalities........ but he doesn't have the natural instinct for it that "normal" people do. He needs to work hard to act accordingly around people. Abed is used to not being understood, and though his facial expression never shows SIGNIFICANT change, one can tell when he's been hurt or doesn't understand something. The most enthusiasm Abed usually shows is a slight twitch at the corner of the mouth and a "Cool. Cool cool cool." People often think that Abed is incompetent because of this.... "disability", and then discover they're sadly mistaken when Abed swiftly and unexpectedly proves his point and make everyone rethink everything. Abed knows the difference between right and wrong, and though you wouldn't know it sometimes, he knows the difference between TV and real life. But Abed has difficulty expressing his emotions. Observations and thoughts, no problem. But emotions are hard for him. That's why he makes movies. People understand movies. They make sense to everyone. So Abed is working to become a filmmaker. He's also Troy's brotha-from-anotha-motha - they have lots of fun doing ridiculous things together.

Those are my summaries of the characters. I know I was supposed to be reviewing the show, but this is pretty much the Community rant I've been wanting to have. But, all in all, the show is wacky, fun, light-hearted, ridiculous at times, great if you like spoofs (courtesy of Abed) and hilarious. It's also great for analyzers like myself, because those wonderful writers are constantly adding dimensions to the characters.

There's always conflict, but it's usually light-hearted nonetheless. It's always wacky, but never nonsensical. It's ingeniusly balanced.

If you like to think, it's a fun show. If you just watch a show for the sake of watching it, then it's fine then too - it will provide you with the laughter you seek. All in all, it's a great show to watch, and you should all watch at least a few episodes.

5/5 stars.

P.S Did I mention that Abed is the best? Because Abed is like the best character. He's awesome.

We Never Talk Anymore

So, lately I've been feeling really down on myself about... well, just about everything (except my looks... I'm not narcississtic, I just don't even think about it. My looks are something I've long since accepted). Obsessiveness is not something I'm proud of anymore. I'm ashamed to share my trivia knowledge about Whose Line. I'm ashamed to even bring it up anymore. I keep to myself because somehow I've gotten the thought that people don't care when I speak. At acting class, I do my best to not do anything, because when the attention's on me I always feel like I fail - I was never good at improv, and since the people at acting neither know me nor try to, I get the feeling they think I'm incompetent. I never speak up in class, because I'm always going to be wrong somehow. And I don't watch Whose Line to feel better because I'm ashamed and afraid of obsessiveness now.

The point is that my self esteem, just lately, has been absolutely rock bottom. The thing is, I've found, is that this starts with me thinking a lot about stuff, and then out of consideration for other people who will probably not be interested, I don't express those thoughts. And then I think more. And it goes into this whole thing of thinking too much and doing too little, and I end up feeling useless and alone and just all around bad about myself.

Now I've said time and time again that me and my mind can be friends for hours and hours before we finally get sick of each other. Hell, that's what the weekend is for - I very seldom ever hang out with friends on the weekend. But if me and my mind spend too much time together without taking a break, it just wreaks havoc on both of us.

And I've traced this affect back to its source - the feeling that I don't talk about things that are on my mind.

Now VERY VERY often the things I want to share are trivial, useless things that I've analyzed and that I find fascinating because if you analyze anything it'll end up being fascinating. I've learned from experience that people aren't interested in things like this, and that they may in fact get annoyed if I talk about it because it appears uninteresting, so I usually keep these things to myself.

But what I really desperately need is someone that I can just tell all my thoughts to. Well, maybe not all of them, but someone that will forgive me for boring them with tidbits that I for some unknown reason find unbelievably fascinating. But even more than that, more than someone who will listen, is someone who cares. And even more than THAT, is someone who will go the step further and DISCUSS it with me. I wouldn't say things if I didn't want to discuss it. I want to hear other people's thoughts. I want to take it into consideration. I want to DEBATE with someone about things. Debates are what I LIVE for. Not heated arguments, mind you. Spirited debates. We can get significantly excited about expressing our opinion, and listening to others and then working to prove your own point, and then be friends about it. I LOVE that.

The problem is that I don't analyze things enough to spark a debate - at least, not things that people would know or care about. Whose Line? Plenty of analysis involved, believe it or not. I would love nothing more than to debate with someone about Colin's style of improvising - I myself think he plays the straight man most of the time, but I know some people would disagree with me. THAT IS WHAT I WANT. I WANT someone to know enough about it to disagree with me.

But I also know that no one in my immediate vicinity will. So I keep it to myself. I crave debates, but I have nothing about which to debate. And thus it begins.

I really wish I had a whoser friend - I have a few friends who enjoy Whose Line, and know enough about it, but real genuine whosers like myself, who follow the cast members and know the scenes by their fan-given titles and actually spend time THINKING about it? That's a different story.

I just really wish there was someone who I could discuss things with. Some people can be fine without expressing every thought they have. I am not one of those people. And it's a problem.

I'm grateful for the friends I have, don't get me wrong. They always know how to cheer me up, and how to start a conversation I will listen to and get involved in. I just wish there was someone who I could discuss all my thoughts with. Every single obsessive one.

But there's not. *sigh*

P.S

I made a Wordle out of this post. In a strange way, it really speaks to me about how I'm feeling.