9/23/10

Television Event of the Week




It was a big night on the television...

Community arrived as if nothing had happened, to start its second season. The show was perfectly nonchalant about this, which I approve of. This was probably the only reason I even turned the TV on tonight, because I wasn't about to miss it. Last year, I had pretty much given up on television as a drug, but I experimented with an episode of Community and sure enough I was in the ditch the next day.

Anyways, for those who missed the show but enjoy synopses (and who doesn't like either of those): nothing really happens. There were the prerequisite zeitgeist moments including a recurring gag aimed at Shit My Dad Says, which is later dismissed as "bad development planning' by Abed, in a moment of delicious metavision. Oh and Betty White was on, but as much as I am happy for her, the whole thing is getting out of hand, and I don't know if any show that is supposed to be self-aware can actually invite her to guest star. On the other hand, it makes perfect sense, and will attract hordes who aren't feeling blue about her sitcom, or her new upcoming movie, or the Snickers commercial (which is funny, after all). In my mind, overexposure is iffy, but then again the elderly have been given short shrift for so long that it makes sense that everyone will vote for Betty White on Facebook. It makes sense to me, and that's not saying much, so: have fun out there Betty, for the rest of us and especially for the rest of your under-appreciated cohort. 

Anyways, the Betty White overdose seems to have made me a little overbearing – if not outright annoying. Time to digress: the best part of Community S2x01 was when Chang got the pay-as-you-go thing on his phone, let it report his balance, and told Jeff he was "Chang-ed"... outrageous, pathetic, inexplicably funny: this is how I remember the show working best. New professor Betty White's anthropology course is as madcap as you'd expect. After the paintball episode, of course, the fanbase was split among the lines of 'plot 'n writing' versus 'outrageous exploit' and... well I won't go there. No point in it.

This post is too long, and it might upset you, but even if it does, you (yes, you) must return to read it again. I can't wait to see where Community goes this season. This first episode is kind of exactly what it had to be, all things considered, and more or less a smirking send-up of the pilot.

And later that night Ferguson had Betty White on his show, while Jimmy Fallon countered with Pavement, Amy Poehler, and Rashida Jones. Why do I list it so? Why indeed...


No comments:

Post a Comment