Monsters of Television

Here at Monsters of Television we value one trait above all else: snark. Sure, we have to be able to write intelligently and put TV shows in academic and societal contexts, but why do it if you’re not going to be witty about it? So in tribute to both television and snark, I have compiled a list of 10 of the snarkiest, wittiest characters on television. I’m including pictures and videos for all of you out there who don’t read so good. See? Snark. Here we go. Read more »

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“Do you try to evolve, or do you try to know what you are?”

Community is a show that became better as it went along. It was rough going until “Intro to Statistics” (better known as the Halloween episode) and the show hit its stride, figuring out that its voice is ultimately highly referential comedy that also picks apart the sitcom genre. It’s an exciting place to position yourself because so few sitcoms really want to acknowledge their genre, and the ones that do are the animated ones that can do really wacky things (The Simpsons, Family Guy).

But underlining all of that is that the show often still wears its heart on its sleeve, so no matter how meta and snarky it might get, there was always a take away at the end of the episode, something that grounded the episode beyond the hijinks (I’ve written about this ad nauseum). And show how has managed to balance those elements and bring them together into a coherent whole: much like Pascal’s triangle, the snark and the heart add up to equal Community (this is as strong as my math metaphors get).

However, “Pascal’s Triangle Revisited” can’t quite find that balance, and suffers a bit as a result. Read more »

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“Who cares about a stupid exam? We’re a study group.”

They could’ve stayed in Spanish forever. It could’ve been that simple. And it would’ve been kind of easy for them, and Community isn’t really about easy and simple. It likes to tweak the sitcom enough to do different things, including acknowledge the passing of time in a fairly realistic way given its setting. And after the awesomeness of last week’s “Modern Warfare,” “English as a Second Language” was kind of a nice refresher course on the series overall structure.

Of course, a show sets a precedent like this and I start holding it accountable: it had better end in 4 years. I don’t want to see Community: The New Class with Jeff as the instructor for Introduction to Judicial Systems helping a bunch of new kids figure out their way in life.

…I just doomed us all, didn’t I? (I expect a creator credit and an associate producer credit if that happens, Dan Harmon.) Read more »

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“Everyone’s playing.”

I wanted Community to start finding something new to say or new ways to say it. However, the last few episodes, including tonight’s “Modern Warfare,” have pushed the show in a direction it danced with, but never fully committed to until recently: pop culture homages. Yes, the show has done extended references and tips of the hat prior to the last few episodes, but those episodes will still ultimately defined by the “We’re a family” message that the show was starting to wear to the bone.

I wouldn’t say that the message has gone away — it really hasn’t — but that it’s no longer the driving force behind episodes any longer. Instead the show plays pop culture roulette, a dangerous little game that can backfire if not done properly. Thankfully, Community is streets ahead of any other sitcom on television, and “Modern Warfare” proves that. Read more »

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“I once met Sting at a Cracker Barrel.”

I often worry about running out things to say about Community. I can only say so many nice things every week about this show, and at some point I think I’m going to get repetitive. I almost want a bad episode to happen so I can lament it, say “Oh, I knew it when…” for a nice change of pace. I doubt this will happen.

“The Art of Discourse” is a very fine episode, with plenty of nice laughs but also some good structural elements in play, even if the the one element I wanted to pay off, the conflict between Jeff and Britta with the jerk-ass high schoolers, didn’t really reach the conclusion I wanted.

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“If God were edible, not that I’m Catholic, but if it were cool to eat God, He’d be a chicken finger.”

I really don’t like Goodfellas. Yes, that’s right. I don’t like Goodfellas. I know this amounts to sacrilege for a large number of people, so I apologize in advance for not swooning over Community’s extended homage to what many consider the greatest gangster movie ever made (for the record, I don’t really like the gangster genre overall).

However, unlike How I Met Your Mother’s painfully exclusionary baseball episode, Community provides an episode that can work without knowledge of the film that they’re relying on to frame the episode. The reason for this is that Community has established a universe where something like this feels organic and fun. And that’s precisely what this episode is: fun. (I doubt that the chicken fingers were organic.) Read more »

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“It’s lame that he cares.”

The fact that “Beginner Pottery” aired out of order is probably a good thing. Last week I expressed concerns that the show was relying too heavily on the “friends as family” theme, and I saw the same concern expressed elsewhere (which is always reassuring). I asked for a variation on the theme or just a new theme all together. This week’s episode does neither. It doesn’t abandon the theme all together, but it doesn’t rely on it for the episode’s moral. Instead “Beginner Pottery” feels like a very smart gag delivery system that doesn’t let up for 22 minutes while still imparting a lesson about success in relation to the individual and the group. Read more »

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“This isn’t going to stop until Pictionary bans the word ‘windmill.’”

The big laughs this week build, as do the show’s sweet and tender character moments. Community isn’t structuring itself like Seinfeld, where the plots converge into one final freeze-frame joke, and nor should they (unless they intend to do a Seinfeld-parody episode, something I’d be all for them attempting), but the show nicely lays the groundwork for jokes across an episode, even if the episode overall isn’t spectacular.

First and foremost, an East Asian rabbi is, by definition, funny. Funnier than an East Asian teaching Spanish (“This is who I am!”). That the joke of the two Changs in occupations you wouldn’t necessarily find them in isn’t overplayed, and instead allows Pierce’s latent Nazism to express itself by drawing a Swastika in place of a windmill during the Pictionary tournament. There’s enough of a gap between seeing Rabbi Chang and the tournament that you forget that Rabbi Chang is around, creating another punchline. That it results in an off-screen fight that is bad enough to summon the police is simply icing on the cake.

Second is Britta and Troy. A good comedic combo already, Britta’s white liberal guilt leads her to get a switch after she feels she’s disrespected Troy’s grandmother. It’s an amusing idea, though that Britta has no idea what a switch is, and that she doubts Troy’s grandmother will use it seems a bit weird, but I was willing to roll with it after the pay off of Britta being spanked, Troy watching while cry talking, only to have Jeff and Amber (Pierce’s swindling ex-stepdaughter) stumble in while making out added another sexual element to a scene that was already uncomfortably sexual anyway.

Story-wise, the show continues to drive home the of the study group as family, as Pierce and Jeff finally acknowledge that they are the same person, but at different stages in their lives. That Jeff still indulges in jackassery by sleeping with Amber (albeit only once; he wanted to do it twice) but feels bad about isn’t a step backwards, but a consistent character trait. Pierce’s confession that he probably would’ve done the same absolves Jeff of the guilt, and provides acceptance. It’s a nice moment, but one I feel that the show has firmly established at this point. I’m ready for it to move onto another thematic concern, or provide more variation on it (somehow).

Finally, if Jeff Winger doesn’t see the appeal of Glee, I don’t know why anyone else should.

FINAL THOUGHTS

• The Human Being with a tinier, female version of itself: creepy. (And until you know that it’s Family Day, it’s REALLY creepy.)
• The episode did suffer a bit from a lack of Annie. I guess her family doesn’t care about her after that time in rehab.
• Cry talking is the show’s tradmark gag, and Don Glover is a master at it (McHale isn’t bad either).
• Line of the episode: “Disappointing you is like choking the Little Mermaid with a bike chain.”

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“Instead of Alzheimer’s, Abed has … someone who likes him.”

With all due apologies to 30 Rock, but I’m afraid that Dan Harmon and his crackerjack cast may be usurping your place as my favorite comedy on NBC. (Don’t worry, Tina! You’re still funnier than Mercy! In different ways though.)

Community, as I’ve said, has been growing leaps and bounds since “Introduction to Statistics” (and if that episode didn’t do it for you, then try “Debate 109″ or “Comparative Religion”), culminating in the past three episodes as the show as found itself in terms of format (i.e., the study table moment at the halfway point), characters, and tone. The show’s done this to enough of an extent that I found myself had pressed to take many notes because I laughing so much (a hard feat to do when you’re watching the episode on Hulu by yourself in a library group study room).

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“I’m a tenured professor sitting in a bean bag chair!”

Community continues to impress me with its maturation and its wise use of its ensemble. “Interpretive Dance” proved that the show was perfectly able to start stretching its ensemble outside of typical pairings or stories, and this episode is no different. Instead of a Jeff/Britta pairing being about their ever-complicating relationship, it deals with them emphasizing how they’ve assumed a parental role (Pierce is probably the “funny uncle” who isn’t really an uncle) of the rest of the study group, specifically now that Annie has started dating Vaughn. And that Alison Brie manages to make this seem like a perfectly natural evolution of her character just shows how smart this cast is.

As the parents, Jeff and Britta decide that Annie isn’t ready to date Vaughn, with Jeff identifying him as “gateway douche” (terrific phrase that I’m going to start using) to larger, sleezier douches. It’s a testament to the show’s devotion to its characters that Jeff hasn’t reverted to his loathing of the group yet, but instead with each week, he becomes closer and closer to them (and them to him). Even Britta and Jeff’s “manipulation” of Troy to get him to try and hook up with Annie (bringing back Annie’s high school crush on Troy) reeks of parental planning and meddling.

The ending to the episode’s main plot is a little too overly sweet, but the show balances that sweetness with perhaps the best study table scene the show’s provided as they come to a realization that the group is very much like a family, but a family wherein every one is a potential sexual partner. It leads some incredibly smart facial comedy as everyone looks around, sizing up the table’s potential. Pierce’s looks get rejected; Troy seems to calculate each woman’s hotness; Annie and Jeff share a look that implies attraction that will never be acted upon; and Abed’s come hither looks to random members are simply priceless. The sequence plays off the show’s limited history in organic ways but also in ways that wouldn’t totally alienate viewers coming in for the first time.

The B-plot is another no one wants to be around Pierce story. While this is getting a bit tired, it’s still funny enough that it still works well enough. Abed and Troy throw MST3K parties of bad movies (Kickpuncher – “A cyborg cop whose punches have the power of kicks.”), and invite Shirley along (and Senor Chang!). Pierce feels out of place since he can’t keep up with the zingers (it can be tricky) so he goes to the Greendale improv troupe. Two things about this: 1) Pierce’s interactions with the improv troupe were great and 2) I want more of the improv group. When he rattles off his pre-made sets of jokes, it’s a great bit of delivery on Chase’s part. Plus, you know, then there’s a pratfall, and the Chase pratfall is textbook.

What the B-plot does, and what I like to see B-plots always do, is compliment the main plot’s theme (or, in the case of recent episodes, what the show is ultimately about) is that these people ultimately like hanging out together and care about each other (even if they don’t always let Pierce know in so many words). The show is ironic but sweet, and in all the right ways.

FINAL THOUGHTS

• Someone screwed up the announced list of episodes. I was expecting “Beginner Pottery.” This was nice, though.
• I think I must’ve been the only one who thought the show looked different. The cinematography and lighting seemed different for the show, especially in the cafeteria.
• That Vaughn thinks the study group is “evil” is probably my favorite non-cast regular moment of the night. Sometimes I wish for a Rosencrantz & Guildernstern Are Dead-esque episode on shows, but on Community, I like these limited bits of business that contribute to world building in ways that aren’t as obvious as the R&G approach.

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