aliceylain | (no subject)

My apartment has power back! *tiredly mambos* And the grocery stores are stocking up again, so I was able to find food pretty easily. And while it's the Fourth of July, it's so damn hot out that I'm pretty much hiding inside. Possibly for the rest of the week, since I have tomorrow and Friday off as vacation days.

But in more important news, I have finished watching all the available episodes of Community. And my wary liking of the show has morphed into full-on aggressive liking with a side of wary. HERE, LET ME TELL YOU ALL ABOUT HOW I FEEL ABOUT THIS SHOW.

COMMUNITY

Take a guess at who my favorite character is. Go on. Guess.

THINGS I LIKE ABOUT COMMUNITY

ABED. ABEDABEDABED. I knew a couple of episodes in that he would become my favorite character and he did not disappoint. For me, the reason why I like him so much isn't necessarily the pop-culture references, although they are fun. It's more that he's engrossed in the idea of the story. So engrossed, that he's not afraid to implement the idea of the story directly into his life. I adore that he plays pretend with Troy because while I don't do that overtly, I play pretend in my head all the time. Something else that I like is even though he's one of the nerd tropes, he's a very confident nerd. He does what he wants and isn't ashamed of it, which isn't something that happens a lot with nerd characters.

ABED AND TROY AND ANNIE. This works so well and I think it's because Annie has really loosened up during the series.

Actually, I really like Annie herself. I was a little cautious because the Good Girl trope sometimes rubs me the wrong way. Also, she kinda became someone who existed for Jeff to flirt with in the second season. But the third season was awesome for her.

Dean. I don't know why I like the Dean so much...wait, yes I know, it's the fabulous costumes. Also, I do believe he cares a lot about the school, it's just that sometimes he gets caught up in keeping his job, that he makes some really shitty choices.

PAINT BALL EPISODES. I love the post-apocalyptic feel to them (since I'm a sucker for post-apocalyptic stories) and I love how the characters play the situation so seriously.

~Troy and Abed in the MOOOOOOORNing!~. The little trailers at the end of the episodes are amazing and I look forward to each and every one.

Any show that has musical numbers is A++++++++ in my books.

THINGS I DON'T LIKE ABOUT COMMUNITY

Pierce. While I understand that the main characters on the show are playing common tropes, I really hate the racist, misogynistic trope a lot. It's a trope that's too true in today's society and I just don't find it funny at all. On the flip side, I also don't like how he's made fun of for his age. We already push the older generation off to the side, we don't need yet another show that parrots this behavior. There is very, very little that I like about Pierce and I would be overjoyed if his character went away.

Britta's character treatment. It's funny, because when I started watching community, I started with a couple of episodes from the third season. My initial view of Britta at that time was that she was portraying the dumb blonde trope. Imagine my surprise when I watched the beginning episodes from the first season and saw a smart, coherent character. What the hell happened to Britta? While other characters have started to grow out of their trope, Britta has gotten more tropey as the dumb liberal who doesn't know anything about the causes she talks about. It really bugs me, since I did enjoy Britta in early season one.

While this show is awesome for having four main characters of color, I don't like how they aren't given a chance to really respond to any of the race jokes. Those jokes seem to be glossed over more often than not. I'm not saying that Community has to do a serious show about race (ALTHOUGH I WOULDN'T SAY NO IF THEY WANTED TO) but give the characters a chance to react.

I AM FOREVER BITTER THAT THE PUPPY PARADE WAS SO SHORT IN THAT ONE EPISODE ABOUT THE PENS. And yes, this is a legitimate critique. :(

And now, I get to wait for the fourth season. WHY ONLY THIRTEEN EPISODES, NBC? WHY?!

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WHY CAN'T PIERCE JUST LEAVEEEEEEEEEEE

Chevy Chase was set to leave the show at the end of season two and just... didn't. Seriously wouldn't have missed him at all.

I do like Britta as a character, mostly because she's poking fun at the likes of people on tumblr who do SOCIAL JUSTICE!!! posts. Early season one she was kind of bland and only existed to act as a romantic interest for Jeff, while in the later seasons they start using Gillian Jacobs' talent for physical comedy and showed that she had interests outside of the group. Probably my favourite part about Britta is that she's shown over and over again as fallible, but we don't think less of her for it.

PS TROY IS MY FAVOURITE

ARE YOU SERIOUS?! Argh, life would be so much happier without him there. Although, I guess then someone else would get to be the villain. THEY COULD ALL SHARE THE ROLE?

I do get that, but I guess I just don't find that trope very funny. Fortunately, there are other tropes to laugh at on the show!

TROY IS AWESOMESAUCE and his friendship with Abed is even more awesomesauce. I loved when he told the Air Conditioning Repair School that they were nuts with all their rituals. "He killed a man, call the police." I was sad that John Goodman had to die, though.

...and now I think that maybe I'm being too hard on Britta's character. OH NO, I WILL HAVE TO REWATCH ALL THE SEASONS TO DETERMINE IF THAT'S TRUE. MY LIFE IS SO HARD.

THAT WAS ME. It took a couple rewatches before I was like, "Britta's the worst, but we love her. And so does the show."