Yeah, that makes sense to me and I think it's a fair criticism for sure. It is weird they wouldn't just cut that part, it had literally nothing to do with the plot and Chang leaves pretty darn quickly afterward. Hmm I'm struggling to remember a ton of racial humor in P&R other than the Fred Armison/Venezuela episode, and maybe Tom being upset with the police showing up when they were staking out the vegetable garden. Do you have other examples I'm just blanking on? It's been a bit since I've watched it
Tbh I just lump it in with the office I haven't watched it in awhile since the whole Aziz/Louis ck element so maybe I am wrong lol
I am deeply cynical of any move that corporations take to “address” racism, and sweeping these episodes/scenes under the rug reinforces that. It’s an easy way out, it challenges nothing and no one. People are literally in the streets demanding reparations and radical changes to American law enforcement and physically getting their ass kicked by the police state rn, this feels silly. Not that we can’t do two things at once, but does this feel like material progress towards anything? like, I’d rather make the cast/writers talk about these things and have a conversation than just pretend they never existed. I think you’d honestly get pretty thoughtful and nuanced reflections.
It’s truly something nobody actually asked for. Even if you think it is right, that is not the motivation for the orgs doing this. They are simply hoping to cover their asses now to avoid getting shit for it later. Also, deleting a whole ep or cutting off a part of it is weird as hell. It comes off like some Stalin photoshop shit lol. If you think something someone did is offensive, why would you want it erased completely? It’s just a way of pretending that something never happened. Just add the disclaimer.
I just finished watching season 4 for the first time since it aired. I was absolutely dreading going into it, but it's actually...not that bad? I'd even call most episodes good, and at worst there's like 3 or 4 that are just kind of boring but ultimately unoffensive. The only thing I still actively don't like is the Troy/Britta relationship because it's introduced out of nowhere, goes nowhere, and then is just sort of abruptly ended towards the end of the season.
Those two, the Christmas one, the body swapping one, the origin story one and the one with Jeff's dad (even though Harmon 100% should have gotten to tell that story) are the S4 ones I like
oh yeah I always forget Freaky Friday is s4 cos I like it so much lol. great episode, one of Jim Rash's best origins is baaaad though sorry to say
I'm glad someone else agreed that the Jeff's dad episode isn't too bad at all. A lil melodramatic but Britta beating Jeff to his own dad's house is a perfect characterization
Yeah Paranormal Parentage, the inspector spacetime convention (particularly the Jeff & Annie stuff), the Thanksgiving episode, Sophie B Hawkins dance, the one where Troy & Shirley are in the physical education education class. These are very good episodes of the show imo. The only two episodes that do virtually nothing for me are the puppet episode and the one where they invite Cornwallis to their Christmas party. I wouldn't call them bad but just boring.
it speaks to the quality of this show that even in the worst season we can disagree on the episode rankings lol I think the puppet and Inspector Spacetime episodes are legit unwatchably bad but I'm glad others like em
Finished up the series watch. Season 6 has a decent back half but it’s pretty rough IMO. Especially watching everything over a quick and steady amount of time.
I think the episode in Pierce's haunted mansion and the one where they tie up the teacher were the only good ones. The Inspector Space Time convention, Freaky Friday, and Sophie B Hawkins are honorable mentions Absolutely hate the puppet episode, I can't think of any redeeming qualities of that one
Agreed! Ran through the whole series in a row and season 6 feels less like Community than season 4, tbh. The last few episodes are quite solid though.
Interesting that episodes of 4 that some people hate, others like and vice versa. Seeing a lot of that going back and forth.
Just finished season 4 again too. You can really tell that, whilst it’s obviously missing Harmons magic touch, they were written by people who clearly know that characters very well. You can tell the little bits here and there that Harmon probably would have cut too. But yeah, the puppet one not great. And the Troy/Britta relationship never felt like an actual relationship. “Oh look, they’re in bed together. Cool?”. The relationship actually looked like it could work when Harmon was hinting at it (the Blade episode, hugging at the end of the commercial documentary episode), but the season 4 guys just used it as an occasional joke. Ah well.
Yeah, the Troy/Britta relationship definitely did not come out of nowhere and season 3 did a ton to build up to it, but they botched it so badly and just kinda gave up lol
there are a lot of little things that just make s4 more sitcom-y in a very corny way that feels very out of place compared to Harmon's other work. Like when Britta sneaks out of Troy's room and does the elaborate climb around the building, then Abed is like "I knew the whole time." Idk how to verbalize it but those small things add up a lot throughout the season. Harmon tends to either stay grounded of go full throttle on the absurdity
They also start to recycle the same joke formulas throughout S4. The "He's like the _____ of people" template is used like half a dozen times and gets real old after awhile.
Season 4 goes way overboard on callbacks. Also Changnesia is probably the worst thing the show ever did.
I think the worst episode of S4 (and the whole show most likely) is the one where the Germans come back without Nick Kroll