Community: What's Up, Seven-Up?
May 18, 2020 10:32 PM Subscribe
The cast of Community reunites to do a Zoom table read-through of "Cooperative Polygraphy" (S5E04) and also chats afterward, with Pedro Pascal filling in for various parts, as a fundraiser for World Central Kitchen & Frontline Foods.
This post was deleted for the following reason: Poster's Request -- loup
I watched this (and donated) today! It was an absolute delight to see these actors again (wonderful all), see them inhabit these characters again, and to watch Pedro Pascal corpse as he read the script the first time on camera. Thanks to quarantine I’ve been catching up on shows I previously “didn’t have time for,” but it’s clearly time for another Community rewatch.
posted by ejs at 12:28 AM on May 19, 2020
posted by ejs at 12:28 AM on May 19, 2020
Yay! We watched this too. Community is so good, everybody.
posted by Don.Kinsayder at 4:43 AM on May 19, 2020 [2 favorites]
posted by Don.Kinsayder at 4:43 AM on May 19, 2020 [2 favorites]
I haven't gotten to watch this yet, but I'm excited to do so since Community is one of my favorite shows of all time. I'm still holding out hope for that which will complete the sentence "six seasons and a ___."
And for anyone who isn't aware, there's an ongoing rewatch of Community over on Fanfare. Make like an accounting professor and seize the day!
posted by heteronym at 6:41 AM on May 19, 2020 [1 favorite]
And for anyone who isn't aware, there's an ongoing rewatch of Community over on Fanfare. Make like an accounting professor and seize the day!
posted by heteronym at 6:41 AM on May 19, 2020 [1 favorite]
Finally watched Community last year after hearing about it a lot about it and hearing people compare it to The Good Place a lot. I wish I'd gotten on board sooner! The world needs more shows with this kind of warmth and weirdness. It does remind me in ways of my own community college experience and those were some great times, even though I didn't realize how great at the time.
posted by jzb at 9:23 AM on May 19, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by jzb at 9:23 AM on May 19, 2020 [1 favorite]
Honestly I'm shocked they managed to get Donald Glover back doing comedy.
posted by Merus at 9:47 AM on May 19, 2020 [4 favorites]
posted by Merus at 9:47 AM on May 19, 2020 [4 favorites]
We finished our millionth rewatch just in time for the live read. After the live read I was tempted to start another rewatch.
Community as a show hits all the right notes for me. But I also discovered it first when I was wrapping up grad school and making an exciting move across country, so I get an additional layer of warm fuzzies whenever I'm watching.
posted by ghost phoneme at 10:08 AM on May 19, 2020 [1 favorite]
Community as a show hits all the right notes for me. But I also discovered it first when I was wrapping up grad school and making an exciting move across country, so I get an additional layer of warm fuzzies whenever I'm watching.
posted by ghost phoneme at 10:08 AM on May 19, 2020 [1 favorite]
I have so much to say about Community that I have hard time only commenting about it, in any forum--I'd rather be writing essays about the myriad ways that it's amazing. Along with a couple of other shows in this time frame (~past 15 years), Community is the apotheosis of the sitcom: it perfects the form as practiced mid-way through season one (specifically, I'd place it at S1E10 "Environmental Science") and then proceeds to deconstruct and reinvent it regularly through the rest of its run. It is a remarkable piece of creative work, and will prove to be extremely influential. (Mark My WordsTM)
After watching the table read, the Q&A, and then last week's episode of Joel & Ken's podcast, I clearly need to start another rewatch of the series.
posted by LooseFilter at 10:46 AM on May 19, 2020 [2 favorites]
After watching the table read, the Q&A, and then last week's episode of Joel & Ken's podcast, I clearly need to start another rewatch of the series.
posted by LooseFilter at 10:46 AM on May 19, 2020 [2 favorites]
I've watched this 5 times now and Pedro Pascal's breaks are never not outrageously funny. I don't know if I've laughed that hard since the Before Times.
I watched the entire show in real-time when it aired on NBC & *shudder* Yahoo!, and it was so delightful to rewatch during these very weird times. I just finished up the series finale last night.
posted by chara at 5:30 PM on May 19, 2020 [1 favorite]
I watched the entire show in real-time when it aired on NBC & *shudder* Yahoo!, and it was so delightful to rewatch during these very weird times. I just finished up the series finale last night.
posted by chara at 5:30 PM on May 19, 2020 [1 favorite]
Last week we were randomly watching some old Community reruns when Fred Willard made a random cameo at the start of Season 4. Many fans dislike Season 4 because reasons, but it's kinda my fave season...
posted by ovvl at 7:01 PM on May 19, 2020
posted by ovvl at 7:01 PM on May 19, 2020
I watched the special last night, and it was so damn delightful.
I wouldn't be mad at all if anyone diving into a rewatch (or having recently completed one) were to reinvigorate this FanFare thread: Community: Six Seasons and a Rewatch
posted by D.Billy at 7:35 PM on May 19, 2020
I wouldn't be mad at all if anyone diving into a rewatch (or having recently completed one) were to reinvigorate this FanFare thread: Community: Six Seasons and a Rewatch
posted by D.Billy at 7:35 PM on May 19, 2020
It's highs are still amazing, but I'm half-way through a rewatch and I'm pretty sure I'll never watch through the whole thing again, though I'll rewatch my favorites. My two least favorite things about it really grate more and more with each rewatch: the "Britta is so stupid! Did you notice, Britta is stupid? Ha ha ha! Also no fun and does everything wrong and no one likes her much" routine, and the "Abed is the best and anyone who goes against him or thinks he should change in the slightest is wrong-wrong-wrongity wrong and evil". I just got through the series of season three episodes that I now think of as the point where I started to really hate Abed, starting with "Contemporary Impressionists".
posted by tavella at 8:01 PM on May 19, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by tavella at 8:01 PM on May 19, 2020 [1 favorite]
My spouse has been on a podcast kick lately, and thanks to renewed interest from "The Darkest Podcast", we've been re-watching this as well.
At the risk of just echoing tavella, I find I have to have another activity as a distraction whenever the show goes all-in on the Abed see-saw, portraying him on one hand as this secret savant, as in the end of season 1's Interpretive Dance or Aerodynamics of Gender, yet pulling out the "we must coddle him through this delusional episode" whenever they want to go high-concept with episodes like Abed's Uncontrollable Christmas or Geothermal Escapism. At least they were doing things with him, though; even Pierce felt like he got more storylines, triumphant moments, and opportunities for pathos than Britta did by the end of the series, and he left halfway through. It's egregious.
The podcast is pretty great, though! I never really thought of myself as a podcast fan, but hearing Joel and Ken (and all their guests) in this context has been so much more of a treat than I ever would have guessed.
posted by jsnlxndrlv at 9:02 PM on May 19, 2020 [1 favorite]
At the risk of just echoing tavella, I find I have to have another activity as a distraction whenever the show goes all-in on the Abed see-saw, portraying him on one hand as this secret savant, as in the end of season 1's Interpretive Dance or Aerodynamics of Gender, yet pulling out the "we must coddle him through this delusional episode" whenever they want to go high-concept with episodes like Abed's Uncontrollable Christmas or Geothermal Escapism. At least they were doing things with him, though; even Pierce felt like he got more storylines, triumphant moments, and opportunities for pathos than Britta did by the end of the series, and he left halfway through. It's egregious.
The podcast is pretty great, though! I never really thought of myself as a podcast fan, but hearing Joel and Ken (and all their guests) in this context has been so much more of a treat than I ever would have guessed.
posted by jsnlxndrlv at 9:02 PM on May 19, 2020 [1 favorite]
Yeah, I think the high of Community is Season 2 because they hadn't yet settled into those two patterns. Britta did need a lot more to do - she was the Dedicated Love Interest and when they dropped that, her character had a problem, but the solution was not to make her the worst person in the group, not counting Pierce.
Making Abed the best was just unnecessary, particularly given how tedious he can be sometimes. It's a real shame it happened right when they decided that Annie, Troy and Abed were a trio.
posted by Merus at 9:22 PM on May 19, 2020
Making Abed the best was just unnecessary, particularly given how tedious he can be sometimes. It's a real shame it happened right when they decided that Annie, Troy and Abed were a trio.
posted by Merus at 9:22 PM on May 19, 2020
I have just recently started watching Community (I’m in early S2) and have decided to wait to watch this video until after I am done, so that I experience the episode in its own context first. I think that’s how Abed would do it.
posted by nubs at 7:30 AM on May 20, 2020 [2 favorites]
posted by nubs at 7:30 AM on May 20, 2020 [2 favorites]
I only recently learned that Harmon based Britta on an ex-girlfriend of his, which makes the constant use of her as a punching bag even more unpleasant for me, especially as he was harrassing one of Community's female writers at the time. Similarly, Abed started to really piss me off when it started feeling like the writers were sending Messages. "You think he's a self-centered nerd? That makes you a villain." "You think that Troy should have a role outside of being Abed's obedient sidekick? We'll show you!"
posted by tavella at 10:03 PM on May 20, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by tavella at 10:03 PM on May 20, 2020 [1 favorite]
"Geothermal Expressionism" is still damn fun though, I think it's my favorite of the late series episodes.
posted by tavella at 11:03 PM on May 20, 2020
posted by tavella at 11:03 PM on May 20, 2020
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