GI Joe is before my time so the whole thing kinda fell flat for me. I could see this working for someone familiar with it but...eh...hopefully next week's will be better.
I liked the gags with the stock footage though, that was probably my favourite bit.
edited 3rd Apr '14 8:21:37 PM by ShadowScythe
I'm familiar with similar cartoons, and other parodies have filled me in on most of the specifics.
Fresh-eyed movie blog![]()
"Help me bash this hatch open!"
I just rewatched the Psychology of Letting Go, the Season 2 ep where Jeff struggles with his own age and mortality and it's actually really good and does this stuff a lot better. I completely overlooked it when it came out but actually that ep is fantastic. Also Shirley's passive aggressive tone throughout it was perfect.
Never saw GI Joe, but I super appreciated it. Although my favorite joke was Abed's "I'm 38!" line.
Read my stories!That's physically impossible. This is Dan Harmon, he can do no wrong.
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That was funny, but it was funnier when April got a line in last night's Parks And Recreation that had her give her age as "38 slash immortal" and forced me to wonder whether that was planned.
yeah not a very good episode especially since their genre pastiches are usually pretty good
So I'm a writer...Genre pastiches are good. They've started doing more targeted references.
At least this one was better than "We're hiding from Thanksgiving dinner in the garage, therefore we're doing a Shawshank parody."
Fresh-eyed movie blog
I enjoyed that episode (and most of season 4, tbh; it's not as good as the previous seasons, but I didn't see anything horribly wrong with it) if only because of how little sense a pairing of ideas like that made - and there was still that core theme of "we're suffering together" and stuff.
I'm actually severely disappointed with most of Season 5; there's too many "big" episodes all at once. It started out strong with expected eps about Jeff being a teacher, them all returning to Greendale, dealing with Pierce's death. But then Troy leaves and it's "BIG Post-Apocalyptic themed ep again!" and then "Dystopian universe ep!" and then "Heist episode!" and then "Dn D episode!" and so on. And there are a lot of low-key episodes - but they're forgettable and feel meaningless and end with little having changed - i.e., Abed's relationship suffers for all of two minutes, Duncan's secretly nice but still wants to get in Britta's pants, etc.
Everyone just seems stagnant to me, which is bothersome, because we've seen them grow so much as people. I don't know if it's Donald Glover's absence, Harmon settling back into the captain's chair or what but the whole season feels off and I can't place why.
"A king has no friends. Only subjects and enemies."This is only the second Community episode I 've ever seen, after "Advanced Dungeons & Dragons", and I confess I mostly saw it because I wanted to see them doing another parody/homage. I think in that regard, both episodes are very good. And boy, was Hasbro amazingly cooperative or what? Given the show basically tore to shreds one of their most well-known franchises!
However, after thinking a little, I concluded this episode shows Winger on a very poor light. First, he got into the coma because he took some black market anti-aging pills WITH scotch (really smart idea) then refuses to awaken because he doesn't want to deal with real life (never mind even his friends were begging him to) and when he finally decides to go back it's not because he realized he was wrong -or even out of fear of death- but because he missed sex and alcohol. What an idiot.
OK, I realize this is a comedy, and people doing stupid things for the wrong reasons to make us laugh is the whole point- but if it happens all the time I cannot bring myself to care enough about the characters to continue watching for long (it's why I could never get into Seinfeld, for example.) And yes I know there was that group hug at the end, but it would have felt more real if he'd truly come back to the real world for them.
Again, this is but the second episode I've seen and I doubt either one is truly typical, I'll have to watch some non-gimmick driven episodes before I can really judge the show. Just pointing out my observations so far for now.
edited 7th Apr '14 8:48:50 AM by Sijo
The thing about Jeff is that not only is he vain and self-centered, he's vain about being self-centered. Caring about no one but himself is kind of a point of pride for him, and a lot of his development has been about just how stubborn those barriers are and how quick he is to rebuild them. I don't doubt that Jeff came back to reality for the sake of himself and for his friends but you'd have a tough time getting him to admit that to himself, especially given how far down the denial hole he already is here.
He also has issues with death that intermingle with his vanity. Sometime in...I think it was season two, a trip to the doctor made him suddenly conscious of the fact that he's going to die in a way that he hadn't been before, and he completely freaked out about it. So for him to come out of the illusion due to the risk of his own health, he'd have to first acknowledge he was in real danger. That wasn't gonna happen. Again, denial.
edited 7th Apr '14 9:17:24 AM by Wackd
Maybe you'd be less disappointed if you stopped expecting things to be Carmen Sandiego movies.
Early season 2, he found out he had slightly elevated cholesterol. That's it.
Yes, the episode painted Jeff in a bad light... but in a completely consistent way with his past characterization. That's the thing about the show, he's not actually the generic Only Sane Man White Male Lead. The show is much more of an ensemble and as such Jeff was more free to be as flawed and messed up as the rest of the cast. As for the "mixing alcohol and mysterious drugs" stupidity, I'd imagine there's cause and effect at play here. As in he drank so much that it made him panic and think that taking the drugs NOW was a good idea.
I liked the GI Joe thing, but I couldn't help but feel like it would be horribly alienating to anyone who didn't really watch it or similar toy-based shows. It's broad enough that you'd get it if you watched... well, pretty much any 80s cartoon, but if you didn't, I feel like you'd be pooched.
edited 7th Apr '14 10:25:12 AM by Larkmarn
Found a Youtube Channel with political stances you want to share? Hop on over to this page and add them.Yeah, we're in two-part finale mode, folks. Season ends next week. I'm excited, honestly.
Maybe you'd be less disappointed if you stopped expecting things to be Carmen Sandiego movies.Okay, I know Shirley's been getting short shrift all season, but she was barely even in this episode. In fact, she's so conspicuously absent that I'm wondering if, in the finale, it'll turn out that Shirley was secretly a mole for Subway this whole time, intentionally getting Greendale ready to be bought out by Subway, all as part of a merger agreement between Subway and Shirley's Sandwiches.

I didn't really watch Gi*Joe as a kid and I enjoyed this.