Neglify
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Rewatched "Regional Holiday Music" tonight.
I did like it much more now than when I first saw it, but it's still a thorn in my side.
1) I personally generally dislike most holiday themed episodes of TV shows. It's a crutch TV writers use. "Hey it's Christmas!"
"Fuck Christmas!" "Oh we're all happy now at the end because we realized Christmas is a time for joy." :grouphug:
"Abed's Uncontrollable Christmas" did it well and it's pretty obvious they tried to top that. That brings me to my next point.
2) I really wish the writers would stop trying to outdo themselves. One of my favorite "Community" episodes is "Introduction to Film" (S1E03). The emotional reaction from Abed's dad at the end kills me every time I watch it. I would rather have moments like that than the all out crazy meta insanity in episodes like "Documentary Filmmaking: Redux" and "Horror Fiction In Seven Spooky Steps".
3) This episode shows that Dan Harmon is a bitter fuck sometimes. I've listened to the commentaries for Seasons 1 & 2 and he makes it clear how much he loathes "Glee". I don't care for it myself, but the fact that he devoted an entire episode to it makes me kind of sad. "Community" is not about bashing pop culture. At least it didn't used to be. The pop culture themed episodes from the first two seasons (eg: "Contemporary American Poultry", "Epidemiology" and "Critical Film Studies") were loving homages to movies and TV shows. "Regional Holiday Music" is a big middle finger to "Glee" and it didn't need to be.
4) Legit, the Body Snatchers parody is great.
5) Being able to show off Donald Glover rapping is a plus.
6) Abed's lines "For a while there I thought we were I thought we were going to end the semester on a really dark note" sums up perfectly the state of mind I was in when I first watched this episode. The show had been put on hiatus and I feared this would be the last episode aired and I didn't want it to go out like that.
(True, Jeff admitting "this has been a dark semester" is the writers telling us they admit they went overboard.)
7) "Inspector Spacetime"... another way of the writers telling us "Hey, look how fucking stupid this show it, yet people love it."
Final thoughts...
"This show is supposed to be GLEEFUL and BRIGHT and FUN! And you can let me do that or THERE WILL BE ANOTHER BUS CRASH!"
(And speaking of "Community" Christmas episodes, "Comparative Religion" was excellent. It used Christmas as an opportunity to show us how much these characters really care about each other. THAT is what I want to see Community do more often.)
I did like it much more now than when I first saw it, but it's still a thorn in my side.
1) I personally generally dislike most holiday themed episodes of TV shows. It's a crutch TV writers use. "Hey it's Christmas!"
"Fuck Christmas!" "Oh we're all happy now at the end because we realized Christmas is a time for joy." :grouphug:"Abed's Uncontrollable Christmas" did it well and it's pretty obvious they tried to top that. That brings me to my next point.
2) I really wish the writers would stop trying to outdo themselves. One of my favorite "Community" episodes is "Introduction to Film" (S1E03). The emotional reaction from Abed's dad at the end kills me every time I watch it. I would rather have moments like that than the all out crazy meta insanity in episodes like "Documentary Filmmaking: Redux" and "Horror Fiction In Seven Spooky Steps".
3) This episode shows that Dan Harmon is a bitter fuck sometimes. I've listened to the commentaries for Seasons 1 & 2 and he makes it clear how much he loathes "Glee". I don't care for it myself, but the fact that he devoted an entire episode to it makes me kind of sad. "Community" is not about bashing pop culture. At least it didn't used to be. The pop culture themed episodes from the first two seasons (eg: "Contemporary American Poultry", "Epidemiology" and "Critical Film Studies") were loving homages to movies and TV shows. "Regional Holiday Music" is a big middle finger to "Glee" and it didn't need to be.
4) Legit, the Body Snatchers parody is great.
5) Being able to show off Donald Glover rapping is a plus.
6) Abed's lines "For a while there I thought we were I thought we were going to end the semester on a really dark note" sums up perfectly the state of mind I was in when I first watched this episode. The show had been put on hiatus and I feared this would be the last episode aired and I didn't want it to go out like that.
(True, Jeff admitting "this has been a dark semester" is the writers telling us they admit they went overboard.)
7) "Inspector Spacetime"... another way of the writers telling us "Hey, look how fucking stupid this show it, yet people love it."
Final thoughts...
"This show is supposed to be GLEEFUL and BRIGHT and FUN! And you can let me do that or THERE WILL BE ANOTHER BUS CRASH!"
(And speaking of "Community" Christmas episodes, "Comparative Religion" was excellent. It used Christmas as an opportunity to show us how much these characters really care about each other. THAT is what I want to see Community do more often.)
