Community The Psychology of Letting Go

The Psychology of Letting Go
　
　
We start with the death of Pierce’s mom where he takes it surprising well, and Troy was taking it pretty hard. Everybody is concerned with Pierce as an argument about religion breaks out and Jeff uses one of his speeches to calm the situation. Pierce continues to get worse though, as he buries himself into a crazy cult like religion.

With Professor Baur (Betty White) on a leave of absence, do to the incident with Jeff, Professor Duncan is forced to take over the class, which he has no idea what he is doing. This also sets up a great little story between him and Chang that stems from a mutual hatred and restraining order.

Paton Oswald guest stars in this weeks episode as the clinic’s nurse where Jeff goes into for a routine physical, and finds out that his cholesterol is a little high. Jeff doesn’t take this very lightly as he claims he is a perfect specimen. Overreacting about his test results Jeff becomes very cynical about life, and only upsets the group with his comments.

I was worried at the end of last season that Ken Jeong’s character would be phased out since he was no longer a teacher, but instead as a student it has given him more opportunities to use his comedic charm. I like the ongoing story of him trying to prove himself to the group to become a part of it, and the little moments where he goes a little crazy.

The great thing about this show is that is doesn’t have to focus on Jeff as the main character, instead it has a great supporting cast that in any episode can have the feature story arc. This episode is one of those cases, where Jeff is there, but is the secondary story line. This episode didn’t have that much of Troy and very little Abed, and hope that isn’t a trend that will continue. The pop culture references from Abed always add to the show because they are always well done. The scenes, especially the last one, between Annie and Britta were also very entertaining, and it looks like Alison Brie will continue to be a bigger part of the show.

Once again, I cannot stress this enough, this show is great, everyone must watch and tell there friends to watch. Do it, now, don’t wait!

Running Wilde 103 Oil and Water

Oil and Water
　
　
Steve’s continues to try to impress Emmy at the same time trying to find ways to get Andy out of the picture. One way is to convince Andy to go to Alaska to “uncover” a conspiracy about big oil and the Wilde Oil company. To impress Emmy, Steve promises to quit his job at Wilde Oil to earn her praise, but finds that being at the office is fun. Emmy gets back to her cause a little bit here, as she uses Steve and the company to get information to bring down said company.
　

It seems that people are still unsure about this show, but as far as new comedies of this season I am entertained. Some things still bother me about it, I do not like the butler, he is too cartoony for my liking, and I’m not totally sold on Keri Russell. I am starting to come around on Steve’s man servant and the chemistry between Steve and Puddle on screen is great. Steve’s friend/nemesis Fa’ad has also become a great character. The things that I do enjoy is Will Arnett being Will Arnett, so far the act that he has been doing works fine a the leading character.

　
I also didn’t mind the KFC commercial in the show, immediately followed by one to start the break. I understand and am perfectly fine with it.

Raising Hope 103 Dream Hoarders

Dream Hoarders
　
　

Jimmy accidentally teaches Hope how to crawl, then realizes how unsafe the house is and is reminded how dangerous it was for him growing up. While trying to but some things in the shed, out of reach of the baby, Jimmy also needs to convince his mom that she is a hoarder and needs to get rid of things. While making a trip to the grocery store to pick up baby proofing items, and to attempt to get closer to Sabrina, Hope uses her new skill to get her self lost. Virginia’s hoarding issue becomes a problem as Hope’s new favorite place to crawl is in the shed.

　

The show is beginning to hit its stride as it now has a real sense of direction. The characters are becoming more likeable. The heart felt moments still fall a little short, but the misuse of commonly known phrases has its charm. I do enjoy the nice wrap up of things and the lessons learned to finish the show. Each week it is nice to see the progression of the characters and the growth of them as individuals.

　
　

Community Accounting for Lawyers

Accounting for Lawyers



Rob Corddry guest stars on tonight’s episode as one of Jeff’s former colleagues, Alan, that is there for a narcotics anonymous meeting. Drew Carey also guest stars as the head of Jeff’s old law firm.

Greendale is celebrating Oktoberfest again this year but adding a twist, they are having a pop and lock contest, and the study group wants to join, but as always, Jeff is reluctant. Chang is apparently a pop and lock genius, and knows that Jeff won‘t do it, so he uses this opportunity to get in the group. The group is late, but shows up to save Chang who has survived to the end. When the stop moving to have a heartfelt hug, they get disqualified, since they didn’t win, they still didn’t let him in.

Jeff is blowing off his study group as he continues to hang out with his old buddy, and misses being at the office. Annie recognizes him from their meetings and heard Alan confess that he got Jeff disbarred, but he doesn’t believe them, and instead just insults them.

Alan takes Jeff to an office party where he tries to use him to talk him up to his boss to make him a partner. The whole study group crashes the party with an invite from Allen, they use Annie to get into his office so they can find proof of the email he sent to the state investigators. Even after the proof, Jeff still doesn’t care because he still says that he is a good lawyer, not a good friend, and to do that you mustn’t care. Jeff decides not to let Alan know he knows the truth, but wants to use it as leverage, and realizes he needs his friends at Greendale.


The quick conversation in this show allows for quick hits in its comedy timing, and the bumbling nature of Pierce is hilarious because of context and delivery. It was weird seeing Drew Carey so skinny as compared to his days on his old ABC show where he must have been about twice as big. I was caught a little off guard, it kind of made him look a little old, at least older than I imagine him to be. The scene with Annie, Troy and Abed as they get caught in the office is one of the funniest moments I can recall in the show. This was a great show, many great moments, this show must be watched by all!


This is a great little video trailor remix from DJ Steve Porter.  Enjoy!

Running Wilde 102

Into the Wilde
　
　
Steve Wilde continues to struggle with that the fact that Emmy has little no regard for the lifestyle that he lives, while Emmy struggles with that fact she has too missed the conveniences of modern civilization. By living in the tree house with her daughter Puddle, Emmy it trying to keep her distance while still making a point, but is slowly falling back ways and feelings she had for Steve when they were children.

Jealous that his neighbor and rival Fa’ad is going on vacation with his family, Steve, probably unknowingly, tricks Emmy into taking Puddle and going with him. Excited to go, and to be going with Steve, Emmy’s boyfriend Andy (David Cross) shows up at the tree house unannounced. With this unwanted guest, the trips gets cancelled.

Andy has a plan to hold Steve for ransom without him knowing, and Steve has a plan to pretend to be nice to Andy to get closer to Emmy. This brings them to plan a trip to Steve’s cabin together, where they quickly get tired of pretending to be friends. Walking through the woods, they realize that they were following each other to the cabin that neither knew how to get to. Emmy tracks down Andy that has become sick, while Steve is still looking to help. Emmy confuses that she likes Steve, and that they are friends.

Chemistry between the characters, said to be one of the problems with the pilot, is starting to heat up. Growing on me quickly, the flaws in the first show are being smoothed out, as the show finds its way. The writing in this episode shows great improvement over the redone pilot. I am enjoying the back and forth between Emmy and Steve, and the confusion and twisting of words that continues to happen. I really enjoyed this episode, and I hope that it can keep it up.

Raising Hope 102

Dead Tooth
　

Needing to go back to work, Jimmy has to find some kind of daycare for his child. While still afraid to ask out Sabrina from the grocery store, his mom interrupts to ask if she baby sits, politely declining, she offers up her cousin that runs a daycare. Her cousin Shelly, play by Kate Micucci (UCB, Garfunkel and Oates), is a girl that Jimmy promised to call back after a night of making out, but couldn’t bring himself to it, due to her dead tooth.

Disappointed to find that Sabrina has a boyfriend, Jimmy also tells Shelly that he isn’t interested in her, because he likes her cousin. Because Shelly is the only person that his daughter seems to like, she agrees to continue watching her, but now he’ll have to pay $60 a week.

The one thing that I do admire about Jimmy that he is attempting to take reasonability. No longer is he running around with his dumb friends doing dumber things. His efforts in trying to raise his child are
unwitting at best, but his willingness to try is admirable.

I always enjoy when Kate Micucci pops up in shows. More familiar with her from the comedy folk duo Garfunkel and Oates than her acting so far, but her star is still raising as I see her in more and more things. The songs that her and Riki Lindhome play are very funny and entertaining, I suggest checking them out here.

Community Anthropology 101

Community has quickly become one of best comedies on television. A show that you immediately care about and connect with all the characters. A part of what was once the best night of television, NBC’s Thursday nights are now being challenged. The juggernaut from CBS, The Big Band Theory, has moved and is now in direct competition with Community.

The basic premise of the show is that Jeff Winger, played by Joel McHale (Informant!, The Soup), was a lawyer who was disbarred after it was found out that he lied about his schooling. Attempting to regain his position, Jeff enrolls into Community College and starts a study group to get closer to Britta Perry, played by Gillian Jacobs (The Box, Choke).

Other members of the study group include Pierce Hawthorne, played by Chevy Chase (Caddyshack, Vacation), Troy Barnes, played by Donald Glover (Mystery Team, 30 Rock), Annie Edison, played by Alison Brie (Mad Men, Scream 4), Shirley Bennett, played by Yvette Nicole Brown (500 days of Summer, Tropic Thunder), and Abed Nadir played by Danny Pudi (ER, Gilmore Girls). Another raising star is Ken Jeong (The Hangover, Knocked Up) playing Senor Chang.

At the end of the first season of Community Annie was preparing to leave Greendale, Troy was in search of a new roommate, a Jeff was being fought over between Professor Slater and Brita. The show added another twist when Jeff left the dance and ran into Annie and they kissed.

Anthropology 101Season two starts a new school year with the gang back together. Now finished with their foreign language requirement, the study group will take anthropology as the next class to tackle together. Betty White, still riding the wave of her amazing resurgence, guest stars as the anthropology professor. Senor Chang, also was discovered to have bogus credentials, is now enrolled as a student and in the class.
Starts out a little awkward in the group, but the show deals with it great, Brita acknowledges mistakes were made, and Jeff and Annie talk about using discretion on what happened. Once in class Britta has become an idol to the younger girls as now she is the underdog after putting herself out there and then turned down.

To beat Britta at her own game Jeff must put himself out there, confessing his love for her, hoping that she will turn him down. She doesn’t and the stale mate beginnings, much to the dismay of Annie, who still has feelings for Jeff. Things start to go a little too far as Abed uses the situation to create a meta-wedding, things start to blow up when Annie finds out that Brita and Jeff slept together and she tells everyone that they kissed.

At the end of the day, Betty White as the professor gets suspended after attacking Jeff, and a lesson learned wraps up everything nicely from last season, and now a fresh start with everything seemingly back to normal.

Another great episode, everything that I loved from the first season and it doesn’t feel like there was any let down. If you aren’t watching this show, then why are you reading this? No, what I meant to say, if your friends aren’t watching this show, get new friends. Yep, that’s it.
　

Running Wilde The Pilot

From the creators of fan favorite Arrested Development brings us Running Wilde. A romantic comedy about the son of an oil tycoon Steve Wilde, played by Will Arnett (Arrested Development), and environmentalist Emmy Kadubic, played by Keri Russell (Felicity) and her daughter Puddle, played by Stefania Owen (Lovely Bones).
　
Once the daughter of the family housekeeper, the paths of Steve and Emmy cross again when the company his father owns wants to drill for oil in an area of the rain forest where the indigenous tribe that Emmy has been trying to save, live.
　
By throwing himself a party where he receives the Humanitarian of the Year Award, Steve hopes get back his childhood sweetheart Emmy. The story is told through the perspective of Emmy’s 12 year old daughter Puddle, who hasn’t spoke in 6 months and hates being in the rain forest, sees this invitation as a way out. Emmy sees this invitation as way to get the Wilde Oil Company not to drill where this indigenous tribe lives, but Steve is unwilling to stand up to his father, and risk losing his trust fund.

When Emmy threatens to go back to the Jungle, Puddle finally speaks up, but only to Steve, asking for his help so she doesn’t have to go back to the rain forest and leave civilization. Agreeing to help, Steve follows the plain to get a fake doctor to say that Puddle cannot leave and needs to go to school in town. Steve works in that they must be a resident and offers a place on his estate for Emmy and Puddle to live in. The lie is quickly over as Steve has a slip of the tongue. Emmy starts to storm out complaining about Steve when Puddle speaks to defend him. When Steve actually does good for nothing, Emmy decides maybe they’ll stay after all, and takes on the challenge of making him a better man.

This is the shows second attempt after the first shot at the pilot needed a little fine tuning. Originally David Cross was going to be on the first pilot, but due to a scheduling conflict was unable to work it out. After some rewrites and rescheduling, David Cross was added to the cast. Having not seen the original pilot myself I can’t speak much of it, but what I have heard the show was a little bumpy and was lacking chemistry. Much of the time projects that needs an overhaul do not have much success and as they continue to try and find there way, viewers find other things to watch.

Overall, I do see a little bit of promise for the show. It has its moments of brilliance, but then again some of the types of jokes may start to get old after awhile. I am already a little biased towards the creators and Will Arnett, but besides that, I will give this new show a chance.