Comments of the week for June 2nd to June 8th, 2013

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captblicero

Spanish 101 Student

Posts - 122
Likes - 117
Joined - January 1970

Comments of the week for June 2nd to June 8th, 2013 Jun 16, 2013 22:58:48 GMT -6

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Post by captblicero on Jun 16, 2013 22:58:48 GMT -6

Post of the week: Shinigami cat story
There's a thread in this forum dedicated to his posts.

Funniest comment of the week: best of the @guarascioport Twitter feed.

Not The Real Randy Jackson
So with Dan Harmon back, I think it's time we pay tribute to one of the few great things to come out of these crazy twelve months: the @guarascioport Twitter feed. I'll start off with some of my personal favorites.

Feast your ear tongues on these memory pops!

-"We can do twice as good a job as Dan Harmon because we are two guys whereas he is one. #math"
-"Found some scribblings about 'hero's journey' and 'Joseph Campbell' in the Community writers' room. Trash!"
-"Who's ready for Professor Mencia!?"
-"Just found out there's a Community clip show episode in season 2. We'll
watch that instead of the 60 episodes we haven't seen to save time."
-"Leaking a shot of our first Community script to generate fan enthusiasm. We banged the first draft out in 30 minutes! twitpic.com/9ou9l2"
-"Moses ripped a leg off our foosball table and is hiding under his
beanbag chair. There’s no way to explain why Greenhale is a 4 year
school."
-"Bad news. Moses's rampage about the 4 year college thing is costing so
much to repair that we can only afford to do 12 episodes this year.

"
-"Trying to book guest stars for next year but we keep running into snags. Turns out the duck from “Friends” passed away. #RIP"
-"Community Season 4 will have 50% more Kim Kardashian jokes. That lady is just waiting to get zinged."
-"NBC offered us a full 22 episode season for Community, but we insisted
on 13 because we all know the world is going to end this December."
-"Community fans, we've got the characters' names down now. Here's a pic of our cheat sheet whiteboard. twitpic.com/9r33xo"
-"Can’t do a Whitney crossover because our shows’ laughtracks operate at different pitches. The audio would just be white noise."
-"It's great that Jeff McHale's character's name is also Jeff so that way we have one less name to remember."
-"The teaser poster for American Pie Presents Community is here! Grab a slice of Season 4 this fall! twitpic.com/9u7jot"
-"Number of Critics Choice Awards Community won, Dan Harmon era: 0. Guarascio/Port era: 1. We're already in the lead, baby!"
-"Chevy Chase just left us the sweetest voicemail."
-"Watching the Anger Management pilot a third time for inspiration. Charlie Sheen is back! #winning #tigerblood #LOL"
-"The NBC executives told us they'll start watching Community if we do a good job."
-"Who's the father of Britta's baby? Collect the clues on specially-marked
cans of Pepsi to find the answer before Community's fall premiere!"
-"Moses just locked himself in his office because I accidentally ruined
the ending of "Animal Practice." I thought everyone had seen it."
-"We're coming in and cleaning up Dan Harmon's mess just like Mitt Romney is gonna have to come in and clean up Obama's. #romney2012"
-"We asked NBC to push Community's premiere back so that we have some time to build a fanbase for the show."
-"Who's Morgan Ganz?"
-"We invited the Community cast to watch the premiere at our bachelor pad
but found out Big Bang Theory's on at the same time! Party canceled."
-"Dubbing over two minutes of this week's Community episode so that we can get our Pope jokes in."

1 WEEK AGO 29 LIKES

Community post of the week: Lloyd defines Community characters by certain lines.

LloydBraun
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What are the lines spoken by or about Community characters that define them?

Jeff
"This place has made you so gay!" - Alan in 322

Britta (these three go hand in hand)
-"Well, you know, she’s no barrel of monkeys. She wants everyone to be honest but she lies to herself. She’s seen the world but doesn’t get it. She has more fights about stuff that doesn’t matter than a YouTube comment section. She’s passionate, which I find stupid--but entertaining." - Jeff in 116
-"There's something in you that wants to take care of people so bad that you'll do it until you puke." - Jeff in 222
-"You're the heart of this group" - Jeff in 120

Abed
"Everyone else needs my help. That’s what people don’t get is that..they need to get me. I just need to be able to connect to people like you can. Then I can make everyone happy." - 121

Troy
"What! I wanna eat a ghost!" - 203 (there are many better ones, I'm sure, but this is my favorite)

Annie
"Really, you're just as selfish as I am. You're just not as good at it yet." - Jeff in 106

Pierce
"What, I say things others won't. That has value." - 125

Shirley
"Shirley, I'm going to be perfectly blunt with you. The few times where you've actually been bad are the times I've liked you most." - Jeff in 309

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1 WEEK AGO 19 LIKES

Tied for Community post of the week: Community mulligans.

Dr. Clash
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Here's a question: If you could have a mulligan on any Community episode from seasons 1-3, which episode would you redo? The basic plot of the episode must remain the same, but you can change the details.

Me, probably Geography of Global Conflict. The idea of doing a Model UN episode is a potentially very funny one (Hell, Parks churned out what I thought was a far funnier Model UN episode in the same season), but the episode was bogged down by a bunch of other crap. A good start would be to take out all the weird Jeff/Annie stuff, and probably spend more time on the minutae of the UN competition itself.

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1 WEEK AGO 17 LIKES

Community link of the week: Harmontown with more news about Dan coming back (sorta, but Harmontown is great.)

digifreak642
HARMONTOWN EP. 58 "I'm Like Very Science"
Lost episode explained, Community addressed

1 WEEK AGO 11 LIKES

Out of context comment of the week: wait, context doesn't help either.

jmunney
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I once found a bug stuck in the skin of my penis.

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1 WEEK AGO

Intelligent discussion of the week: spoilers.

I would have nominated Eric's music post for music post of the week, but it was flagged.

Fishstick of the week: in response to, "What are your favorite non-Community fishsticks?"
Reply.

http://fishsticktheatre.com/TV/Community/S3/3x04/images/Community3x04_0448.jpg

captblicero

Spanish 101 Student

Posts - 122
Likes - 117
Joined - January 1970

Comments of the week for June 2nd to June 8th, 2013 Jun 23, 2013 2:28:05 GMT -6

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Post by captblicero on Jun 23, 2013 2:28:05 GMT -6

Spoiler discussion:

Semi-bored torontonian
Film Critic Hulk writes about spoilers.

1 WEEK AGO 11 LIKES

Affrosponge88
Thanks for spoiling what he writes about.

Jerk.

1 WEEK AGO 18 LIKES

LloydBraun
USe uPpEr and lOwER CAse aND MaYbe i WiLL reaD yOUr ARticleS

1 WEEK AGO 10 LIKES

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glazomaniac
www.convertcase.net/

1 WEEK AGO 6 LIKES

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snowmania
BOO

1 WEEK AGO 5 LIKES

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bongoes
You may like his alter-ego Film Critic Bruce Banner.

1 WEEK AGO 10 LIKES

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Semi-bored torontonian
This looks hilariously like a ransom note.

1 WEEK AGO 4 LIKES

SG Standard
As great as Sunday's GoT episode was (and it was great), the discussion that it created has been even better.

1 WEEK AGO 7 LIKES

Mojo Filter
I'm torn on Film Critic Hulk. He makes good points, but the gimmick seems so...unnecessary and gives me a headache after reading.

1 WEEK AGO 11 LIKES

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Stingo the Bandana Origami Pro
And he doesn't always follow proper Hulk grammar. I'm too much of a nitpicking nerd to read his stuff often. Plus I don't handle ALL CAPS WALLS OF TEXT (holy hell can the dude go on) very well.

1 WEEK AGO 3 LIKES

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snowmania
I'm not sure what actual Hulk grammar should look like, but I've noticed from his earlier pieces to his later ones that his English has basically become entirely standard with the exception of referring to himself in the third person.

The caps never bothered me, possibly because I'm an obnoxious person whose internal monologue is usually expressed in all caps on a kind of mental typewriter. I wish he'd revert back to the clunkier grammar of yesteryear, even, but that might turn off even more people.

2 WEEKS AGO 6 LIKES

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bongoes
He's just slowly following the story where the Hulk became more intelligent.

2 WEEKS AGO 6 LIKES

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e pluribus anustart
Hulk grammar is quite similar to Cookie Monster grammar, only greener and with a lot more SMASH!

2 WEEKS AGO 6 LIKES

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Walking NPR
Did someone say SMASH?!?! Watch........*sobs*
-Bob Greenblatt

2 WEEKS AGO 6 LIKES

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Semi-bored torontonian
YES I HAVE A PROBLEM WITH THE ALL CAPS TOO, BECAUSE IN MY MIND HE ALWAYS SOUNDS LIKE HE'S YELLING AND I HAVE THIS WEIRD COGNITIVE DISSONANCE WHEN I REALIZE I HAVE TO TAKE HIM VERY SERIOUSLY.

2 WEEKS AGO 4 LIKES

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Shinigami Apple Merchant
I just try to imagine he's AV Club's Cookie Monster in disguise and he's talking through a megaphone since he can't dominate the internet with two many engaging talking points before the Man takes him down. C is for Conspiracy Theories!

2 WEEKS AGO 4 LIKES

Teah-Timeh
A smashing read. Thanks for the link!

2 WEEKS AGO 5 LIKES

Unregistered Guy Named Eric
There's a lot of really interesting stuff in there.

The four levels are especially resonant, although I think there's a lot of crossover between the levels. I mean, I know people who can watch a show with complete sincerity one episode, ironic distance the next, and for a third ep they'll analyse it or try to break it down.

The separation between the 3rd and 4th levels is problematic to me, maybe because I like criticism so much. I rarely find what creators have to say as insightful as the best criticism. But I guess that's in part because I've never been "on the inside" of a production. Creators just seem so distanced from the long term value of a work, from seeing it as part of a bigger artistic, philosophical and political conversation that's developed over centuries.

As far as the collective cultural moment thing, I never really experienced much of that. To talk about something, whether it's a show or movie or game, I always kinda had to take it into my own little cave and start the discussion with myself before I could take it out into the world. Interestingly, I find the internet and the CZ challenges me more to try different things and look at them in unexpected ways. rather than validating what I already think. Before that, I mostly just wouldn't watch TV, since I had no external motivation to.

So I'm less worried about spoilers, or being part of a spontaneous social activity/dialogue. It's more the speed of how things move on message boards, and how I almost have to be ready with responses or to adjust to conversation right away, because if I'm even a couple hours too late everyone's already moved on. I've been pretty disappointed that I caught up with the "big thing" too late a few times, like with Homeland, Mad Men, Downton Abbey and Doctor Who, to where when I'd finally been convinced to follow it and care about it, the backlash had already set in, at least in certain forums.

2 WEEKS AGO 9 LIKES

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snowmania
Last paragraph is like the story of my life.

2 WEEKS AGO 6 LIKES

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Semi-bored torontonian
I finally got around to reading the whole thing (I was going to work when I posted it). It covers a lot of what I was saying before (VALIDATION! yay!) - especially about the excessive valuation of a spoiler-free atmosphere and the resentment of the supposedly "purer" experience the non-spoiled have. Sometimes, I do get to see a film in this kind of completely blank context, and it's pretty cool, I won't deny it; but it's really not why I go to the movies or why I watch TV. I mentioned "One Minute" before - and that was as close as I've been to the #2 experience in the past decade or so; I could literally feel my heart beat faster, and I think I may have screamed a little scream of relief when the episode ended. So yeah, that was cool, but it was also not the kind of thing I expect from film or TV. So much so, that I immediately watched the episode again, because I wanted to see how it was put together, since nothing beyond the pure lizard brain experience of that shootout had actually registered.

My issue is with Hulk's valuation of #4 over #3. I find questions of craft to be really interesting, and any serious critic of anything should have at least a basic understanding of the nuts and bolts of what they're reviewing, but excessive focus on the craft can be just as limiting as excessive focus on the narrative. The implicit idea here is that directors make the best critics, and while that's occasionally true (Truffaut, Passolini etc.), it's also kind of dismissive and insular. It also presupposes a really iffy equivalence between "good" and "well crafted," which would probably end up putting Spring Breakers on the same level as The Tree of Life, since both are equally well-crafted technically.

But Hulk makes a great point about the fragmentation of dialogue. I am especially loath sometimes of having to figure out more and more oblique ways to make my point, because I can't actually give out any details. It certainly helps with creativity, but the definition of the spoiler has broadened so much nowadays that it has come to encapsulate even the vaguest of references to stuff that happens (Matthew Weiner is by far the most obnoxious case I know).

Also, please post your thoughts here about anything, no matter how late to the party you are. You're one of the most thoughtful commenters here, and I'm always curious to find out what your opinions are.

2 WEEKS AGO 6 LIKES

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Shinigami Apple Merchant
Great call on One Minute-- I concur. I don't normally do the whole "you pay for the whole seat, but you'll only be using the EDGE of it!" bit, but that ending was gut wrenching and tense as anything I've watched on TV in the last decade. By comparison, in Season 6 of LOST I was audibly groaning when Ilana had that dynamite mishap.

And as you say and as Film Critic Hulk pointed out most extensively with his Unified Viewer Theory, as it were, there are so many other awesome layers to that BB episode we get to enjoy over and over again /cheer.

2 WEEKS AGO 6 LIKES

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Unregistered Guy Named Eric
"One Minute" was definitely my favorite episode, largely because of that scene. The slow turn of Hank from being mostly unlikable to... kind of ambiguous but tending towards sympathetic across the run of BB has opened up a lot of interesting subplots and tangents.

BB is a perfect example of the varying importance of spoilers for me. The last 3 episodes of s4 are one case where generally knowing what would happen really undercut the suspense for me, and I wound up liking that part of the season least. Sometimes it doesn't make a difference, but in that case I've got to imagine it would have been much different if I'd come in unspoiled.

2 WEEKS AGO 4 LIKES

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Shinigami Apple Merchant
What a time to be on these boards during those final 3 episodes of S4-- everyone engaged and happy for the show to be on the air, yet lovingly at each others' throats all the same about that "insane" theory on what's really going on ending up being EXACTLY what's going on. Talk about comment thread fallout. But no matter what, everyone enjoyed the conversation and even people watching this stuff years later can appreciate both the moment itself for its hi-octane tension and how well structured it all is leading to the coda reveal.

I replay that credits montage with the spinning gun frequently and marvel at how beautifully it represents the entire series in a nutshell at this point-- turn the gun on yourself, Walt? (spins again) Sure you won't just end it? (thinks... spins again) OK, Plan E it is! I'm with Semi-T I'm already gonna miss this show and it hasn't even finished airing everything yet.

2 WEEKS AGO 4 LIKES

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Semi-bored torontonian
What made "One Minute" so tense was the fact that it really could have gone either way: Hank was an important character, but not an essential one, so he could have easily ended up dead. On the other hand, the Cousins had been built into the main villains of the season, and at that point seemed to be Terminator-grade invulnerable. So the shock was double - not only did Hank survive, but the Cousins were completely out of the picture by the end of the episode. I don't remember when a single episode of TV surprised me so much.

2 WEEKS AGO 5 LIKES

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Unregistered Guy Named Eric
Spoilers probably affect serialized TV more than movies or novels because even very good shows often write around a couple of twists or surprises.

My issue is with Hulk's valuation of #4 over #3

I agree 100%. Also that, as you say, critics should know about how the thing is made, but it's better to be able to step back and estimate the whole thing (and relative to other works) rather than looking at the pieces/seams.

It also presupposes a really iffy equivalence between "good" and "well crafted," which would probably end up putting Spring Breakers on the same level as The Tree of Life, since both are equally well-crafted technically.

Exactly...and without a canon built based on criteria that comes from passion and connoisseurship, you end up at the mercy of the marketplace and money and basically a straight success/failure model of what is and isn't good that unfortunately seems to be something of a bottom line for creators and performers who are left with no other "objective" means to judge their own works.

I am especially loath sometimes of having to figure out more and more oblique ways to make my point, because I can't actually give out any details.

I can relate to that. Is it an issue in teaching? I guess there's no "spoiler tags" to aid you there.

Also, please post your thoughts here about anything, no matter how late to the party you are.

Thank you, that means a lot, and I will. Now, ironically, I have to go to work. Spoilers for anyone who's trying to rob the office right now.

2 WEEKS AGO 5 LIKES

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Semi-bored torontonian
Hopefully, you're not in the middle in a cat-and-mouse battle with a band of trashy European thieves right about now :-P

Heh, indeed when I teach television I tell my students straight away that there will be occasional massive spoilers and I won't be able to do anything about it. I get some dirty looks sometimes, but it's not possible to teach efficiently by constantly referring to "that thing that happens in Season 5, some of you know what I mean?" I certainly don't do it all the time, but I'm never obfuscating when I need to talk about something that happens later on a show.

2 WEEKS AGO 4 LIKES

Comments of the week for June 2nd to June 8th, 2013

Post by captblicero on Jun 16, 2013 22:58:48 GMT -6

Post by captblicero on Jun 23, 2013 2:28:05 GMT -6

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