Classic TV: ‘Community: Advanced Dungeons and Dragons’

Further proof the geeks have inherited the Earth: “Advanced Dungeons and Dragons,” a typically wonderful second-season episode of “Community,” which originally aired in 2011.

Other than a few melodramatic references in old TV movies, I’m not sure the role-playing game Dungeons and Dragons has ever had the broad awareness it has now, with references – sometimes uncomplimentary – on a variety of shows on the air in recent years.

There was almost certainly no D&D story on TV as great, as true-to-life and as funny as this “Community” episode, though.

In “Advanced Dungeons and Dragons,” the Greendale study group plays D&D to befriend Neil, a fellow student with the less-than-charitable nickname “Fat Neil.” The study group, with a very shaky sense of the game, begins to play only to be interrupted by Pierce (Chevy Chase), the usually-unlikable group member. Pierce is outraged that he’s been excluded and forces his way into the game.

What the gang doesn’t suspect, however, is that Pierce has a plan.

The episode has genuine heart, but it’s also one of the funniest entries in the show. From Abed’s strict adherence to his role of Dungeon Master to Annie’s mimed performance as Hector the Well-Endowed to the relish of Pierce’s revenge … oh my gosh, so much goodness.

Shirley’s reaction to Chang’s “dark elf” makeup: “So we’re just going to ignore this hate crime?” Priceless.

‘Community’ canceled; it burned bright while it lasted

When “Community” debuted five seasons ago, it looked like it might be just another NBC sitcom. A bunch of friends sit around a study table at a community college and yak at each other? It sounded like another “time porn” sitcom in the tradition of “Friends” or “How I Met Your Mother.”

But the show, in the hands of creator and producer Dan Harmon, quickly distinguished itself.

“Community” proved to be offbeat and hilarious and sometimes poignant and often surreal.

If audiences in 2009 didn’t recognize that and embrace it – or shun it – by the the late-first-season episode, “Modern Warfare,” a half-hour ostensibly about an on-campus paintball war to win priority class registration at Greendale Community College, they likely never would.

The episode was a note-perfect homage to action films – action film cliches, really – that showed just what Harmon and his cast were capable of. From the opening moments, when the campus looks post-apocalyptic after only an hour of paintball war, to the ending, which managed to take a shot at “Glee” and be sentimental at the same time, the episode was soooo good.

Other first season episodes – like “Physical Education,” in which attorney-turned-student Jeff Winger (Joel McHale) plays an epic game of pool with a crusty phys ed teacher – were better, more clever, more laugh-out-loud funny than much of what was on TV at the time.

And while later seasons had their highs and lows, almost every single one had some great episodes. The claymation-like Christmas special. The pillow fort episode. The trampoline episode.

Maybe, just maybe, best of all: “Advanced Dungeons and Dragons,” in the second season. That heartfelt, funny, geektastic episode might actually top “Modern Warfare” in my mind. Maybe.

Or maybe “Remedial Chaos Theory,” in which alternate realities and “the darkest timeline” were introduced.

Damn. I don’t know which I love more.

The show faltered in its fourth season, after Harmon – reportedly a difficult genius – was ousted from the show.

This past season, the fifth, showed a good return to form and return to the set by Harmon. It didn’t reach the heights achieved by the show at its best. But little else on TV did.

Since a couple of seasons into the show, when “Community” was threatened with cancelation nearly every season, the idea of “Six Seasons and a Movie” has been the mantra of cast, crew and fans. And a Twitter hashtag.

With todays’ news that NBC had canceled the series, goal is unlikely to be reached.

But I guess it’s possible. Really, the show was too funny, too odd, to have lasted five seasons on a major network anyway. So maybe the unexpected will happen and we’ll see more of Jeff, Britta, Annie, Shirley, Abed, Troy, Dean Pelton and all the rest.

In a timeline that’s not nearly as dark.

What I’m watching: Playing catch-up

It always feels like a new TV season when “Mad Men” starts up again on AMC. It’s not of course; we’re in the awkward part of the calendar when some shows have completed their seasons, others have a few episodes left and some – “Sleepy Hollow,” in particular – are long gone.

Here’s some thoughts on what I’m watching or watched until just recently.

“The Walking Dead.” This season, after staging a battle at the prison that saw Hershel and the Governor die, seemed to build to a climax in the middle of its year. The last half of the season was made up of really-pretty-good character pieces. The finale, with Rick and the gang playing into the hands of the Terminus cannibals, was shocking in that it was not bombastic. Curiously, it made me look forward to next October more than almost anything else.

“Agents of SHIELD.” This small-screen Marvel flagship series struggled early in the season. I wonder if the “slow build” story the showrunners are maintaining now is really the case – if so, they didn’t do it very effectively – or if, like many other series, it just took them a while to hit a stride. With recent episodes, including tie-ins to “Captain America: The Winter Soldier,” “SHIELD” is finally clicking. I hope it doesn’t falter again in the final episodes of the season.

“Dallas.” I miss J.R. I miss Larry Hagman. But the series is good, soapy fun.

“Arrow.” It’s possible I’m not enjoying any series on TV more than this take on the classic DC hero. The cast is really good, the stories are fun and the show is stuffed with comics characters. What’s not to like?

“Justified.” One of my favorite series, “Justified” had an uneven series at best. Lawman Raylan and outlaw Boyd and their supporting players were good, but the messy Crowe family story just didn’t do it for me. Next year is the final season and the last scene of this past season forecast the story: Raylan vs. Boyd. Can’t wait.

“The Mindy Project.” This Mindy Kaling comedy is funnier than I ever expected. I wish it would run for 10 years.

“Community” and “Parks and Recreation.” With only one episode left this season – and its future uncertain – “Community” has bounced back this year with the return of controversial creator Dan Harmon. It’s so odd and inside baseball that it’ll never grow in viewership. I just hope it hangs on. And “Park” has grown from a series full of oddballs to a series with characters I really care about.

I’ve probably forgotten something. With “Mad Men” back tonight and “Orphan Black” returning April 19, we’ve got more weeks of good viewing ahead.

But you know what? I think I miss “Sleepy Hollow” more than anything.

‘Star Trek: The Next Generation’ – ‘Yesterday’s Enterprise’

“Yesterday’s Enterprise” might not be my favorite episode of “Star Trek: The Next Generation” – that top spot might go to “Best of Both Worlds” or “Starship Mine” or “Inner Light” or a handful of others – but it’s one that I stop and rematch every single time it’s on.
“Yesterday’s Enterprise” was the 15th episode of the third season of “TNG,” airing in February 1990. The series had found its footing by that point. What seemed like an awkward, stilted attempt to reboot the “Star Trek” franchise became its own show, with relatable characters and a cohesive, intriguing universe.
That said, “Yesterday’s Enterprise” took a risk that a few series take at some point in their run: Twisting that established universe and showing fans what might have been. The original “Star Trek” did it, most famously, with its “Mirror, Mirror” universe. “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” did it better than almost anyone. Heck, in recent years, even “Community” did it, with its “Darkest Timeline” stories, in which beloved Abed suggests everyone adopt Spock-style goatees to signify the twist.
With “Yesterday’s Enterprise,” “TNG” went in a fascinating direction. A team of writers – four are credited with the screenplay and two with the story – and director David Carson took us to a dark place: An alternate universe in which the Federation has been at war with the Klingon empire for many years.
The familiar Enterprise, under the command of Captain Picard, encounters another ship coming out of a rift in time. The ship is the Enterprise-C, and its appearance in the “TNG” reality catapults Picard and the crew of the Enterprise-D from the show’s familiar setting to the war-torn universe.

 

The change in timeline means more than a change in the look of the ship. Klingon officer Worf is, obviously, no longer on the ship. But Tasha Yar (Denise Crosby, most recently seen in “The Walking Dead”) is back. Yar has been dead for a couple of years in the mainstream universe, but no one knows this in the rebooted, twisted universe, just like no one knows the Federation really isn’t at war with the Klingons in “our” universe.
No one but Guinan (Whoopi Goldberg), the enigmatic alien who tends Ten Forward, the Enterprise-D’s bar.
Against all probability, Picard finds that Guinan’s warnings of the disrupted timeline make sense and has a fateful decision to make. If he sends the Enterprise-C and its crew, including Captain Rachel Garrett and helmsman Richard Castillo, back into the time rift and certain death. But doing so might “correct” the twisted timeline.
It’s a fascinating, spooky “what might have been” episode.
Random thoughts:
The crew did a lot to suggest the wartime Enterprise-D with darker sets, more “war room” type display panels and a few minor costume adjustments. Neither “TNG” or any TV series of the time had money to burn on individual episodes, so a little had to go a long way.
“Yesterday’s Enterprise” was an example of what “Star Trek” always did best: Raising the stakes and building to a suspenseful climax.
The weight of Federation history weighs heavily on this episode and the writers, director and cast rise to the occasion.
The guest cast was good. Richard McDonald played Castillo in a kind of Ryker-ish style. McDonald has been a good character actor for years now, and he’s maybe best known for this and his role as the idiot husband in “Thelma and Louise.” Not to mention Shooter McGavin in “Happy Gilmore.”
And I’ve always loved Tricia O’Neil, who played Captain Garrett. She’s gorgeous and authoritative. I wish we had seen more of her adventures. Or more of her in this episode, for that matter. Her early death leaves her ship in the hands of Castillo and Yar.

 

‘Community’ – watching and hoping

“Community” has always been an offbeat sitcom. It’s kind of hard to imagine that the Dan Harmon creation ever got on the air.

Ostensibly the antics of a wacky and diverse bunch of adults attending classes at a community college, the show – which had its fourth-season premiere Thursday – quickly took off on its own path.

With its self-absorbed and sometimes even hard-to-take characters, its odd stories and its completely off-kilter style – an entire Christmas episode in Claymation-style animation? Another mostly depicted in old video-game style graphics? One that takes its cues from a “Law and Order” episode? – “Community” is one of those shows that inspires either absolute fanhood or absolute irritation.

You don’t have to be a fan of the show, in other words – but it helps.

Over the course of the first three seasons, Harmon and cast created some truly classic episodes, including the first-season-ending paintball war that exploded action movie cliches; the most high-stakes and heartfelt game of Dungeons & Dragons ever; an epic blanket fort; the machinations of the evil heating and air conditioning wing of the school; the characters exploring various timelines, including the darkest, complete with “Evil Spock” goatees; the highlights go on and on.

There’s no question that “Community” is unique in TV history.

Harmon was, by some accounts, a “difficult” personality and clashed with Chevy Chase, who by almost every account was as big an ass on the set as was his character.

So Harmon got fired from his own show before this fourth season began.

I watched the season opener and liked it pretty well. The story’s conceit – that mentally fragile Abed (Danny Pudi), confronted by the likelihood that their community college careers were coming to an end, retreated into a world that played out in a standard sitcom format where the characters were simpler, the laugh track made everything seem easier and Fred Willard played Chase’s role – seemed like vintage “Community.”

But something about the show seemed … off.

I’ll still be watching “Community.” I’ll have my fingers crossed that the low-rated show gets a full season – although I can’t imagine it will achieve the Twitter hashtag #sixseasonsandamovie goal – and that the show won’t wither without Harmon.

I’m hoping for a good timeline, in other words.

My favorite TV shows of 2012

Summing-up articles: It’s what writers do at the end of the year.

I’ve enjoyed sharing my thoughts on movies, TV and books in 2012, the first full year of this blog, and have enjoyed getting feedback from readers. The blog had almost 100,000 page views in 2012 so obviously a few people are checking it out.

I’m not going to rank my favorite TV shows – or the movies and books that will hopefully come in later blog entries – in order of preference. I’ll note, at times, those that I thought really stood out. But I didn’t see enough of any TV and movies and couldn’t come close to reading enough books to say conclusively these were the best of the best. They were just my favorites.

FYI you can probably find earlier reviews of most of these by clicking on the tags at the end.

Here are my favorite TV shows of the year:

“The Mindy Project” is maybe the biggest surprise (and one I haven’t written about yet). Mindy Kaling left “The Office” and struck out on her own with a smart and absurdly funny series that makes me think of “Community” in its mix of smart, funny and strange.

“Mad Men” struck some people as somehow deficient last season. I disagree. The tensions at home and in the office, the relationship between Don and Megan and the awful, horrible, sad end of Lane Pryce added up to a very good season.

Likewise, I’m sure some preferred the first or second season of “Justified” over the third, and I can’t totally disagree. But the third had so many wonderful moments and wild card characters like out-of-town drug dealer Quarles. And there’s no cooler lawman on TV than Tim Olyphant’s Raylan Givens.

“The Walking Dead” is only in the middle of its third season but has improved greatly over the second, farm-bound season. The prison, Woodbury, Michonne, the Governor and the return of Merle. How could you not like that?

“Parks and Recreation,” “Community” and “30 Rock” are my favorite comedies on TV right now. “Parks” is just so consistently funny and goofy, like the scene showing how people drink from the water fountains in Pawnee. “30 Rock” is about gone and “Community,” after losing its creator, could soon follow. But the bizarre “Liz Lemon as the Joker” episode of “30 Rock” and the meta chaos of “Community” will live on in my memory.

Last but definitely not least, we were treated to another three-episode season of “Sherlock” this year. Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman are close to becoming my favorite portrayers of Holmes and Watson. And Lara Pulver as Irene Adler? Wow.

Classic TV: ‘Community’ ‘Remedial Chaos Theory’

I’m not sure there’s anything on TV like “Community,” and that’s probably worked against the viewership of the show.

The NBC sitcom is about as atypical a situation comedy as anything airing now. The premise – a diverse group of misfits forms a family while attending a community college – isn’t novel.

But during its first three seasons, under the guidance of creator Dan Harmon, “Community” became something more.

There were inklings of the show’s inherent “different-ness” in the first season, certainly. But the first-season finale, in which the regulars and the large supporting cast wage war in an on-campus paintball match to win “priority status” for class registration, established the show as surely as “Prophecy Girl,” the first-season finale of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” established that series as one for the ages.

The paintball episode played, with furious and hilarious seriousness, like an action movie, “Terminator” by way of John Woo, with standoffs and ambushes and devilish double-crosses. All played against expectations.

My favorite moment is when off-kilter geek Abed (Danny Pudi) rushes up to snarky lawyer Jeff (Joel McHale) and intones, “Come with me if you don’t want paint on your clothes.” Fans of the “Terminator” movies recognized that line.

Throughout the second and third seasons, “Community” deepened its characters – a group that is frequently at each others’ throats but can’t live without each other – and raised the freak flag higher. An episode revolving around a game of Dungeons and Dragons was funny and touching.

By the time “Remedial Chaos Theory” aired early in the third season, Harmon and the cast and crew knew they could get away with a lot. And they did. As the characters gathered at a housewarming party for roommates Abed and Troy (Donald Glover), they rolled dice to see who would go downstairs to meet the pizza delivery guy.

With each roll of the dice, another reality unfolded. Friendships ended, relationships began and lives were lost, for god’s sake. It was all funny and incredibly clever and mind-bending in a way precisely unlike any show on TV right now.

The show has mixed in a tremendous amount of geekery in a manner that’s less showy but more genuine than the amusing “Big Bang Theory.” After “Remedial Chaos Theory,” the series explored the other, “darkest timeline” and, with a nod to the “Star Trek” mirror universe, Troy and Abed donned Evil Spock-like goatees.

When “Community” returns on Oct. 19, it will be without Harmon, a creative man bounced from his own show, if we’re to believe his own account and those of others, over huge differences in temperament and people skills.

So I’m not sure what “Community” will be like when it returns. Will it be just a silly sitcom? Will it continue to defy expectations and conventions? We’ll know soon.

TV: What I’m watching, given up on and looking forward to

When I was a kid, besides going back to school and the run-up to Halloween, this time of year was a big deal for me because of the new fall TV season.

Yes, I was a TV geek.

I eagerly anticipated the fall season, which usually had at least one or two shows that I wanted to see. Besides, who could guess just how great “The Night Stalker” or “Planet of the Apes” (the TV series) might make the fall of 1974?

There’s less anticipation about the fall TV season nowadays because the TV year is so fractured – worthwhile series debut throughout the calendar year – and, speaking only for myself, I watch less TV.

Because I watch less TV, I try to make every random hour and half-hour count.

So here’s what I’m watching right now as well as what I’m anticipating, what I’ve given up on and what I’m worried about.

“Copper” is a BBC America series – the channel’s first original production – that just debuted last Sunday. It’s about cops in New York City in 1864. The city was a lawless place, full of casual cruelty to children and others who couldn’t defend themselves, and the police department wasn’t much better. Into the mix comes Kevin Corcoran (Tom Weston-Jones), an Irish-American veteran of the Civil War who has come back to the city to find his wife missing and his child dead. The series, which has a nice gritty tone, follows Corcoran as he investigates crimes – the murder of a child prostitute in the first episodes, for example – and patrols the grimy streets and brothels of the city.

“Justified” is returning for a fourth season sometime in early 2013 and it’s likely that our favorite Kentucky-born-and-bred U.S. marshal, Raylan Givens, and his longtime friend and sometimes antagonist, Boyd Crowder, will find themselves up against some new lowlife. Timothy Olyphant and Walton Goggins lead a great cast.

We don’t have to wait until next year to see “The Walking Dead.” The AMC series returns on Oct. 14 for its third season. The series will be split between the prison the survivors were near in the final episode of last season and the town of Woodbury, presided over by the Governor. The first eight episodes air this year, with eight more beginning in February.

I’m not sure when “Mad Men” and “Falling Skies” will be back – hopefully early in 2013 – but I’ll be watching the two very different series. Both came off solid seasons this year.

Few series have been as enjoyable in the past three years as NBC’s “Community,” an odd and offbeat show about a group of misfits who become friends in a study group at a second-rate community college. But I’m worried about “Community” this year after the departure of creator Dan Harmon. By most accounts a genius with people skills issues, Harmon got fired at the end of last season. The cast is great and the stories – complete with blanket forts, paintball apocalypses and genuinely nice character moments – are wonderful. But can the show survive without Harmon? Or will it become another kooky sitcom like “Scrubs?”

I’m not sure I’ll be around for a second season of “Longmire,” the A&E series based on Craig Johnson’s enjoyable series of mystery novels about a Wyoming sheriff. The show looked pretty good and the cast was fine, but the mysteries were mediocre. When the show did take a page from one of Johnson’s stories, as it did in the season finale, it didn’t bring the author’s charms.

I’m not sure I’m looking forward to anything on TV quite as much as a live-action Marvel Comics series set in the “Avengers” movie universe. Luke Cage? Daredevil? S.H.I.E.L.D? Where will creative genius and “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” mastermind Joss Whedon take this series? Wherever it is, I’m following.

The best part about TV is that, in any given season, some really terrific show can suddenly appear and make you glad you gave it a try. I’ve felt that way about every show on this list at one time or another.

‘Community’ returns March 15

For a while there, it looked like “Community” was finished.

The innovative, clever and — most importantly — funny NBC comedy seemed destined to fade into the land of dead-bef0re-their-time shows like “Freaks and Geeks” and “Undeclared.” A few months ago, NBC interrupted the third season of the show and said it would return to the air … sometime.

At least “Community” fans would have the comfort of knowing their show, about a collection of lovable oddballs hanging out at a second-rate community college, had lasted two, nearly three seasons.

But today, NBC announced that “Community” would return on March 15. True, the series will air at 8 p.m. Thursdays, opposite CBS’ uber-popular nerd comedy “Big Bang Theory.” But at least “Community” is coming back.

If all the talk about how offbeat “Community” is has discouraged you from trying it … don’t be discouraged. The show, created by Dan Harmon and starring a diverse and appealing cast, is a little odd. I mean, how many series can boast of a Christmas episode in which the characters act out a goofy, heartfelt fantasy set in “Rudolph” style Claymation?

Trust me. “Community” goes to extremes — the paintball episode that ended the first season was an amazing send-up of every action movie cliche ever — but it’s genuinely funny and doesn’t take a lot of effort to appreciate.

So check it out. For both of us.

And, for no apparent reason, here’s a drawing by artist Chris Schweizer of the “Community” cast as Marvel’s “The Avengers.” No idea why. I just came across it and had to share it.

I think my favorite part is Abed as the Vision. Classic.

‘Community’ deserves to live

If you’re not watching “Community” … why not?

If you pay attention to the comings and goings of TV shows, you might have heard that NBC has put its Thursday night comedy, “Community,” on hold for the foreseeable future. Maybe the show will come back after the first of the year. Maybe not until spring. Who knows?

Chances are this news doesn’t mean much to you. By virtue of the fact that “Community” is in danger of being canceled, it’s pretty obvious that the ratings are the suck.

So here’s a plea: Check the show out. It airs tonight — in just a few minutes, actually — but is available on demand and online.

Maybe an uptick in ratings will help convince NBC to put the show back on the air.

Why is “Community” worth saving?

Well, it’s funny, for one thing. But more than that, it’s offbeat. It is not your typical, laugh-track driven comedy.

Case in point: The recent third season episode “Remedial Chaos Theory,” in which the cast — misfit students at a community college — roll the dice to see who will answer the door when pizza is delivered and find themselves exploring several alternate realities. Any episode that includes a “fake goatee” nod to “Star Trek” without ever quite ‘fessing up to it gets my vote for funny and innovative.

Or the first-season episode about a campus-wide paintball game in which the participants quickly degenerated into cutthroat competitors. The episode mined every possible action movie cliche for big laughs.

Or the episode where the group manned a Kentucky Fried Chicken-themed spaceflight simulator. Or the episode that’s animated like an old Christmas special. Or the fake clip show!

Don’t be put off by what some might consider the oddball cast and plots. It’s a comedy about disparate types thrown together by circumstance, like “Friends” or “Seinfeld,” and it’s funny. And the cast is wonderful: Joel McHale, Chevy Chase, Danny Pudi and the adorable Alison Brie to name a few.

Here’s hoping “Community” gets a second chance. Like the “alternative realities” episode, there’s got to be a few possibilities left in the show’s future.