Community (2009) TV Review

Community is one of those rare shows that is enjoyable to watch from start to finish even when some seasons aren't as good as others, or are just outright horrible seasons of Television. It struggled through it's entire run and it didn't have an easy, overnight, success like The Big Bang Theory and How I Met Your Mother had just a couple of years before. And it certainly didn't have as large a fanbase as other sitcoms of it's type like The Office, Modern Family, 30 Rock, and Parks and Recreation ended up having either. So the fact that it's an underdog series about a group of misfits and underdogs makes it that much more appealing to me in a way that even The Big Bang Theory couldn't. And The Big Bang Theory was one of my favourite sitcoms of all time. 

Community was never afraid to take risks and do things that went against what was expected for a sitcom of this type. It not only had a solid continuity but it did entire episodes that could never have been done on any other show. For example "Basic Lupine Urology" is an episode where they shoot it like it's an episode from Law & Order as an homage of that show. Another example is the final two episodes of season 2 "A Fistful of Paintballs" and "For a Few Paintballs More". They're an homage to the Clint Eastwood Spaghetti Westerns A Fistful of Dollars and For a Few Dollars More as well as The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. Except they're also a sequel to "Modern Warfare" the paintball episode from season 1. No other sitcom could get away with doing episodes like these without it feeling forced and ridiculous.

That's the thing about Community. It's stupid and ridiculous, but nobody cares that it's stupid and ridiculous because it works so well. That comes down to Dan Harmon and the writers. They understand that the show isn't about the school and it isn't about the jokes and gags and Meta Humour. It's about people. Specifically the people who attend Greendale Community College and how they connect and relate to one another. It's about Jeff and Britta hooking up for almost an entire season with nobody but Abed knowing about it. It's about Pierce feeling left out and marginalized because he's problematic and nobody wants to be around him. It's about Abed feeling alienated and frustrated because he can't connect to people the way he wants to. It's about Annie feeling insecure because she's the youngest member of the Study Group and feels she has something to prove. It's about the group coming together and supporting each other when nobody else will.

The reason the characters are so relatable and likable is because they're flawed Human Beings. Not only are they flawed, but they never actually overcome those flaws. Like real people, these characters acknowledge those flaws and accept them, but their growth doesn't come from erasing those flaws. Instead the growth comes from their acceptance of those flaws and learning how to come to terms with themselves as people. Which is something that TV shows rarely do with their characters. Jeff is still selfish in the series finale, and that never changes throughout the entirety of the show, but he learns to acknowledge that he's selfish and his friends learn to accept that Jeff will always be a selfish jerk, but will come through for them when they need him to be there for them. 

Back in my season 1 review I said that Abed and Annie are my favourite characters on the show and that stayed pretty consistent throughout the show, though I came to appreciate other characters as each season went along. But now, having seen all 110 episodes across all six seasons, I can say that without a doubt Abed is my absolute favourite character on Community. Not only was he consistently well written throughout the entire series and Danny Pudi played him extremely well, but Abed is the character that I can relate to the most. I'm autistic and because of that I find it difficult to understand people and oftentimes people like me aren't portrayed on Television or in movies or if they are they're done so in a way that draws attention to them. However with Abed, that portrayal isn't done for a laugh or to satisfy a checklist of minority groups that need to be on the show. He embraces his weird behaviour as do his friends, much like how I embrace my weird behaviour as do my friends. This series shows that people who are on the Spectrum are just like everyone else, except we just behave a little differently than most people would to varying degrees. 

Another character that I really came to love and admire is Britta. At first she was played up as a joke because she was an activist who became a psychology major. But by the end of the series, she was just a person struggling to get through a regular day without screwing something up. Just like everyone else in this crazy world. And just like the rest of us, she puts her pants on the same way we do, one leg at a time. Well, except for the time she put them on while hopping balconies so that Abed wouldn't find out that she and Troy had started sleeping together. Like me, Britta's plans for college didn't pan out the way she'd thought they would. She didn't get her Psych degree any more than I got my diploma in Radio Broadcasting. Yet she continued at Greendale, much like I continued at Algonquin College after Radio Broadcasting didn't work out for me. And that makes her relatable.

My two absolute favourite episodes in the entire series are both Abed centric episodes. The first is "Abed's Uncontrollable Christmas" from season 2. Not only is it a great Christmas special done in the stop motion animation style favoured by Rankin/Bass in most of their Christmas specials from the '60s and '70s, but it's also an exploration of how Abed is feeling after discovering that his mom won't be able to join him for Christmas despite the fact that she's done so every year since her and Abed's dad divorced. It's also about how the Study Group steps in as Abed's surrogate family over the holidays.

My other favourite episode in the entire series is "Virtual Systems Analysis" from season 3. This episode deals with Abed's feelings concerning his friends. After Annie encourages Britta and Troy to go out on a lunch date during their extended lunch break, she joins Abed in the Dreamatorium, a room that looks like the Holodeck from Star Trek: The Next Generation and discovers that her encouragement of Britta and Troy made Abed afraid that he was going to lose Troy if Troy got a girlfriend. Which is how I've felt sometimes when one of my friends has gotten a boyfriend or a girlfriend. Which is absurd, but that's how I've felt and that's how Abed has felt in this episode. I also like that Annie learns to loosen up a bit as well and become more tolerant of Abed's behaviour.

While Community's strength comes from Dan Harmon, and season 4 didn't have him, when he returned for season 5, it helped a little bit, but the season started showing the failing health of the series, as NBC seemed to have lost interest in the show and probably hoped that them firing Harmon would result in the show being canceled. Which didn't happen, even after the showrunners they hired for season 4 left at the end of the season because their contract was for one year only. Instead Harmon returned but the show continued to decline in quality because it had been disrupted by the change in showrunners and the arrival of showrunners that just didn't understand the show they were in charge of. They just saw it as a typical sitcom, which it isn't.

Final Thoughts and Rating: Overall Community is a fun, wacky, enjoyable show that was so easy to binge. I generally have a difficult time with comedies because I don't understand the humour in them very well and oftentimes that's all there is to the show or movie. But Community has substance and heart as well as characters I can relate to and believe they could be real people, despite the insanity that happens in it. I would definitely recommend checking it out if you've never seen it before. It is absolutely the kind of show that we need right now. Now, if only we could get the movie part of the hashtag Six Seasons and a Movie. Despite seasons 4, 5, and 6 being significantly lower in quality than the first three seasons, the series as a whole was compelling through the entire run. Therefore I'm giving Community 9/10 stars. 

IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1439629/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0

Community (2009) Season 6 TV Season Review

The sixth season of Community is slightly better than season 5 was, but it was not as good as seasons 1, 2, and 3 are. In fact season 4 signaled the death of the series and it slowly died until season 6, episode 13, where it ended without much fanfare. However there are a few things that I really like in this season so it wasn't entirely unwatchable. Story wise it just didn't work as well as it was supposed to.

One of the things that I liked about this season is that the theme of change and accepting change is prevalent throughout the season. Our lives change all the time. We don't stay in the same status quo forever, but sometimes we have difficulty accepting that change. Especially if we've been doing something for six years or been with the same people for six years. This is a theme that has run through the last three seasons. Moreso in season 4, but also a little bit in season 5 with the death of Pierce and the departure of Troy. Oddly enough in both season 4 and season 6 this theme is explored through Jeff. In season 4 they're all graduating, but Jeff is graduating early and he isn't sure if he's ready yet. In this season, Jeff is afraid of being left behind because he's a teacher at Greendale at this point in the series, and everyone else on the Save Greendale Committee are students who will eventually leave the school. It's something I can relate to quite a bit as my friends have all come and gone at various points in my life and the only changes I've personally experienced since I got out of college was moving from one house to another. 

Something else that I liked this season was the addition of Paget Brewster as Frankie Dart, the new consultant that the Dean hired to help fix up Greendale, and Keith David as Elroy Patashnik, the new head of the school's IT department. As characters they fit right in with the already established cast, even if their stories didn't really pan out the way Dan Harmon may have hoped they would. I'm not familiar with Paget Brewster's work at all, aside from her cameo as Greendale's former head of the IT department in season 5, but I'm pretty familiar with Keith David. Though I'm more used to his voice acting work as he was the voice of Goliath on Gargoyles and then the voice of Al Simmons/Spawn in the Spawn animated series in the '90s. Of course he's also narrated some documentaries, including one about the history of comic books. Aside from his role in the 2003 movie Agent Cody Banks, this is the first time I've seen him in live action.

The problem with the new characters is that, while they fit in with the established cast, they didn't really contribute anything to the season as a whole. The writers kept pairing them up with different characters but nothing stuck. For example in the season premiere, Frankie and Abed bond as Frankie understands Abed, due to the fact that her sister has a mental disability, though it's not specified as to which one, much like Abed's was never revealed on the show. But then they don't have any scenes alone together like their initial lunchtime scene in the season premiere, for the rest of the season. I was actually interested in that dynamic, because there was chemistry there between Danny Pudi and Paget Brewster. Unfortunately it fizzled out.

I think that's the biggest problem with this season as a whole. Everything just fizzles out. Stories aren't great, and the character dynamic was heavily messed up as almost half the original cast was gone as Shirley left between seasons. And while it shook things up, it probably did the most damage to the show. Even the chemistry between Jeff and Britta was pretty much gone this season. They had one scene together in the second episode of the season, after Britta discovered that her parents, played wonderfully by Martin Mull and Lesley Ann Warren, were secretly supporting her financially through her friends. But that's it. Even Annie and Abed didn't have an episode together this season, which was disappointing because I really felt like Annie would become the new Troy to Abed following Donald Glover's departure in the previous season. No such luck.

My favourite episodes this season were episode 8 "Intro to Recycled Cinema" and the series finale, episode 13 "Emotional Consequences of Broadcast Television". "Intro to Recycled Cinema" was the closest this season got to returning to the show's glory days in the first three seasons. It was wacky, it was strange and it told us something new about one of the characters. It's the episode where Jeff admits to Abed that he's afraid of being left behind, as Pierce died, Troy left to go sailing around the world with Levar Burton, Shirley left to go take care of her dying family member, and in this episode it looked like Chang was leaving to pursue an acting career in Hollywood. And then eventually Britta, Annie and Abed would leave too, with Annie becoming president, leaving Jeff alone at Greendale.

"Emotional Consequences of Broadcast Television" is probably the best series finale of a sitcom that I have ever seen. The series finale of The Big Bang Theory comes close, but the reason I like this episode so much is that it was simple. There was no grand story, no making a big deal out of it being the series finale. It just was. Annie and Abed left at the end, but they just had fun talking about what a seventh season of Community would be like. Jeff had two ideas. The first played into his fears of being left behind from "Intro to Recycled Cinema" and so the seventh season is where everyone gets a job teaching at Greendale and Jeff is the new Dean, with Pelton taking classes on how to be a better Dean. Jeff's second idea is where he's working at Greendale still, but he's married to Annie and they have a child named Sebastian. 

The thing I like most about "Emotional Consequences of Broadcast Television" is that Abed says something that really resonated with me about TV. Here's the quote from Abed: "There is skill to it (pitching a TV show). More importantly it has to be joyful, effortless, fun. TV defeats it's own purpose when it's pushing an agenda, or trying to defeat other TV or being proud or ashamed of itself for existing. It's TV, it's comfort. It's a friend you've known so well, and for so long you just let it be with you, and it needs to be okay for it to have a bad day or phone in day. And it needs to be okay for it to get on a boat with Levar Burton and never come back. Because, eventually it all will".

That speech resonates with me because not only does it remind me that change is inevitable, but it also reminds me of what TV's role is in the world. As Abed said, TV defeats it's own purpose when it's pushing an agenda, or trying to defeat other TV or being proud or ashamed of itself for existing. Which, unfortunately, is what I'm finding to be the problem with modern TV shows, with few exceptions. It's why I can't get excited about Star Trek: Strange New Worlds just from a premise announced by the person who has all but destroyed the Star Trek franchise for many people, why I couldn't get into Batwoman and why I'm probably not going to watch Stargirl if we get it here in Canada on Netflix or on CTV Sci-Fi Channel. It's also why I stopped watching The Flash and why I'm not sure I'll watch season 6 of DC's Legends of Tomorrow. It's just not fun to watch TV anymore. 

Final Thoughts and Rating: Overall season 6 of Community was a mess. reducing the episode count to thirteen episodes per season was a huge mistake on NBC's part in season 4 and 5 and then keeping it to thirteen episodes when it moved to Yahoo! Screen for season 6. Stories were not well written, despite Harmon's involvement in the season, and the character dynamic just wasn't what it was in the show's first three seasons. I don't blame Harmon or the cast for that at all. Harmon was busy with Rick and Morty, and the fact that Community was already canceled and was running on fumes for season 6 on an untried streaming service hindered the show further. While my investment in the characters kept me around to the very end, the show itself was destined to eventually crash and burn. I'm giving Community season 6 5/10 stars because I still love the characters and the overall premise of the show, but the final season just didn't work as well as it could've, because just like with season 5, there was potential that was wasted.

Wikipedia:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community_(season_6)

Community (2009) Season 5 TV Season Review

Community Season 5 is probably the most disappointing season of the series for me. With season 4 I understood that a different creative team was producing the show and naturally it would go in different directions from what Harmon might've had planned for a fourth season. But season 5 felt like Harmon had given up because he knew that NBC had already canceled the show and he was also busy working on Rick and Morty by this point so he had other priorities than just Community.

Aside from the 13 episode number count for the season, which doesn't do any show any good if it doesn't start out as a 13 episodes (or shorter) per season show, like a lot of streaming shows are these days, my biggest problem with this season is the addition of a pointless character, and the departure of another character. Not to mention the now tiresome trope of pretending to make Chang be a good guy for once, but then push him right back into the villain role that he's been playing since the third season. Especially after the Changnesia crap in season 4. As much as I love Ken Jeong, I think his character of Ben Chang has worn out his welcome and should've been written out after the Changnesia thing.

The new character/attempted Pierce replacement, Buzz Hickey had a lot of potential, but like Pierce by season 3, they didn't really give the character much to do. They also didn't really pair him up with another character, even though they tried to pair him up with Jeff early on in the season. That fell apart after only an episode, and they ended up pairing him up with a different character each episode but nothing stuck. Hickey also didn't really contribute anything to the group dynamic. Jonathan Banks, the actor who played Hickey, has been in numerous TV shows and movies since the '70s, including a bunch of them that I've seen. So that's cool. It's just his character didn't add anything this season.

Donald Glover's departure at the beginning of this season is also another reason I'm disappointed with this season. Troy was there from the beginning and his friendship with Abed is one of the reasons I fell in love with this show to begin with. While I understand Glover's reason for leaving the show, it just sucked that it ended up happening right after Chevy Chase left the show at the end of season 4 and that it broke up the best relationship on the show. On the other hand it did allow Abed to interact with the other characters more, and it also helped to develop the Annie and Abed friendship as well, sort of. Before Troy left Annie was usually off with Britta or Shirley or Jeff and aside from the late season 3 episode where Annie and Abed hung out in the Dreamatorium, they almost never had any subplots together. And when they did they were usually a C or D plot and never lasted an entire episode. I had to laugh when Abed and Annie have a scene together in the season finale, and they're talking, and Annie looks at Abed as if she realizes she has a crush on him or is about to kiss him, and Abed then reminds her that he has a girlfriend. Which the audience had probably forgotten about by this point since Brie Larson hadn't appeared since episode 9, which was the VCR board game episode.

Aside from Annie and Abed and the further development of their friendship, there are a few other things that I really enjoyed this season. Like Dean Pelton, played by the wonderful Jim Rash, really grew on me this season after being super obnoxious in previous seasons. I don't know, there's just a quality to the character that was missing in previous seasons. Maybe it's because the Dean isn't as over the top this season or maybe it's because he's an actual character this season instead of a caricature. Either way the Dean was amazing this season. He started to become cool towards the end of last season, but prior to that he just didn't work for me as a character that I could believe could be a real person.

Another thing I liked about this season is the way that Jeff was brought back to Greendale. It mirrors how he arrived there in the pilot episode, but it also progresses the character further. Which is nice because I felt like Jeff didn't have a whole lot to do in season 4 in comparison to other characters like Britta and Troy and Abed. I mean this season he also didn't have a whole lot to do, but he was a teacher which automatically gave him more to do.

My favourite episode this season is episode 10 "Advanced Advanced Dungeons & Dragons", the sequel to the season 2 episode "Advanced Dungeons & Dragons". I've never played Dungeons & Dragons before, so that aspect of those two episodes didn't appeal to me so much as seeing the group do something all together was. In season 2 it was to prevent Neil from feeling bad about himself, due to everyone calling him Fat Neil, and in this season it was to help Buzz reconnect with his son, played by David Cross. 

Final Thoughts and Rating: Overall season 5 of Community didn't completely gel for me like previous seasons did. It was okay and was definitely better than season 4, but the smaller episode count, plus the fact that NBC had already canceled the series kind of made this season weaker. It also had the worst season finale of the entire show so far. I'm giving Community season 5 5/10 stars for trying but just falling short due to many different factors involved with the season's production. 

Wikipedia:    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community_(season_5)

Red Knight (2011) #2 Comic Book Review

Most of you reading this blog have probably never heard of Red Knight before. In fact, you've probably never heard of Justin Cristelli or Primal Paper Comics before either. I won't hold it against you because Primal Paper Comics is a small publisher and Justin Cristelli has never worked for any of the major comic book publishers before. However, if you watched Geekvolution on YouTube in the early to mid 2010s then you might recognize the name, The Real Manos, a YouTuber who collaborated with Captain Logan on the channel numerous times from about 2011 until 2016 or 2017. The Real Manos is Justin Cristelli and these days he's working on republishing Red Knight under his own company, Manos Publishing.

I first heard about Red Knight when Captain Logan reviewed the first three issues on an episode of Geekvolution's comic book review show, The Comic Vault with another long time partner, Dan Torrey, back when most of the shows on Geekvolution were in podcast form. I thought it was a really cool concept and I bought four issues. Unfortunately the first issue was out of print as were issue #'s 4 and 6. There were only seven issues out at that point in 2015 when I got them, so I bought issues 2, 3, 5 and 7. I reviewed all four issues on the original Geek Outpost blog, the predecessor to the original Review Basement Word Press blog. As a thank you for reviewing the books, Justin sent me a PDF digital copy of Red Knight #1 so I could eventually review the entire first arc, which spanned the first three issues. Sadly I don't have that digital copy anymore as it was on my old HP Netbook which died before I could transfer it over to my external hard drive. But during my comic book purges of 2015 and 2016 I kept all four issues that I'd bought from Justin.

Despite it being the second issue of the series, and the middle part of a three part story arc, Red Knight #2 is actually a pretty great jumping on point if you were unfortunate enough to have missed the first issue. Justin made sure there was a previously section as a summary for readers to be caught up before reading the issue. The two main characters are Todd McClain, who takes on the mantle of Red Knight to fight crime in Norfolk, Virginia during a time when superheroes are illegal, outside of a group of government sanctioned ones, and Detective Martha Brown who works for the Norfolk Police Department. After an attempt at stopping supervillains goes wrong, Martha arrests Todd's friends/partners Ben Lee a.k.a. Nonstop and Wendy Harper a.k.a. Fireball for violation of the anti vigilante/superhero laws that are in effect.

One of the things that I like about this series in general and this issue in particular is the humour that Justin injected into his writing. For example, there's a scene where Todd and his uncle, Nathan, are in the alleyway behind the bar that Todd owns and runs and Nathan unveils the Red Knight Mobile, and Todd points out that it's just his dad's old moving van. Nathan then remarks that it's easier to conceal than a fancy red sports car would be in the event that the cops were chasing them. This is a gentle nudge at the fact that Batman drives around in a car that was designed to resemble a bat on wheels.

I also like and appreciate that Justin wrote Todd as an old-fashioned superhero with morals and ethics who doesn't kill the criminals he catches. Too often superheroes have become just costumed vigilantes who kill and maim the bad guys in modern comics, and so it's even more refreshing now in 2020 than it even would've been in 2011 when this issue came out to have a new superhero who doesn't kill.

The artwork is a bit on the rough side of things. Being a completely independent book, Justin couldn't hire a colourist, so the book is in black and white, except for the front cover. The artist, JC Grande is pretty good. The art is minimalistic, because again, it's an extremely independent comic published by a small comic book publisher not associated by any of the bigger independent publishers. But the art style actually fits the story that Justin is trying to tell here.

The original Primal Paper Comics release of Red Knight #2 is no longer available for purchase. However, last year Justin relaunched the entire Red Knight series directly through Manos Publishing and if I'm not mistaken he has a colourist who coloured JC Grande's artwork. I'll leave a link to the Manos Publishing website where you can find the three issues that are out so far. The first three issues were also collected into a trade paperback collected edition, Red Knight: A Knight Without a Sword that is still available through Amazon and has an introduction written by Captain Logan of Geekvolution.

Final Thoughts and Rating: Overall I think Red Knight #2 is a wonderful comic book. I'm not usually a fan of independent comics like this as I feel that no matter what they tend not to be up to the quality of the larger independent books and there isn't much to sink my teeth into. Red Knight is completely different and I'm glad that I at least have four issues of the series in my comic book collection. I'm giving Red Knight #2 10/10 stars because it's fun, it's funny, it's exciting and it doesn't leave you lost if you didn't get to read the first issue.

Manos Publishing Website:   https://www.manospublishing.com/products

The World of Teddy Ruxpin Volume 3: Escape From the Treacherous Mountain (1987) VHS Review

Escape From the Treacherous Mountain, the third volume in the Teddy Ruxpin VHS series, is a tape I didn't own, but I remember renting one time. It was the summer of 1993, my siblings and I were staying at the apartment of a friend of the family for the weekend while my parents moved us out of our townhouse in the city to an old, but refurbished, log house in the country and the friend of the family rented this tape for us. My sister doesn't remember this, being she was only three years old at the time, but I remember it quite vividly because it was the first Teddy Ruxpin tape I saw that wasn't one of the four that we owned. Plus it was the day we moved out to the country where I'd live for the next 23 years.

Like the previous volume, Escape From the Treacherous Mountain contains a single episode, with no editing of the episode itself. Though the live action outro is of course edited into the end of the episode like they are on the other tapes. Within the context of the TV series, The Adventures of Teddy Ruxpin, "Escape From the Treacherous Mountain" is the fifth episode of the series, and the final episode in the original five part pilot arc for the series, the one based off "The Airship" and "The Missing Princess" from the book and tape series for the original talking toy.

Because this is the finale it's also the most action oriented episode of the first arc. The Gutangs attack the airship and this battle takes up almost the entire episode. Even though Teddy and his friends don't have rocks or arrows, Grubby's root stew is a more dangerous weapon since it can gum up the propellor on the Gutangs' airplanes or cover the visor on the Gutangs' helmets, preventing them from seeing where they're going. Which is unique since it could be a lethal weapon depending on how the Gutangs react. Most, if not all, of the Gutangs we saw in their planes on screen bailed out so they either landed back at the Hard to Find City, or there were tons of them in the wooded area near the Treacherous Mountains when Teddy and the others landed in the airship to help Wooly. Which doesn't explain why the Gutangs didn't attack the group on the ground once they were down there.

The intro and outro to this one doesn't really have a theme that Teddy talks about like there was in the first two volumes. He talks about the crystals a little bit and then shows us the in box extra for this volume, which is a blank Family Tree that the child could fill in at some point. Which is kind of cool, because that was something we did at school when I was a kid. Of course because I didn't own this tape, I've never seen the Family Tree in person. Which is pretty much the same with all of the tapes aside from Guests of the Grunges as my original copies of Take a Good Look, Grubby's Romance and Tweeg Gets the Tweezles were actually rental copies that didn't include the extras inside the boxes and I didn't own the other tapes.

Overall, watching this tape again was pretty fun. As I mentioned before it was one rented for me during the transition from living in the city to living in the country, and it's the only one aside from the ones I owned that I ever saw growing up. The episode itself though I've seen numerous times as it was one of the episodes my dad taped off TV for me when I was really little and I have it on DVD as well, so I've watched it multiple times despite not owning this tape. Next week I'll be looking at a tape that I did own, Take a Good Look. Bye for now.

Community (2009) Season 4 TV Season Review

The fourth season of Community is an interesting thing to tackle because it's something that had a lot of hurdles to overcome. The season was shorter than the previous three seasons, it's airing was delayed until February 2013, and it signaled the departure of Dan Harmon and Chevy Chase from the series. However, not much else changed from previous seasons. Though Ken Jeong was in a reduced role as Chang, known as Kevin this season due to "Changnesia" which apparently a rare form of Amnesia brought on by Chang being completely insane following season 3. Trust me, I'll be getting into that a little bit later. Right now I want to talk about the controversy surrounding this season.

At the end of season 3 NBC fired Dan Harmon as showrunner and he and Chevy Chase got into a disagreement at the third season wrap party, resulting in Chase leaving the show during filming of season 4 and Pierce only being in two or three episodes during the back half of the season. This resulted in two new showrunners being brought in to fill in for Harmon. And, as what usually happens when a showrunner is replaced, this season ended up feeling different because different people were in charge of the show. Actually, Harmon wasn't completely fired. He was fired as showrunner, but was given the title of consulting producer, which as any Trekkie reading this review knows, is something that Paramount did to Gene Roddenberry following Star Trek: The Motion Picture and similar to what NBC did to Roddenberry in the third season of Star Trek. And like Roddenberry on the third season of Star Trek and the Star Trek films, Harmon didn't do any work on Community for the fourth season. At the same time Chevy Chase was unhappy with the way Pierce was being written on the show, feeling that the character didn't need be as racist as Harmon had written him to be through the first three seasons. Which is understandable given that Pierce is so unlikable in season 2 and Harmon never quite fixed that mistake in season 3.

One of the more fascinating aspects of this behind the scenes turmoil is that Adam F. Goldberg was hired as another consulting producer. He was only on this season as he'd already pitched The Goldbergs to ABC, and as I recall, the pilot filmed in April or May of 2013, as Community was wrapping up the fourth season, so Adam left and did his successful show that just got renewed for an eighth season. I don't actually know what contributions Adam made to Community but I suspect it wasn't significant if he'd already been working on developing The Goldbergs. I just thought it was interesting that he worked on Community while developing a show that's been on the air longer than I thought it would be.

The season, while consistent with previous seasons wasn't as well executed because they didn't have as many episodes this season as they'd been used to previously. Of course we're getting into the mid 2010s when thirteen episode seasons were becoming commonplace thanks to streaming services like Netflix and Hulu. The show however began in the era of twenty plus episode seasons being the norm and I don't think the writers on the show knew how to do shorter seasons.

One of the things this season gets crap for is the Britta and Troy romantic relationship. Which is understandable since the show had so far avoided pairing the study group into romantic couples. However, the Britta and Troy romantic relationship was seeded very early on in season 3, long before Harmon was fired as showrunner. Though if you're paying attention, it was actually hinted at in season 2, before it was revealed that Jeff and Britta had been sleeping together for the majority of that season. This was intentional on Harmon's part along with writer/producer, Megan Ganz. So it's not something the showrunners for season 4 did out of nowhere.

The thing that I like about the Britta and Troy relationship is that it wasn't based solely on sex like most TV romances end up being based on. In fact their relationship didn't even start with sex like most TV romantic relationships start out with. Which I appreciated since that particular trope is as old and tired as many other TV tropes. I also appreciated that they didn't constantly fight with each other just for the sake of drama and that Troy wasn't portrayed, both by Donald Glover and the writing, as being dumb and constantly screwing up the relationship for no reason. Trust me, if I wanted to watch that I'd just watch seasons 3 to 7 of Arrow.

My problem with this season is the wasted potential of certain characters and storylines in this season. For example you don't get Malcolm McDowell for two episodes and barely do anything with him. That right there is wasted potential. So was the whole Changnesia thing which just petered out with episode 12 "Heroic Origins" where Abed realizes that Chang is the real reason the members of the study group started going to Greendale in the first place. Abed knew that Chang was pretending to have Changnesia and doesn't tell the others or Dean Pelton and just lets it go. Despite the fact that he knew that Jeff had been trying to expose that Chang was faking it six episodes earlier. I guess Abed knew that the show was dropping that storyline.

The Darkest Timeline thing was pretty dumb too. It seemed like it was building up to something weird and awesome, but it too fizzled out, just being a thing that Jeff thought up in his mind in the season finale as a reason to not leave Greendale after graduation. It's funny because the Darkest Timeline that Jeff thought up is quite more involved than the one that Abed thought up in previous episodes. For instance, Evil Britta doesn't have as big of a blue streak in her hair in Jeff's version. Also in Jeff's version, Evil Jeff and Evil Annie are sleeping together. Yeah, it's the show's way of doing the whole "Will they, won't they" thing without actually doing the whole "Will they, won't they" thing.

My favourite episode this season is episode 11 "Basic Human Anatomy". This episode deals with Troy's insecurities concerning his and Britta's relationship and the fact that he's not ready for a mature, adult relationship, but also is too scared to break up with Britta. Aside from it being an homage to the 1976 live action Disney film, Freaky Friday, it's another example of how good the writing and acting on this show can be. Even when the showrunners are people who used to work for The CW. Yeah, that might be why this season feels a little bit off. Anyways this episode really shows how close Jeff has become to Britta, Troy and Abed since he spent the entire episode indulging Troy and Abed in their role playing even though it made no sense to him whatsoever.

I also enjoyed three other episodes this season. "Conventions of Space and Time" where the group goes to an "Inspector Spacetime" convention, "Herstory of Dance" where Britta screws up her protest of a Sadie Hawkins Dance that Greendale is holding and winds up having to get Sophie B. Hawkins to perform at the dance she puts on in protest of the Sadie Hawkins Dance, and the season finale "Advanced Introduction to Finality" which is as close as we got to having another Paintball episode, which we haven't had since season 2.

Matt Lucas, who played Nardole on Doctor Who, guest stars as a fan of "Inspector Spacetime" intent on kidnapping Abed for some odd reason. However, the three things that I liked about this episode are the fact that Britta went to the convention despite not being into "Inspector Spacetime" to support Troy, who is her boyfriend at this point in the season, the fact that her and Troy tried to keep the fact that they had started sleeping together from Abed, even though he'd be the first to know since he observes everything around him, and the way things escalated between Jeff and Annie after the hotel staff started referring to Annie as Mrs. Winger despite the fact that she and Jeff aren't even dating. Oh and Tricia Helfer being in the episode helped as well.

I liked "Herstory of Dance" because I remember listening to some of Sophie B. Hawkins's songs on the radio in the '90s and because of Jeff's gesture of texting Britta an apology and a sincere compliment for pulling off her dance despite her screw up. Also, watching Brie Larson and Danny Pudi play off each other was fun too. Now I'm even more convinced that Brie Larson was miscast as Carol Danvers in Captain Marvel because the character just wasn't written properly. It was just a feel good, sincere episode.

And finally I liked the season finale for two reasons. The first being the study group, despite it just being in Jeff's mind, facing off in a Paintball fight against their evil counterparts was pretty great. Also, seeing Jeff finally graduate from community college after four years of insanity was very satisfying. Of course there's two more seasons left for me to watch, with even more insanity so Jeff isn't out of the woods quite yet.

Final Thoughts and Rating: Despite my praise of the stuff that I enjoyed about particular episodes, this season wasn't great. It wasn't terrible or unwatchable. In fact I've seen worse seasons of Television than this. But it wasn't up to the standards of the previous three seasons. And the shorter season meant less episodes to properly develop certain storylines. I'm giving season 4 of Community 5.9/10 stars because there were things I liked about the season, but as a whole it was a mess and just didn't gel together as well as it could've by this point in the show's run.

Wikipedia:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community_(season_4)

Community (2009) Season 3 TV Season Review

Season 3 of Community is probably the weirdest season of Television I have ever seen outside of the DC Comics based shows. It's also probably the weirdest season of Television that I have ever heard of that isn't the entirety of Rick and Morty (which I have never seen). Which is funny because Dan Harmon created both Community and Rick and Morty. I said this in my season 2 review but it bears repeating here. Part of the appeal of Community is that it isn't afraid to break from the show's formula when the narrative demands it. So if the narrative demands that a two part pillow fight war episode needs to happen, then it happens. If the narrative demands that Chang becomes completely unhinged, takes over Greendale and expel the Study Group, then that's what happens.

I don't remember the exact quote but Harmon said in an interview I watched on YouTube recently that the writers never planned the show out at the beginning of each season, they just wrote the episodes, planting seeds for stuff to be dealt with later on in the season as they went along. Except for season 3, because this season is more heavily serialized than the first two seasons were. The continuity was tighter and if you paid close attention you could see a couple of things develop over the course of the season.

There are two elements that were introduced this season that become a staple of the show, though one of these things is only around for this season. The first element is Inspector Spacetime, a show that homages the real world show, Doctor Who. The show is introduced in the first episode of the season when Cougar Town gets pushed back to mid-season, freaking out Abed, as that is Abed's favourite show. So then Britta attempts to help out by finding Abed a new favourite show. Her first attempt fails miserably because the show she finds for him, a spoof of Downton Abbey, only lasted for six episodes. However her next attempt, Inspector Spacetime, which Abed has never seen and has been on since 1962, becomes Abed's new favourite show after watching only one scene from some random episode, without very much context. Which is pretty cool.

The second element to be introduced this season is the Dreamatorium, a room in Abed, Troy, and Annie's apartment that's designed like the Holodeck from Star Trek: The Next Generation. It's where Abed and Troy play pretend and it plays a big role in episode 16 of the season, "Virtual Systems Analysis". From what I gather from the season finale, we only see the Dreamatorium in this season and then once it gets transformed into Troy's bedroom in the season finale, we never see it again. Which is fine because it served it's purpose.

Dan Harmon said in another video I watched on YouTube, that he realized that they had taken Pierce too far and made him too unlikable in season 2, and so they dialed both him and Dean Pelton back in season 3. However, as a result Chang ended up getting ramped up to the point where he actually goes insane. Which makes him more difficult to watch on screen than he was in seasons 1 and 2 combined. His declining mental state can actually be traced back to the season finale as he gets dosed with a nerve gas to kill Troy's pet monkey who had been hiding in the air vents at Greendale since season 1. This gas makes him go crazy because of his already fragile mind, which we've witnessed in the first two seasons. And then for the rest of the season he just goes down hill which culminates in the story arc at the end of the season, starting with the end of episode 17 "Basic Lupine Urology".

The way I would've written the final arc of the season is to make it a full season arc with Chang kidnapping Dean Pelton and replacing him with a lookalike earlier in the season, and the Air Conditioning School, led by John Goodman and the actor who plays one of Adam Goldberg's teachers on The Goldbergs, being the reason that Chang got as far as he did, as Goodman wanted to take Pelton out and replace him with someone less incompetent, while Chang wanted revenge on the Study Group for excluding him in season 2 and making fun of him in season 1. However the way it was done was good, but it wasn't as developed as it might've been had they done more with it earlier in the season.

My favourite episode this season is the aforementioned "Virtual Systems Analysis" where the Study Group has a three hour lunch break because Biology class is canceled for the day so the group splits off for fun activities. Jeff goes off and does something, Pierce goes to watch the beginning of three movies, Shirley goes across town for lunch at a restaurant, Britta and Troy go on a lunch date and Annie and Abed go back to their apartment to hang out in the Dreamatorium. The reason I like this episode so much is that it explores how Abed feels about everything. We learn that he's afraid of losing Troy because Troy is the only person who has a lot of patience with him and without him Abed is afraid that he'll end up in the proverbial locker (he got stuffed in his locker a lot in junior high) because he doesn't fit in and the rest of the group will get sick of him. However, Annie helps him see that he's not the only who feels this way and because of this he does fit in.

This episode is my favourite of the season because not only does it feature my two favourite characters on the show, Annie and Abed, but it also resonates with me on a personal level. I'm autistic and my interests tend to stray outside of the normal geek stuff that my friends like, plus I also make tons of pop culture references that are specific to TV shows and movies. Because of this sometimes I feel out of step with my friends and they have to assure me that I do fit in with them. Which is what Annie does for Abed in this episode. Hopefully we get more episodes featuring these two, because their chemistry is just as good as Abed's is with Troy. At least to me.

As for romantic relationships this season, Shirley remarries her husband Andre, who first appeared in season 2, and hints of a romantic attraction between Troy and Britta begin showing up pretty early on in the season. Unlike the previous two seasons though, the romance is even less of a focus this season, so Pierce, Jeff and Annie don't have romantic partners this season. Abed does during a video game that the group help Pierce out with so that he can claim his inheritance after his father passes away. His in game sprite does anyway.

This is the season where you really start to see NBC starting to get sick of this show. From the little research I've done on the production of this season, NBC pulled Community from it's mid-season schedule, in favour of the Alec Baldwin and Tina Fey led comedy, 30 Rock, putting the show on hiatus from the Christmas break until the middle of March when it returned. Also they fired Dan Harmon at the end of this season, leaving new showrunners to take the reigns for season 4, which only has thirteen episodes for me to go through.

Final Thoughts and Rating: Overall I think season 3 of Community is weird and ambitious. Maybe a little too ambitious as many of the storylines this season ended up going nowhere or started out strong but ended up fizzling out by the end of the season. As a whole though it was still a pretty great season. I didn't have any new favourite characters this season, it's still just Britta, Abed and Annie that I like the best. Both Pierce and Dean Pelton were toned down quite a bit thankfully. I also felt like the Air Conditioning School was more of a cult than Pierce's Reformed Neo Buddhism cult is, which made it the weirdest part of the season. Especially since it's an example of a storyline that just fizzled out instead of growing to it's full potential. I'm giving Community season 3 8/10 stars because while enjoyable, it was bloated and too much was going on in the season.

Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community_(season_3)

This Can't Be Happening at Macdonald Hall (1978) Book Review

This Can't Be Happening at Macdonald Hall is a book that I have read many many times since the fifth grade when I was first introduced to it by my fifth grade teacher. I was a voracious reader when I was in elementary school and I would read just about any book that I could find in the school library or in the classroom, depending on the teacher I had that year. The Bruno & Boots series by Gordon Korman was one of the series that I was introduced to when we read the fourth book in the series, The War with Mr. Wizzle (now known simply as The Wizzle War) for one of our novel studies in the fifth grade. I enjoyed that one so much that I read any Bruno & Boots book I could find. Luckily Mr. Meredith had a bunch of them as did the school library. I also ended up with older copies of two of the books in my own collection thanks to my grandmother finding them at a garage sale.

Bruno & Boots are two boys who go to a fictional boarding school called Macdonald Hall, located near Toronto, Ontario, Canada. They get into a lot of trouble with the school's headmaster, Mr. Sturgeon, who the students nicknamed The Fish. As punishment, Mr. Sturgeon splits Bruno & Boots up, sending them to different dormitories to live with other boys, namely Elmer Drimsdale, who is the school genius, and George Wexford-Smyth III, who is the school's financial expert. Bruno & Boots spend the rest of the book trying ways to get out of living with their new roommates. They try everything, including being on their best behaviour, but none of it works. I won't tell you how they succeed, you'll have to read it to find out.

One of the things that I like about this book, and the Bruno & Boots/Macdonald Hall series in general is that it feels real. Yes, it's set at a boarding school and was originally written in 1978 when Gordon Korman was only fourteen years old, but there's no pretense of making Macdonald Hall and the equivalent school for girls, Miss Scrimmage's Finishing School for Young Ladies, more special than they need to be. It's just where these kids happen to go to school and so the setting feels like a place I and every other Canadian children could've gone in the sixth or seventh grades. That's what made this series so appealing to me when I was a kid, and what makes it still appeal to me as an adult.

Because this book was originally a standalone novel, without any thought to it becoming a series, there are several differences between this book and the rest of the series in regard to the characters. Bruno and Boots are almost equally mischievious in this book, while in the rest of the series Boots is usually the reluctant one. Also, the boys hardly go over to Miss Scrimmage's at night to visit the girls, but when they do Cathy Burton and Diane Grant, the two girls who we see the most of in this series, are almost role reversed in that Diane is the prominent one with the most dialogue, while Cathy hardly says a thing, which is interesting given that in the rest of the series, Cathy is basically the female version of Bruno, while Diane is more like Boots. Oh and aside from Elmer Drimsdale and Perry Elbert, the rest of the Macdonald Hall students that we come to know and love in the rest of the series are absent here. George is here, but he pretty much only shows up in this book and the next one and that's it. Even many of the teachers that show up later in the series don't show up here.

I have the 2011 publication of the updated edition of this book from 2003 that came in a box set containing all seven books in the series and the updates are a little weird. Unlike the original series of Hardy Boys books that were updated and republished in the '50s and '60s, the overall narrative structure of the Bruno & Boots books were kept intact, though some of the technology that George owns is updated to match what the tech of 2003 would be. For example, in the original book, George has a colour TV with remote control, while in the 2003 update carried over to current publications of the book, he has a 3D LCD TV. Though strangely enough, despite it being 2003, nobody has cell phones and Boots still sends his mother letters via snail mail, instead of e-mail, despite it, again, being 2003 when these updates were made. The updates are more of a problem in a later book, but I'll talk about that when I get to that book.

Final Thoughts and Rating: Overall, for a book written by a fourteen year old back in 1978 This Can't Be Happening at Macdonald Hall is a great novel. If you're my age and remember this series, I would definitely recommend revisiting it as an adult, because it still holds up. If you're in the fifth grade I would recommend reading it because it's a really cool story. Though the updates themselves are pretty unnecessary and easily could've been skipped, since it doesn't actually change any of the dialogue. Because of this I'm giving This Can't Be Happening at Macdonald Hall 9.9/10 because it's still an awesome book, but the "updates" are pointless and really weren't needed.

Power Rangers: Soul of the Dragon (2019) Graphic Novel Review

Power Rangers: Soul of the Dragon is a weird mix of elements that ordinarily wouldn't work in the Power Rangers Universe. There's a lot of potential here that isn't explored, but what is here is interesting. Of course I would've preferred this story to have been about another Ranger besides Tommy, but it is what it is and what it is is good. If that makes any sense.

The book doesn't say when exactly this story takes place but it's after season 13, Power Rangers S.P.D. because Sky Tate, the former S.P.D. Blue Ranger is now the head of Space Patrol Delta. What's weird about it though is that Tommy can't be that much older than he was the last time we saw him on the show in Power Rangers Super Ninja Steel, which took place in 2018, only seven years before the events of S.P.D.

Instead of a single graphic novel, this should've been a mini-series because there's a whole lot more material surrounding this story than we were even able to see. Especially with Lokar and Scorpina, Tommy and Finster's friendship, and the accident that damaged the Master Morpher and injured Tommy to the point where he needs cybernetic enhancements for his back, which is actually pretty cool to see, but at the same time, we only get a brief flashback to the fight that injured Tommy, and not much information is given as to who was strong enough to take out Tommy Oliver in battle, when he's morphed as the Green Ranger and the White Ranger.

I also don't really know whether this graphic novel takes place in the primary Television Power Rangers Universe, or the BOOM! Studios comic book Power Rangers Universe. If it takes place in the TV universe, then it ignores some things from Power Rangers In Space as well as season 2 of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. In the TV show, when Andros unleashed Zordon's energy upon the United Alliance of Evil in the finale of Power Rangers In Space, Rita, Lord Zedd, Divatox, and Scorpina (presumably) were transformed back into a Human form, turning them good, and then Rita became Mystic Mother in Power Rangers Mystic Force. However, the monster characters like Goldar, Squatt, Baboo, Finster and Elgar, plus the Machine Empire, were turned to dust and vanished forever, making it impossible for Finster to be a good guy in this comic.

However, if it takes place in the BOOM! Studios comic book universe, then events will have happened slightly differently than they did in the show. Also, if it does take place in the TV universe, when did Rita have time to banish Scorpina to Lokar's dimension? When she was banished from the Moon Palace because Lord Zedd unexpectedly showed up again? Or maybe it was when she was plotting to regain control by putting Zedd under a love spell and marrying him? Especially since she didn't seem all that banished when she disguised herself as Sabrina to lure Adam and Aisha into a trap, which happened BEFORE Rita came back. Especially since Scorpina mentions that Rita banishing her happened during Tommy's initial time as a Ranger, which was right around the midway point of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Season 1 and Scorpina continued to show up on the show after Tommy gave up the Green Ranger powers the first time in Episode 35, "The Green Candle Part 2".

Personally, I like to believe that because Kyle Higgins, who wrote the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers comic for BOOM! Studios through the Shattered Grid arc, wrote this book, it takes place in the comic book universe, otherwise it does mess with the continuity of the TV show. It also makes more sense for the comic book universe since Scorpina kinda just disappeared from the series after the first two or three issues and I don't think she's been seen again since.

The artwork in this graphic novel is actually pretty cool. It's by Giuseppe Cafaro, an artist I'm not familiar with at all, and it looks pretty cool. Tommy looks more like Jason David Frank in this book than he does in the ongoing monthly series, which is pretty cool. I don't know how I feel about the S.P.D. Green Ranger suit having the Dragon Shield added to it just because it's Tommy's son from "Dimensions in Danger", J.J. wearing the costume. But I do like the way Cafaro drew Scorpina's new look following Lokar giving her what amounts to a stronger version of Rita's old powers.

Final Thoughts and Rating: Overall I thought Power Rangers: Soul of the Dragon was a pretty good story. It's a bit more fan fictiony than Kyle Higgins's regular issues of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers were, but that's really only because Jason David Frank acted as a special consultant on the book and apparently had a major say in what the story was about. But, in a way that worked for this story, because it didn't make it too dark and grounded like Higgins's work tends to be. However, there's also a lot of wasted potential in this book, as instead of a service wide conspiracy or infiltration within S.P.D. that resulted in J.J. being captured, it turned out he was undercover. Also, there's no Zord fights, and aside from Kat, none of the other Mighty Morphin Power Rangers show up in this book, just some S.P.D. people like Doggie Cruger, Sky and Bridge. Oh and we don't learn much more about Tommy's Master Morpher except that it was narrowed down to either Billy, the original Blue Ranger or Ms. Fairweather from Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue built it. I'm giving Power Rangers: Soul of the Dragon 8/10 stars.

Power Rangers Wiki:  https://powerrangers.fandom.com/wiki/Power_Rangers:_Soul_of_the_Dragon

Community (2009) Season 2 TV Season Review

The second season of Community is way bolder than season 1 was in the way it was written and the way it changed some of the characters. But in other ways it's also playing it safe. Which I'll talk about in more detail in a little while. Personally I enjoyed this season as much as I enjoyed the first. I gained some new favourite characters to go along with the two I had from season 1. I also gained a character that I like to hate. Unfortunately. But overall it was a funny and enjoyable season.

The thing I liked most about season 2 is that they weren't afraid to go off formula for the sake of storytelling. For example this season's Christmas episode was done entirely in the style of Rankin/Bass's Christmas specials from the '60s and '70s like Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer and Santa Claus is Comin' to Town. Which is pretty great. Though Pierce is a Teddy Bear in one sequence near the end of the episode and he just ends up looking like an Ewok from Return of the Jedi. Which is amusing though it makes me want to take Chevy Chase seriously even less than I already did. Which I guess is a compliment since he's a comedian and some comedians don't want to be taken seriously. Also this season's Paintball match in the two part season finale had more of a Western/Star Wars feel to it rather than the Mad Max/post-apocalyptic feel that the one in season one had. Which made the look and feel to it even more different than the usual look and feel the show has.

Annie and Abed are still my favourite characters on the show. Though I'm even more convinced that Abed and I are the same person, split between two different bodies because I constantly reference TV shows and movies in order to connect to the people around me like Abed does. Case in point, I was texting with a friend the other day and when I was telling her that I was watching the show, I mentioned that Abed reminded me of myself, while Britta reminded me of her and Annie reminded me of another friend. She had no idea what I was talking about, but it's a good story that illustrates my point here.

My new favourite character is honestly Britta. She was kind of one note and tried too hard last season, but this season she really grew on me as a character. Probably because she's one of the things the writers dialed back from last season, along with Shirley being religiously bigoted towards everyone last season. Because of this dialing back of the more over the top personality quirks, Britta became another favourite character of mine. Of course the dialing back of the more over the top personality quirks of some characters, meant the escalation of the more over the top personality quirks of other characters.

Both Pierce and Senor Chang, now just called Ben, because he's not a professor anymore, became even more unlikable this season. Especially Pierce. Chang is just an annoying character, but Pierce actually becomes an outright villain this season. Which is kind of a waste of a character, given that Pierce is an older person and could be giving the younger members of the study group, like Troy, Annie and Abed, advice. Instead he belittles them and harasses them and hurts them.

The third character that has been added to my dislike list is Dean Pelton. Jim Rash is an incredible actor, but Dean Pelton, the character that he plays on Community has become extremely obnoxious and I don't like the scenes he's in. I don't know if that was intentional or not on the part of the writers, in order to add more drama to the show, but it's working because even the rest of the characters don't like Pelton very much. Even though he was annoying, I do like that they actually gave Chang a story arc this season.

One of the things I found interesting about this season is the way they got Jeff and Britta together temporarily. Remember how on How I Met Your Mother in the early part of the third season it was revealed that Ted and Robin had broken up at some point during season 2? Well they did the opposite of that with Jeff and Britta. In Season 2, Episode 21, "Paradigms of Human Memory" Abed reveals that Jeff and Britta had been sleeping together for the majority of the season even though there had been no evidence of that in previous episodes. I mean, it was a definite possibility considering Jeff's attraction to Britta is the entire reason the study group was created in the first place back in the pilot, but the way it was revealed was kind of out of nowhere considering the season was almost over and there had been flirtation between Jeff and Annie throughout the season as well. Though that was mostly one sided on Annie's part.

I appreciate that these writers don't take relationships lightly on the show. Their philosophy was that no pairing was off limits, but if it didn't suit the characters or didn't make for good Television, then they didn't pair characters up. Romantically or platonically. Which is pretty refreshing as oftentimes TV shows pair characters together even if those characters don't really work well as a romantic couple. While that works on a dramatic level, particularly if there's a "Will they, won't they" element to the relationship, it often doesn't work in the long run or on a character level. Just like in real life when you try to force a romantic relationship to work between two people if the chemistry isn't there.

I also appreciate that they took their continuity seriously this season as well. On most shows like this if a character gets injured in an episode, they're back to normal by the very next one. However Pierce gets hurt in Season 2, Episode 7, "Aerodynamics of Gender" and is in a wheelchair from episode 8 until episode 11, which is the Christmas episode, which is a pretty long time for a character to be incapacitated in any way. So that was cool that they kept that going for a few episodes.

Final Thoughts and Rating: Overall Community season 2, while not as good as season 1 was, is still a pretty solid season. Dan Harmon and his creative team knew what they wanted the show to be right from the get go, but as good producers and writers should, they knew how to evolve their show in season 2 without it feeling like a completely different show. I was still laughing pretty hard throughout the whole season. Yes, some characters aren't great, and there were a few episodes I didn't like quite as much, but as a whole the season was solid and the creative team did well this season despite losing an episode, dropping the count from 25 to 24 for this season. I'm giving Community season 2 9.9/10 stars because of Pelton being way too obnoxious and for them basically turning Pierce into a monster for the majority of the season.

Wikipedia:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community_(season_2)

The World of Teddy Ruxpin Volume 2: Guests of the Grunges (1987) VHS Review

Guests of the Grunges is the first Teddy Ruxpin VHS tape I ever got when I was a kid. I also watched all the time growing up. This was one of three VHS tapes that I had on constant repeat to the point where I'm amazed that I didn't wear the tape out. Though I'm pretty sure I came close to it.

Before I get to the story though I'd like to talk about the front cover of the cassette box itself. I think it's one of the coolest covers for a Teddy Ruxpin VHS tape ever. The other covers explain what the episode/episodes are about. But this one? This one just shows Teddy, Wooly, Grubby, and a Grunge scared of some being in an old fashioned suit of armour, over some sort of cauldron. So if you don't know who that soldier is or what's cooking in the cauldron, then it's still a cool image to look at regardless.

As I mentioned in my review of The Treasure of Grundo "Guests of the Grunges" is a filler episode as a place to introduce the Grunges and the Wooly What's-It while extending the story arc to five episodes to fit into the five day airing cycle the show had back in 1987. But, it really doesn't do much more than that as we saw last time, because they were able to edit Wooly's introduction scene into Volume 1, between the end of episode 2 "Beware the Mudblups" and episode 4 "In the Fortress of the Wizard" without a problem. Unlike a lot of shows, the filler episodes of The Adventures of Teddy Ruxpin aren't bad episodes. They're pretty well written, the stories are pretty cool, and there's still usually some sort of character arc for one of the main characters. The only difference is that they're standalone episodes that don't add anything to the ongoing narrative of the series as a whole. They're simply there for us to enjoy.

"Guests of the Grunges" is the first episode of The Adventures of Teddy Ruxpin that I ever saw because of this tape. I think I got it before I ever saw the show in reruns on TV. In fact I'm almost certain that I saw this episode on VHS before I ever saw the show on TV. There's a lot in the episode that I only ever picked up on as an adult. For example, Prince Arin is pretty upset that the group is waylaid at the Grunge Village when they're supposed to be going to see the Wizard of Grundo to ask for help in locating Princess Aruzia. Upset enough that the Vitamin Z in the Grunge Gumbo transforms him into the Iron Warrior. Which is pretty typical with shows like this. There's always an episode where somebody falls under an evil spell, turning them against their friends. Or they're replaced by an evil doppelganger.

When I was a kid I actually thought that "Guests of the Grunges" was the introduction of the Fobs on the show because I didn't see the first episode, "The Treasure of Grundo" until I was an adult. The episode certainly made it seem like it was the introduction of the Fobs. Also, they're a little meaner in this episode than they were in the first episode, and are later in the series. Especially to Wooly.

It's actually kind of amazing that Tweeg and L.B. actually made it to the Treacherous Mountains considering how many wagon accidents and personal mishaps Tweeg had between episode 1 and episode 4. There also isn't that much time between the end of episode 2 and the beginning of this episode, so they covered a good span of distance from the edge of the Great Desert to wherever they were in this episode.

Despite not having a physical copy of the tape anymore, just the digitized version, I still have the recipe card for Teddy's Friendship Chocolate Chip Cookies in a box somewhere. I don't remember if my mom ever actually made cookies using that recipe or not, but just having that artifact from the cassette box is pretty cool. Even if I'm never able to use it. Also, I think this is one of the shorter live action intro/outro segments of the six of them that there are. It's definitely not as long as the one on Volume 1.

Overall Guests of the Grunges is my favourite Teddy Ruxpin VHS tape because it's the first one I ever owned, and it's the one I watched the most when I was a kid. I only ever had four of these tapes, and I actually watched all four of them fairly regularly but for the longest time this was the only one I had so I watched it a lot. I could go on for hours about this tape and about the episode itself, but I'll spare you by not doing so. Next week I'll be reviewing a Teddy Ruxpin tape that I swear we rented one time when my siblings and I were staying at the apartment of a friend of the family during a move, but my sister doesn't remember doing so. So hurry back, I'll be waiting for you. So long for now!

Falling Down the Rabbit Hole of TV Show Reviews

Hey guys. How're you all doing on this wonderful Saturday? I'm doing pretty well. It's a really nice day outside today and I went outside this morning. So I was supposed to do a movie review for you today. But as you may have noticed it hasn't come out yet. There's a very simple reason for that. I fell down the rabbit hole of TV show reviews.

When I started The Review Basement on Blogger, after shutting down the original Word Press site, my plan was to focus a lot on movie reviews as well as comic book reviews. TV show reviews were going to happen, but they were going to be more in the overview style like I did for Andromeda and Animorphs during my bedroom isolation week a month ago. In fact that's how I was planning on reviewing Community once I finished watching all six seasons on Netflix. The reason for this is that I wasn't really excited to binge multiple seasons of a TV show just so I could get individual season reviews out in a timely fashion. Especially of the hour long shows like Smallville, Arrow and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. But then I started watching the first season of Community and was watching five, six, seven episodes every night before I went to bed and within four days I had finished the entire first season. And because I was so excited to talk about that first season I felt it needed a review of it's own, and now I'm eight episodes into season 2 because instead of watching the movie I was supposed to watch last night for today's movie review, I watched the first seven episodes of Community season 2.

So I think what I'm going to do from now on is when I'm planning on reviewing a TV show and I have an entire season or multiple seasons I'm not going to do any movie reviews for the period of time I'm watching whatever show I'm watching. Just so I can focus on watching the show I'm watching and not having to worry about trying to fit a movie into the mix as well. I'm still going to do my VHS reviews that I started earlier this week though. However, the reviews will come out on Monday afternoons as I'll be watching the tapes in the morning as they're all tapes of children's shows which originally aired weekday mornings mostly anyway.

That's all I wanted to tell you guys right now since I didn't get that movie review out to you today. Just so you didn't think something bad had happened to me again. So expect more TV show reviews, be it series reviews, season reviews or episode reviews, depending on what I have access to for a particular show. I'll be back on Monday with my next Teddy Ruxpin VHS review. So until then, have a great rest of your weekend.

Community (2009) Season 1 TV Season Review

I wasn't originally planning on reviewing every season of Community, because I figured I wasn't going to have very much to say about the seasons and would have a lot to say about the show as a whole. But I finished the first season last night before I went to bed and I decided that yeah, I did have a lot to say about the first season.

Community is a show that I've never watched before. When it initially started in 2009 I was still in college, having started my third year and I didn't have much time to watch TV except for maybe The Big Bang Theory, How I Met Your Mother and Castle, and even then being able to watch an episode of one of those shows would depend on how much homework I had and what my actual class schedule was like during a semester. As a result I didn't have time to watch a brand new show about what was basically my life at that point in time. I think I saw bits and pieces of the show at some point since How I Met Your Mother was on CityTV at that time, and I think they were on the same night, right after the other, or I just saw commercials for Community during How I Met Your Mother. Eitherway I was aware of Community but never got the chance to watch it.

Even after the series ended, I never had the opportunity to watch it because it wasn't available anywhere and I don't own any of it on DVD. But then it was put up on Netflix almost two months ago, and with everything still on lockdown I figured now was the perfect opportunity to watch it. I wasn't sure about it at first, but by episode 3 or 4 I was hooked.

The writing on this show is absolutely stellar. I'm not usually able to get into sitcoms like this as many of them are workplace related and those are difficult for me to relate to, or they just aren't funny to me, with nothing else to offer me in terms of entertainment. The Goldbergs was actually the first sitcom of this type that I fell in love with because of the heart that Adam F. Goldberg puts into it. Schooled is the same way. I fell in love with Community because Dan Harmon puts the same amount of heart into the writing and the development of the characters and storylines. I'm able to relate to the people on the show because of that.

Harmon really did an amazing job when he cast this show. Joel McHale, who plays Jeff on the show does an amazing job as that character. I actually knew guys like Jeff when I was in college, except, unlike Jeff, those guys didn't end up growing as people in the short time that I knew them, but still, I knew guys like Jeff. Because of how likable most of these characters are, it's really hard to pick a favourite. I love Britta, Jeff, Troy, and Shirley, and I love to dislike Pierce and Senor Chang. So if I had to pick a favourite character, it would have to be a tie between Abed, played by Danny Pudi, and Annie, played by Alison Brie.

Abed is basically me. He has some sort of psychological disorder, possibly Autism, which makes it difficult for him to understand others, except through movies and TV shows. I'm autistic and I often find myself making comparisons between my friends and characters on TV or in movies. Those references are what helps me relate to the world and people around me, much like it does for Abed. And unlike Jim Parsons on The Big Bang Theory, Danny Pudi isn't trying to be funny as Abed. He just is that funny. He's funny without trying to be over the top, which is something I appreciate on shows like this and is one of the problems I have with Sheldon and with Barry Goldberg in some of the earlier seasons of The Goldbergs. This is something I noticed with Danny's character of Teddy on the short-lived DC Comics based comedy, Powerless too.

Probably the best source of comedy on this show is the duo of Abed and Troy, played by Donald Glover. The two of them together are absolutely hilarious and they have just the best chemistry together. This is basically what Chuck Lorre tried to do with Howard and Raj on The Big Bang Theory early on, but they just ended up being intolerably obnoxious and hard to watch on screen. So far Troy and Abed have avoided that unfortunate fate. I still have five seasons to go though, so it might actually turn out that they will end up with that fate as the show goes on.

My other favourite character on Community so far is Annie, played by Alison Brie. While none of the girls I hung out with in high school and college were as innocent and naive as Annie is on the show, that's the primary reason I like her. The way she's written is great because she's the youngest member of the study group, but she's not annoying like many "youngest" characters are on shows like this (The Goldbergs and Schooled being the exception). Sure, she has things to prove to the others, but the writers don't let it ruin the character like the writers of a certain comic book based TV show did to a certain character on that show. Alison Brie is a great actress, though this is the only thing I've actually seen her in. She was a great choice to play Annie. She just lends that character the charming girl next door vibe to the role, which works well for the character. I also think that Annie is the nicest of all of the characters on the show. Shirley is condescending at times, Britta is mean, Pierce is a racist and sexist, and the others are neither nice nor mean, and simply do whatever they feel like, though Abed is a pretty nice guy.

There wasn't an actual bad episode in this season. However my favourite episode would have to be S01E23, "Modern Warfare" where the gang participates in a school wide paintball fight. This isn't an action show by any means, but they shot it the way an episode of Arrow or a Netflix series like Daybreak might be shot. Which gives it a different flavour than what a typical episode of Community might be like. Which is great because it shows that the producers were willing to experiment with this show instead of doing the same old thing every single episode like a lot of other sitcoms weren't willing to do. Especially at the time, they were afraid to break from their established formula, which inevitably led to the shows becoming stale and boring once they got into a ninth, tenth or eleventh season. And while the episode led to Jeff and Britta finally engaging in sexual activity, what it didn't do was lead them to become an actual couple. Which is kind of where I thought it was headed from the Valentine's Day episode up to this one.

Final Thoughts and Rating: Overall season 1 of Community was an amazing season of Television. I don't remember laughing outloud like that when watching a TV show in a really long time. I mean DC's Legends of Tomorrow is a silly show, but it's not something I laugh outloud to when I'm wearing headphones. Same with The Goldbergs and Schooled. I smile at some of the jokes, but I don't laugh outloud. I also haven't binged an entire season of TV in less than a week since last year when I binged the entire first season of Sabrina the Teenage Witch in four days after I picked it up on DVD during one of Brad's and my visits to Kingston. Community is that good though. If you haven't seen it I would highly recommend it if you're into this kind of show. It's funny, it's charming and it's fun to watch. I'm giving season 1 of Community 10/10 stars.

Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community_(season_1)

Power Rangers/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2019) #2 Comic Book Review

Power Rangers/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #2 is only slightly better than issue #1 is. Only because we now know what Shredder was after, but that makes it even more lame because all he wanted was the Green Ranger powers. Just like Rita and Zedd did in the TV series. I'll admit that I'm not super familiar with the IDW version of Shredder as I've only read the first four issues of the series, and he doesn't show up until issue #10, but I'm pretty sure that this version wants more than just the Green Ranger powers.

Di Meo's artwork is still fantastic in this issue. Once again, my favourite shot in this book is a wide shot of the Turtles's lair in the sewers. Which isn't as unique as the shot of the Angel Grove Youth Center in the previous issue, but it does look a lot bigger than I've seen it in any other show, movie or comic that the Turtles have been in. That's not including the abandoned subway station in the 2003 animated series of course. Another piece of artwork that I like in this book is on the final page where we see something that looks really cool but as a story point is stupid and makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. In fact it's probably the most fan fiction thing I've seen in a comic book in a really long time.

That's probably the best way to describe this crossover event as a whole. It's fan fiction. Despite it being licensed by both Hasbro (Power Rangers) and Nickelodeon (Ninja Turtles), it can't be anything but fan fiction because only a fan of these franchises would come up with a story that is so utterly ridiculous and makes no sense at all. In fact it's even more fan fiction than even Batman/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Justice League/Power Rangers are because admittedly, while Power Rangers and Ninja Turtles have a few similarities, they are also worlds apart from each other. Power Rangers is your basic superhero comic book premise brought to life (Super Sentai was created by a Manga artist after all). And while Ninja Turtles was created for the comics, it's a much more serious drama than your typical comic book from the '80s was, despite the minor setback of the goofy cartoon from the late '80s. And so they don't really mesh on that level.

I will say that I really like the way the Rangers and the Turtles interact with each other in this issue. I like it because it works. One of the problems I have with Justice League/Power Rangers is that the interactions between the Justice League and the Rangers feel awkward to me because the Rangers are teenagers while the Justice League are all adults, with the exception of maybe Cyborg. Here though, the Power Rangers are teenagers and so are the Ninja Turtles. It's the reason that the Teen Team worked in Invincible, the various versions of the Teen Titans and Young Justice work in the DC Universe, and why the Young Avengers, the X-Men, and the Runaways work in the Marvel Universe. Teenagers interacting with other teenagers in fiction works a lot better than teenagers interacting with adults does, simply because the teenagers can usually find something in common with each other more than they could find in common with an adult, who usually ends up being a mentor or parent figure to the teenager.

Final Thoughts and Rating: Overall I'd say Power Rangers/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #2 is a much better comic than issue #1 is. It's still completely ridiculous and makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. However the interactions with the Turtles and how Rita and her minions are brought into the story makes it a lot better than issue #1 was. Plus the artwork is spectacular once again. I would definitely say pick this issue up, even if you hated the first issue like I did because it's worth the read. I'm giving Power Rangers/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #2 5/10 stars because the artwork is amazing and the interactions between the Rangers and the Turtles are pretty awesome as well even if the plot is your standard crossover plot that we've already seen dozens of times in recent times.

Power Rangers/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2019) #1 Comic Book Review

Power Rangers/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #1 is one of those comics that is cool while you're reading it but when you're finished, you wonder why they made it in the first place. Obviously I know why they made this crossover. Mighty Morphin Power Rangers and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are two of the most popular books in the indie comic book scene right now. Because they were two of the biggest franchises of the '80s and '90s. But still, the fact that they even made this a thing is pretty much leaving me wondering why.

The artwork is pretty great. I mean Simone Di Meo is a brilliant artist. She really does a good job with everything from the backgrounds to the characters. I'm not super familiar with her work, so I don't know if she was an artist on the IDW Ninja Turtles comic or not. Her name isn't anywhere on either Mighty Morphin Power Rangers or Go Go Power Rangers but she seems to know how to draw characters from both universes, so that's good.

The writing in this issue isn't great. I'm not a fan of Ryan Parrott's work. I first encountered it when he wrote Power Rangers: Aftershock, the one shot graphic novel that served as a bridge between the 2017 Power Rangers movie and the sequel that was originally supposed to be made, and now just serves as a wrap up of that particular part of the Power Rangers Universe. And while that book works within the framework of the caliber of writing in the movie, as a comic book, it didn't work quite as well since there was no follow-up to it and it was weird. Here, I don't know if Parrott is even familiar with either Power Rangers or Ninja Turtles. I mean he has to be familiar with at least one of the franchises, if not both, but the way he wrote this book makes it appear that he's unfamiliar with both franchises. It's almost like he forgot to write an issue or two and this is actually the third issue. I understand the concept of starting a story in the middle of the action. I mean, Star Wars does it perfectly as do many comic books including Detective Comics #27, the first ever appearance of Batman from 1939. But this actually feels like Parrott forgot to write the beginning of the series and just started in the middle of it, unlike both Batman/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #1 and Justice League/Power Rangers #1.

The story is that the Rangers are busy as ever fighting Rita's monsters and they're starting to have difficulty balancing their regular, every day lives and their secret superhero lives. Things aren't helped by the fact that Tommy has disappeared for apparently no reason. Meanwhile, the Turtles face a new member of the Foot Clan, who I won't reveal. All I'll say is that this ends with the Power Rangers and the Ninja Turtles fighting each other, despite the Turtles knowing exactly who the Power Rangers are and the Rangers not supposed to be knowing who the Turtles are. Either way, Shredder has a lame plot that somehow involves Tommy and the new member of the Foot Clan. Yeah, it's incomprehensible at best.

The sad part is is that again, the book looks really cool and a crossover between the OG Power Rangers and the Ninja Turtles is a really cool idea. If we were still living in 1993 when Mighty Morphin Power Rangers was just starting and the Ninja Turtles were still popular, coming off of three live action movies as well as major toy sales and the fact that the 1987 cartoon was still on the air. Hell, we got an on screen crossover between Power Rangers In Space and Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation in 1998 when the Turtles were mind controlled by Astronema to infiltrate the Astro Megaship and steal it from the Rangers in the fourth episode of Power Rangers In Space. The fact of the matter is that the IDW version of the Ninja Turtles fits better within the darker, gritty, more realistic tone of the DC Universe, which is why Batman/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was such an awesome concept and made for a great animated movie. No matter how adult you make the Power Rangers, it's still a children's superhero show, and that just doesn't fit with the awesome version of the Ninja Turtles that IDW has been doing for the past nine years.

I'm betting that this crossover works better when it's complete and we can actually read the story as a whole. Because, quite frankly as a first issue, this comic fails at every turn, except in the art department. One of my favourite shots is an establishing shot of the inside of the Angel Grove Youth Center, which takes in the entire set. Which is something that the TV show never got to do. Oh and the two page spread of the Turtles and the Rangers coming at each other at the start of their fight near the end of the book was pretty cool too.

Final Thoughts and Rating: Overall, Power Rangers/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #1 is an issue worth skipping unless you're reading the five issues of this crossover mini-series all together because it doesn't do a good job of introducing this crossover and it feels like an issue or two was missing before this one came out. If you REALLY want to check it out, do so, but it's not necessary unless you buy the collected edition, which will probably come out sometime next year, as four issues have already come out and the fifth issue is forthcoming, whenever this pandemic ends. I'm giving Power Rangers/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #1 2/10 stars because the artwork is pretty awesome, but what little story there is leaves way too much to be desired to be an effective hook for a first issue.