DAE think that community has huge fluctuations in its quality? Be honest.

Dooflegna · 1 year

Community's been surprisingly consistent given its incredibly hectic, experimental nature. Sometimes, the experiments work exceptionally well, and sometimes they don't. But there are few episodes of Community so bad that they simply don't work at all.

Community's problem is that so many episodes are so exceptional that the bar is raised to a stupidly high level. It makes the 'average' episodes stand out in contrast.

Compare this to formulaic comedies where there's a very normal expectation of what you're going to watch and very little deviation in that quality. (The Big Bang Theory is a good example of this.) When you think of the Big Bang Theory, you think of its consistency. You don't think of 'defining' episodes that push the boundaries of the show's capabilities.

So to your point, yes, there are fluctuations in quality. But unlike an average bell curve of meh to good, Community's curve ranges average to out-of-this-world fantastic.

It makes for one heck of a ride.

comicstar · 1 year

I agree that it has huge fluctuations in quality, but these range, in my opinion, from "great" to "OMFG HOW WILL ANYTHING I EVER SEE OR EXPERIENCE AGAIN BE ABLE TO COMPARE TO THIS?". I just rewatched my absolute least favourite episode, Troy's birthday... and it's not bad at all.

Splinter0991 · 1 year

Meh. I disagree. I personally have never found any episodes terrible.

ill_be_back · 1 year

With Community taking more chances ("fast-paced escapades") this second season, it was bound to happen that the episodes would be less consistent in terms of writing and dialogue quality. However, with great risk comes great rewards- the best of this season have been as good or better than the best of last season.

It really depends on whether you like the roller coaster ride of episode quality or not, because IMO if averaged out, the episode quality this season is definitely on par or better with last season.

SphericalArc · 1 year

Honestly, while I agree that the anti-drugs skit episode was of a lower tier than the rest of the season, I'm pretty sure that's the ONLY episode of that tier. Season one had its "The Art of Discourse," season two had its "Celebrity Pharmacology". I'm okay with one episode per ~25 being of a slightly lower quality, especially considering that one episode is still better than most comedy on tv these days.

DirtyHerring · 1 year

As with every outstanding show you can't top last week's episode every time. But when you forget the extremely high standards that "The Contest", "The Puffy Shirt", "Modern Warfare", "Advanced Dungeons and Dragons" style episodes inspire, and imagine the "lesser" episodes in another show, you might agree, that they would definitely count as "better" episodes in the context of another sit com.

That satisfies my highest standards.

Season 2 has convinced me pretty much that if they can keep this quality, NBC might actually have found its next Seinfeld. But of course they would need to keep the number of Friends style episodes like last week low.

_YourMom · 1 year

YES. It's one of my favorite shows on air right now, but god is it inconsistent.

I think as others have said, it's because the good episodes are really good.

ill_be_back · 1 year

DAE understand comedy is subjective?

digifreak642 · 1 year

Community hits higher highs than any comedy on television. However, shows like Parks & Rec are more consistent. However, I'm much more looking forward to rewatching all of Community's episodes.

another_name · 1 year

What? You mean that a production team that has to produce 22-25 30 minute story arcs in a year doesn't always deliver groundbreaking writing, acting, and comedy week-in, week-out?

Sheesh, name the show that had amazing episodes all the time, non-stop?Some episodes hit, and some miss. It's pretty close to impossible to not have fluctuations in quality, if only because all shows save their best stuff for Sweeps Week.

I'm thinking...deal with it?

HannShotFirst · 1 year

I personally don't think that the show has changes in quality, just in tone. There's obviously ones that are intended as comedic value, without much in the way of character development, and then there's those that flesh out the characters and give them a level of emotional depth I find surprising on a prime-time comedy like this.

Waffl3copter · 1 year

Yes.

neuromonkey · 1 year

Huh? No. I think that it's incredible how consistent and consistently funny the writing is.

gregK · 1 year

It has consistently surprised me.

[deleted] · 1 year

It most certainly fluctuates. It's just that not every episode can be Modern Warfare, Advanced D&D, etc.

deflective · 1 year

so you know, the phrase dae is irritating to a lot of people.
adding 'be honest' actually put my teeth on edge.

[deleted] · 1 year

Yes, but that's ok because Abed's birthday pulled the whole series up on average as a whole. Perhaps next season they'll crack it, but this season has been mostly consistent in quality. Last week's was ok, and in a few months when I'm watching through them all again it will seem fine. I think everyone's expectations are so high at the minute that a slightly worse episode like last weeks really seems bad in comparison when in fact it was still pretty good.

brokencode · 1 year

Yeah it can be totally awesome or cleverly decent. Of course it should be awesome all the time, but that's not realistic.

rleclair90 · 1 year

I'd compare a bad episode of Community to a bad episode of Dexter. Yeah, it's disappointing given how great the show is when it wants to be, but a bad episode of either show is still better than 90% of everything else on TV on their best days.

[deleted] · 1 year

What, I loved the anti-drugs skit episode!

MoldyPoldy · 1 year

I thought the first season was pretty hit-or-miss. I really didn't think it was anything special, just above-average for a 22 minute show.

This season has been extraordinary, and I have loved pretty much every minute.

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