Comments on: Television: beginnings

By: PA Amplifier

PA Amplifier — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 18:58:21 +0000

Friday Night Lights is a great tv series, i love the game and i love the story ‘“

By: booklover

booklover — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 20:17:48 +0000

I thought it was awful and stopped watching halfway through. Couldn’t even get through a full episode and won’t be watching again. I couldn’t find one appealing thing about that show.

By: Robin

Robin — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 17:46:23 +0000

Thanks for that link, Laura–I didn’t know about that, obviously. I think #3 is the most likely scenario.

By: Laura

Laura — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 01:16:32 +0000

I’m an academic twice-over (PhD/former adjunct and now librarian), and the premise that Joel McHale’s character needs a BA but is at a community college didn’t bother me a whit.

1) Some community colleges do grant BAs. See http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2008/06/16/florida

2) His character could easily not know the difference between an AA and a BA. Or has some plans to bamboozle the bar into accepting one for the other.

3) Or, most likely, he’s just at the cc to get his first two years cheaply and then transfer to another institution for the BA – very common nowadays, especially in California.

All in all, I thought it was a great pilot, and I’m really looking forward to the rest of the season.

By: Carolyn

Carolyn — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 00:14:25 +0000

Here’s thumbs up for (the first two seasons of) Friday Night Lights, by the way, though I don’t watch any of your shows to compare it with, and I know that life is short. I found the characters familiar, but from real life, not from tv.

By: Robin

Robin — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 21:39:16 +0000

I only knew that because I’d read it, Jess. I sure wouldn’t have otherwise. That woman is a fine actress!

By: Jess

Jess — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 19:59:25 +0000

Robin, I knew you weren’t insulting cc students. They referred to it as “loser” college in the episode. But you’re right, it’s an interesting way to discuss stereotypes in society! Now that I think about it that way, I’m looking forward to it.

Also, did you notice that the neurotic pill popper student was Trudie Campbell from Mad Men?!

By: Alyson

Alyson — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 17:45:26 +0000

I watched “Community” and have zero thoughts – so either I wasn’t paying attention or it left no impression on me or maybe I was A because of B. I don’t know.

I will say, of the Office premier, that I thought the Pam and Jim revealing the pregnancy to cover for Stanley was FANTASTIC. How great are they?? And then when they were like, “It’s pretty obvious why we didn’t want everyone to know…” or whatever they said along those lines – aaahhh! Love. As per usual, a portion of the show had to be muted because I can only take so much Michael Scott ridiculousness before I want to crawl in the hole for him. He is both the reason I love the show and a reason I will miss portions of or entire episodes. Steve Carrell is a genius for being able to pull that off. I might never be able to do any of those lines with a straight face.

By: Maryann

Maryann — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 15:36:15 +0000

The “you can’t get a bachelor’s at a community college” thing bugged me, too! I work at a university, though, so I’m a big academic geek as well. When I complained about that point to the friend I watched the premiere with she fanwanked that Jeff needed to enroll right away and the community college was the only place that was possible.

In addition to the way they handled the Magical Negro and hairtouching/harassment, I loved that Britta called Jeff out on his douchiness and was not charmed by him in the end.

By: Robin

Robin — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 13:30:31 +0000

Jess, I hope it’s clear that I wasn’t insulting community colleges, but only referring to the stereotype that the show itself is exploiting. I think the bottom line for both of us is going to be, will this show ultimately endorse the stereotypes (of all kinds of things), or subvert them?

And that’s not just a question of political correctness, either — it’s about actually doing some damn work as an artist, versus lazily taking advantage of the cliches your culture hands you.

I liked Jeff’s throwaway line to the black cafeteria worker about how television has taught him that all older black women are spiritual mentors. Deconstructing the “magical Negro” on prime-time TV? Bring it. And the hair-touching scene with Chevy Chase did not go where I thought it was going to.

By: Jess

Jess — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 12:58:00 +0000

I work at a community college so I was worried about how they were going to be portrayed. Community colleges educate 1/2 of all college students in the US, so it’s truly unfair to call it “loser” college. Anyway, there were two points in the show that bothered me:1. When Joel Hale’s characters said “If I wanted to learn anything I wouldn’t have come to community college” and 2. the scene with the dean calling out all the stereotypical students. The redeeming scene was when Joel Hale opened the packet with all the answers and the pages were blank, so I think there’s hope for this show. I’m not sold on it yet, but I’ll give it a few more episodes to see where it goes.