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0:02 - A few things about this opening scene. "Assassins" holds a special place in my heart because it was the first social I ever did as an RA and I am very jealous that they could use paintballs. I agree wholehearted with the group and Jeff and Britta's sexual tension being old. It was old in the pilot, and as I said in The Hurry Up for Community, it's become clear that their possible sexual relationship was set up to fail from the start. They are the anti-Jim and Pam. I picked Jim and Pam because that was a TV relationship of missed opportunities that worked, but there have been plenty that haven't. The number is so high because almost every show seems to feel the need to include them. This is also why Community had to include one, because how can it comment on the full range of sitcom conventions without having one of the biggest ones? One of the things I love about this show is how cathartic it is. They don't mention pop culture conventions as a cutsey meta-joke (hi Scrubs!), but rather as a way for the show to challenge itself to get past them. Will-they-won't-they relationships are almost always a crutch, Dan Harmon and the writers have grabbed that crutch away from their show and have challenged it to walk anyway. That's what makes it so strong...wow, this show makes me write a lot
0:04 - I CAN'T EVEN TELL YOU HOW GENIUS THIS WAS! Yes the all-caps were necessary. It takes a lot of confidence for a show to do an effective time-shift. Often times it will look like a cop-out, and the show kind of hopes everyone will just forget that they did it (perfect example will be if Heroes does it, if Heroes comes back). A weak show would have felt the need to show the start of the paintball game, this is a strong show. This is a comedy that's strong enough to have a character wake up from a nap in an nightmarish hellscape of paintball. We know something crazy happened immediately, and the fallen student in the hall informs us that it's still happening. The dean proposed a prize so great that society has crumbled over it. Not all of society obviously, but one of Community's strengths is that a campus is a world within the world, and it always takes full advantage of that. Also well done to Danny Pudi for that sick wall jump to take out Leonard (even though Leonard is awesome).
0:05 - I figured the prize had to be administration related, but I never would've guessed priority registration. As a person who once ran across campus in PJs and a bathrobe when he almost slept through pre-registration, I can say this makes perfect sense to me. Also great that the knowledge of the prize is almost like a virus, and once Jeff catches it his whole demeanor changes. I hope people don't think this episode is over the top, because this is how these things happen. Look up the Stanford prison experiment, games get out of hand FAST.
0:05 - Funny how Community and Modern Family ended up in a random rivalry (they're not even on the same night, but I have to admit loving Community made me adverse to watching Modern Family. Only one could be the best new comedy!) but the show Community is always poking is Glee:
Troy: They say the glee club is luring stragglers into sniper traps with cheery renditions of hit songs0:07 - I keep wanting to mention all the action movie shoutouts in this episode, but I guess I'll make a list for the end. It'll take forever otherwise.
Jeff: Really? And people fall for that?
0:11 - LOVE that Annie is wearing shin guards. Troy fills the double-role of the guy who is about to double-cross everyone getting killed AND the black guy dying first. Also loved Shirley's lament of "Troy made God mad!" when he was shot.
0:12 - "Write some original songs!" Another shot at Glee since it was directed at the glee club. Jeff has a point, most musicals have at least some original music involved.
0:15 - Even with Tivo, even with a pause button, I still can't keep up with the awesomeness of this episode. The survivors huddled around a trash can fire swapping stories about what they're fighting for. The Warriors-style theme gang ambush. Shirley with her guns held out in opposite directions reciting the Lord's prayer as she cuts people down. Abed's zombie movie-style "he almost got me" turning into a "he got me." Plus Jeff's relief that the stain on his shirt was just blood from an actual wound and not paint, which would obviously be FAR worse. Again, this is how games go sometimes. It's not ridiculous at all, I swear!
0:16 - AMAZING scene with Senor Chang and the dean. Chang does seem like the kind of guy who would play paintball regularly and bring his own equipment. Had a very Michael Bay feel to how it was shot, reminded me of The Rock anyway.
0:17 - I think the best word I can use for Community is "devolve." Things on the show devolve all the time. It's part of the "here's the sitcom convention, now watch us break it" theme. The "wounded solider fantasy" scene managed to make Jeff and Britta's kiss both explained and shocking at the same time. Explained because it's what you expect from that situation, shocking because they were both mocking how that was what should be expected. Weird that I care more about this relationship now that its pointlessness has been mentioned than I ever did when it was expected to be important.
0:23 - It needs to be said that Senor Chang is the best character on television right now. This scene isn't even over yet!
0:24 - Okay, now the scene is over. EVERYTHING about this was amazing. Chang in the khaki suit, shooting into the air, his double golden pistols, the soundtrack, the bomb strapped to him. I can't get over it.
0:26 - And things are back to normal. It was a little jarring returning to the normal tone of the show, but that says two things. First that the show has a normal, identifiable, and unique tone, and second that the paintball tone started out well and was built up well because, despite being a huge departure, it didn't seem jarring until it was over. Of course Abed notices something is different when Jeff and Britta walk in. He can't put his finger on what it is, but he will!
0:30 - Voicemails are hard, they just are. That's one of the things I love about Jeff's character. He's very strong, he's very stubborn, he's very proud, but he gets sucked into silly things a lot. It makes sense though, because it's the silly things we all get sucked into.
So there it was, the best episode of Community ever. Yes, that might not seem very impressive since the show hasn't finished it's first season yet, but that's one of the things that makes this episode so impressive. It's still their first season, they don't need to change up the formula, they don't need to make things fresh, but yet they do. Getting back to the world-within-a-world thing for a second, I realized during this episode that Community is a little bit like Scrubs (which I invoked earlier).
Sacred Heart was a world within a world, except it was always tethered to the real world via the patients who would sit in bed and look incredulous or via Doctor Cox being over everything all the time. Community lets every character play in the sandbox it has created, but still manages to keep them from becoming zany caricatures. The world of Community really is a community, just like a real college campus. It's nice to have a show that doesn't have to rely on the crutch of keeping a character distant in order to make them seem cool. Another show would've ruined this episode by having some character stay above the fray and make faces about everyone else's behavior, and make snide comments about how stupid the whole thing was. This is a show that gets not just it, but everything. It gets that TV is stupid, it gets that TV is fun, and it gets that life gets crazy and stupid, and that's when it's fun.
Basically that's it, it's a show that doesn't fear enjoying itself. Glee tries to be like that, but there's a big difference. Community doesn't mind pointing that out, and I side with Community on this one. Sorry.
Status: Save until I delete
Now, here are all the action movie conventions I could notice:
- 28 Days Later style waking up in an apocalyptic wasteland
- Jeff finds a dying fighter who has a handle plot synopsis waiting
- Leonard has a laser sight on his gun
- Abed arrives impressively to save Jeff from Leonard in slow motion with a wall jump right out of The Matrix
- Terminator 2-style Abed running at Jeff with a gun, Jeff drops to the ground and finds that Abed was saving him all along
- "Come with me if you don't want paint on your clothes"
- Troy on a computer (just realized there always seems to be a character in action movies introduced while using a computer) also his Mad Max-style shoulder-pads (and cup outside his pants taking it to the comedic extreme)
- Oh! And Abed's goggles, and Troy has some too
- "Look who I found wandering _______"
- "You son of a bitch!" *hug* "I thought you were dead!"
- Jeff randomly stripping down to a tank-top to show off the guns
- Ambush of the ambush on the chess club
- Abed, Troy, and Jeff holding their guns sideways
- Sneaking up on looters (Starburns and Pierce)
- Supply-run ambush (although this was a "pee break" which was also a way of pointing out that no one ever seems to need to pee in action movies)
- The paint trickling down the wall and Abed slowly realizing that evidence points to this being a deathtrap
- Ambush and stand-off (with random and repeated changing of targets by everyone involved)
- Black guy dies first (Troy)
- Pinned down behind cover
- Snipers in the trees
- Huddled around a burning barrel and having a serious conversation
- "Come out and play-AYYY"
- The disco theme gang (which I'm counting as another Warriors shoutout)
- Shirley reciting the lord's prayer as she takes out adversaries with her guns held out in opposite directions and then shockingly being killed from behind
- Jeff being out of ammo and Britta saving him
- Abed saying someone almost got him, and then realizing they had. Also losing his legs.
- "I'm going home" during Shirley's death scene
- Chang as the game-changer assassin being introduced to the game
- Lens flare and sunrise for the "wounded soldier fantasy"
- "wounded soldier fantasy" leading to sex
- After-sex double cross
- Jeff taking the clip out of Britta's gun
- EVERYTHING about Senor Chang (it was just faster)
- Britta sacrificing herself for Jeff, the pre-sacrifice kiss, Britta stealing her clip back during the kiss
- More slow motion
- Chang's bomb
- Jeff diving away from the explosion in slow motion
- Jeff confronting the dean Rambo-style
- Just realized Chang's gun sounds like a minigun
- Jeff's hidden gun strapped to his back
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