GLEE MEANS, LITERALLY, GLEE: If you're going to go out on a forced extended vacation, you might as well do it the way that Community did, with a brilliant, dense, layered, pissed off episode. One could probably sit down and write a term paper on everything that went right, from the spot-on parody (the bad rapping and production numbers, the nonsensical characterization, the continuity failures) up one level to overt rips ("if you don't like Glee Club, it doesn't make you a bully, and saying it does is reverse bullying"), to the reproach to Community's own fetishists (Annie's sexy/infantile come-on) to the meta jabs at Community's tone and self-destructive behavior. Community may have spent too much time this season trying confusedly to please disparate masters (including NBC, and not excluding its superfans), but this episode was nothing but the show doing what it wanted to do, well and proudly, and boy, did it hit the spot for me.
In other news, I'm trying to think of a sadder clown on recent TV than Ellie Kemper's Erin.
That Community/P&R combo was about as good an hour of TV as I've seen this year. That rap was pretty fantastic: If years were seasons, this December would be the December of our December. But the one-shot tag on P&R may have been even better.
ReplyDeleteBoopy boopy boopy doop Sex.
ReplyDelete"The meta jabs at Community's tone and self-destructive behavior."
ReplyDeleteWhich were these?
I may develop this as a separate post, but I'd like to knoww more about Pawnee's civil service code. Municipal employees can't date each other, but can (a) run for public office without resigning and (b) use town resources for political activity? Um, okay ...
ReplyDeleteLast night was about P & R. The credit tag with Jean Ralphio was just the topper to an incredible show.
ReplyDeleteAmong other things, at least two references to how dark this season has been.
ReplyDeleteOops - guest was me.
ReplyDeleteYes, those, plus also the point that abandoning the darkness and pandering to the trends would increase the group's popularity (but at the cost of being stuck doing that pandering forever).
ReplyDeleteYou're the expert, and even I (a non-expert) spotted the problem with the town resources, but can a town prohibit its employees from running for public office, as long as they do it on their own time with their own resources?
ReplyDeleteTotally constitutional to bar civil service employees from running in partisan elections.
ReplyDeleteThat was my one problem with the episoded. Even if it isn't banned by municiple code, if they so much as touched federal money (and ARRA funded a lot of parks), the Hatch Act kicks in. And even if it doesn't, that banner in city hall still made me cringe. C'mon Leslie, you're trying to avoid scandals.
ReplyDeleteThat being said, it's a small town, they might not care. Hell, I know of a Senator (and we're not going any further so as to stay on the right side of the rule) who openly had campaign paychecks sent to his Senate office for his Senate staffers. Just because there's a law, doesn't mean it always gets followed. And that's totally the kind of law Ron Swanson would break.
Still a great episode, though.
I agree on the town resources, but the non-dating was stated to be Chris's rule rather than part of the local law.
ReplyDeleteWhat are Regionals?
ReplyDeleteLoved that Annie's "diminishing returns" came out, "dimouuauhhhh"
ReplyDeleteI had the same thought, but either they'll ignore it, or they'll mine the comedy of Leslie and (probably) Ben riding herd on their volunteers to keep church and state seperate (so to speak.)
ReplyDeleteNYC bans employees from running in partisan elections.
ReplyDelete"If we win regionals, then it's straight on to sectionals. Then a week later it's semis, then semi-regionals, then regional semis, then national lower-zone semis!"
ReplyDelete"Oh. But I kinda thought this was, you know, just for Christmas."
"No no no, this is forever. This is what we do now. This is who we are."
"If we win regionals, then it's straight on to sectionals. Then a week later it's semis, then semi-regionals, then regional semis, then national lower-zone semis!"
ReplyDelete"Oh. But I kinda thought this was, you know, just for Christmas."
"No no no, this is forever. This is what we do now. This is who we are."
If they wanted to discourage Community fetishists, they probably shouldn't have put Gillian Jacobs in that tree costume.
ReplyDelete...yea, that sentence didn't finish the way I expected.
ReplyDeleteYou totally brittaed that sentence.
ReplyDeleteIs Pawnee City Council necessarily a partisan election?
ReplyDeleteThere's also something fascinating and touching about Ron (whose political views are clearly pretty much diametrically opposed to Leslie's--she certainly believes that government can and should be a force for good in at least some ways) acknowledging that even though he might not like what Leslie would do, she would still make an exemplary councilperson. In today's hyperpartisan atmosphere, that, all too often, gets lost.
ReplyDelete