well, i didn't think it was that bad. it certainly wasn't one of the better ones, but it was far from what i feared. they did miss an opportunity with britta soaking wet from the fountain, but that's just the hole they dug back when they had her and annie wrestling in cheerleader outfits.
The problem with the season opener was something I had feared. They tried to mimic the show that Harmon made, but they aren't him. It would have been better for both the show and the new showrunners just to implement their own comedy style and plot course. I'm not ready to write off the rest of the season but I do hope they try to do their own thing instead of merely copying their predecessor.
That's pretty much how I felt too. The episode wasn't bad (far from it), but it did feel somewhat "off", similarly to how the second season of Alphas felt somewhat "off" from the first season with a new showrunner. Nonetheless, I'll continue watching. -G
had they done that, everyone would be screaming from the rooftops that they've completely changed the show. they were in a no-win situation. either they try to keep it like what harmon created and critics tell them they've ruined the show, or they go in their own direction and critics tell them they've ruined the show.
Don't know if anyone else would have this happen, but I did enjoy it more the second time. Sorta followed it through the lens of Abed. But the set-up as a "routine" sitcom within a show definitely cut into their time to make clever wisecracks.
Perhaps it's a side-effect of having watched too much Star Trek recently, but this incarnation of Community reminds me of that episode of "Enterprise" where Ensign Mayweather "dies", only the doctor discover that the corpse is a molecule by molecule copy of the real Mayweather, but one that never held any life. Kind of like how the season opener had all of the components we associate with Community, without ever truly feeling like Community.
It was sorta good at times but in the end it was mostly disappointing. Like it has been said, the problem is the imitation thing. Still I sorta liked the sitcom thing but when they did the Community babies, it was clear that they went to far. Still that was the better part. Just as I expected, the Hunger Dean thing was total shit. That part of the show is totally worrisome because there they got everything wrong. That was totally off. Things don't look good.
They can't do this show with one foot in the Harmon era and one foot in the post-Harmon era. And since Harmon is gone, the only way forward is to do their own thing 100%. I think most fans have accepted the fact that the show would change with him gone as showrunner. Doesn't mean that the Greendale setting and the existing characters can't be used to make another worthwhile sitcom.
Very curious to see how many will return for episode two... http://insidetv.ew.com/2013/02/08/community-ratings/
Episode two was somewhat better than the season premiere. Still not in the same stratosphere as the very best episodes of the first three seasons, but an improvement upon the previous one. If they can keep on growing into it, we might get a couple of truly worthwhile episodes after all.