Who Are The Real Germans?

Community, S04E04

Jeff and the others had their study group room invaded by the German students at school who kept beating them to it.  When the gang came up with a plan to get the German's amenities usage at school suspended, their victory backfired and led to other students who had been coveting their study room for years to band with the Germans to protest Jeff and the other's monopoly.  Dean was also entrusted to look after Chang while he is recovering from his amnesia.

I realized that one of the reason I must have liked this episode a lot was because the conflict in this story wasn't internal in their group, but external.  When Jeff and the others work together to solve a problem they're having at school or somewhere else, I enjoy that better than their own personal squabbles.  Not to say those don't have their own comedic merit, but lately I haven't been feeling the issues within the gang.

So when the Germans returned (I don't exactly remember them from before, though) I was pleased to see them target the gang.  From the moment Reinhold opened his mouth, in a taunting and superior tone with a hilarious German accent, I was on board for this study room war and ready to laugh.  Reinhold had me rolling with his evil laughter in class and how he and his lackies kept beating the others to the study table every morning.  I liked the idea that they seemed to literally have nothing better to do than to make Jeff and company frustrated.

I also enjoyed that the gang's ruse to get the Germans banned from the study groups by tricking them into celebrating their own culture on campus actually made them see that they have always been the oppressors.   That's interesting because you don't think about how they've had to been hogging that room for years without consideration of the other students.  It's too bad that they failed their test in Cornwallis' class because they really learned first-hand the lesson he was trying to teach about history from different perspectives.  This was a lesson I hadn't expected them to reach, so I really liked the story from beginning to end.

Besides the story itself, there were several lines that I enjoyed throughout.  The first was when the gang was whining about missing out on the ice cream class:

[Troy] I don't get history.  If I wanted to know what happened in Europe a long time ago, I'd watch Game of Thrones.

[Annie] Troy, that show takes place in a fantasy realm.  This class is about the real world.

[Troy gasps excitedly]

[Abed] Not the show.

[Troy] You need to think before you speak!

Troy continued making me smile when he didn't respond well to their history professor's introduction:

[Cornwallis] I'm Professor Cornwallis.  I know what you're all thinking, and the answer is yes.  I am a direct descendant of General Sir Charles Cornwallis, who surrendered the British forces at Yorktown.[Troy] Was anyone thinking that?

Cornwallis seems like he's going to be funny (if he continues to be their teacher).  I liked how he doesn't quite fit in Greendale in so much as he doesn't abide to absurd ideas that seem common at the school.  When he heard that they thought it made sense that he could have possibly set up a ruse to teach seven of his students a lesson, he lamented over his new job:

My, God, I've made a terrible mistake coming here.

But my favorite lines came from when Jeff finished explaining that they needed to use a ruse to beat the Germans:

[Abed] You had me at "ruse."[Jeff] That was the last thing I said.[Abed] Good thing you said it.

I feel like this was the kind of episode I had been waiting for since October.  Well, at least something similar to this with more of a dramatic development than what was called for (like a war over blankets and pillows).

It was good to see that Chang has gotten back into the school again, but I'm eager to see him get his memories back.  A tame guy named "Kevin" doesn't have the same draw that the original out-of-his-mind Chang does.  However, maybe for a while he can terrify the gang who I know can't possibly forgive and forget his past deeds so easily.  The Dean has for sure, but I'm counting on those like Jeff to watch him carefully for the other shoe to drop.

 This is my top episode so far.  Knowing that this show seems to be picking up some steam, I'm hoping that there will be many stories to come that will blow this one away and make me even forget it.  I'd gladly welcome back the Germans again for any other beef they care to have against Jeff and the others--they were excellent rivals in the study room war.  It was a good twist that the group learned that they were blindly oppressing others at the school and did something about it to make up for their behavior.  I don't know what Chang could do to make up for all the atrocities he's done at Greendale, but his amnesia and seemingly pleasant attitude now gives him a chance to start over with everyone.  I'd rather he didn't because you just can't beat how hilarious Chang was as an antagonist--what would the school be like without their resident psycho?

Let's Hurry It Up

How I Met Your Mother, S08E01

The eight season premiere started with a look further in the future where Robin and Barney are getting married.  However, the main focus is on a little back in the past where we left off last season.  Ted and Victoria were trying to leave a note for her ex-fiance Klaus, but having difficulty sneaking in.  Barney wanted to keep his relationship with Robin a secret from Quinn, but a sleep-deprived Marshall and Lily made that difficult.

I can't say that I wasn't a little bit encouraged by this episode to keep watching, but that had little to do with almost everything that happened.  My biggest frustration was that they are continuing to do this leap forward in the story, while still talking about the past.  Well, we all know that despite Barney is engaged to Quinn and Robin has a new boyfriend that it's not going to work out.  I think I have no patience left for this show, and I just want them to hurry up and show how Robin and Barney get back together again.  Why fool around with this unimportant piece where they are apart?  Seriously, I wish I could snap my fingers and get to the point.

It was even more torture watching Ted and Victoria scrambling around to leave that note for Klaus.  We know that they aren't going to be together because Ted in the "Barbin" wedding future is sitting at a station where his future wife comes holding that famous yellow umbrella.  Frankly, for all the trouble that he went through to leave that letter for it to be that Klaus didn't even want to get married was annoying.  It absolves Ted and Victoria of looking like assholes for leaving a man at the altar, but it makes me wonder if they could have just gotten together in the end without this dramatic fleeing from the wedding and stupid return to the venue to leave a letter.  Again, I felt like I was being jerked around.  All for a relationship that isn't even going to last the entire season (presumably).

Despite all my complaints there was one thing I did like about the Ted and Victoria story and that was when Klaus thought that Ted knew German because he understood "wunderbar".  He then proceed to go off in German as normal.  This was particularly funny to me because I've had this sort of experience before.  Also, Klaus was telling Ted that he was inconsistent with his knowledge of German since he knew "kindergarten," but didn't know this other ridiculously long German word.  But by that time, it was nearly the end of the episode, and it didn't particularly save it for me.

With all these complaints, you would wonder why I would want to continue to watch.  Well, it's mostly because Ted's wife has finally shown up again.  Now, we're not sure that Ted is going to have a fateful meeting with that woman there at the train station in the next episode, but I hope he does.  If he does, I think I can keep watching.  If she's just going be there in passing just to tease us again, I think I'm gonna be done.  I'll just catch the finale of the last season so I can figure out who he marries.  Because I'm not enjoying the journey anymore.  Marshall and Lily are pretty much done--they have a kid.  Barney and Robin are going to stop going around in circles and get married.  We just need freaking Ted to fall into place.  But I don't think I have it in me to stick around if this isn't going to happen a little faster.

So for now How I Met Your Mother is still within my list of stuff to watch, but it's not out of the danger zone by a longshot.  After all, there may be something better to watch at its time slot on Monday (especially if Regular Show or Adventure Time were to move to that time), so it may not be worth it.  Hopefully, next time we are going to see the first encounter between Ted and the future Mrs. Mosby.