Great To See The Greendale Crew Again!

Community, S04E01

Jeff fought for admission balls in the Dean's games for the History of Ice Cream class.  His friends didn't want to help him, feeling betrayed at the news that Jeff only needed the one history class to graduate early.  Annie and Shirley decided to play some senior pranks.  Britta joined Troy in his beginning of the year tradition of making wishes at the fountain.  Abed, via Britta's instructions, went to his happy place and refused to leave when hearing about the changes that were to come with their final year of school.

I can't deny that I've missed this show and was dilgently waiting for its return.  I can't say, though, that I really loved any part of this season premiere. What I liked mostly was just seeing their faces and remembering the dynamic of the group.  It's generally entertaining to see them doing just about anything because they're a weird group of people.  However, I didn't laugh as much as I had anticipated.

I definitely missed Dean's outlandish outfits.  This time he was dressed in a red dress and later a tango dress while doing the "Hunger Deans."  Besides the costumes, I didn't really think the games were funny or anything.  Maybe if it hadn't just been Jeff running around to get the balls I might have liked it a little better.

Annie and Shirley could have stirred up some trouble doing pranks around the school, but they didn't do much of anything than realize that Jeff wasn't being as big of a jerk as he seemed.  I did sorta like that Annie was really bad at coming up with pranks, such as moving the Dean's stapler, but that was only slightly successful as a joke when the Dean mentioned he was having a bad day because someone moved in stapler in the end.  Apparently she was right about that being able to drive him crazy.

I'm still not used to the idea of Britta and Troy testing the waters or whatever they are doing instead of officially dating.  In fact, it took me a second to remember that they thought of each other in a romantic way.  I had forgotten about that because they haven't really done much as a couple yet.  Anyway, I didn't like much her messing with the tradition Troy and Abed had made together.  Yes, Troy should be more open to things outside of what Abed deems as right, but on the other hand if it's a choice between Britta's world and Abed's world, I think that Troy better fits in the latter.  Abed may be a little out there, but at least he's intelligent.  I can't get over the fact that Britta just always sounds so stupid, so her giving her two cents about how they should do their fountain wishes wasn't welcome to me.  If this is how their interactions are going to be from now on, I don't see myself supporting them as a couple.

How I have missed Abed and his fantasies.  In the Abed TV universe, I liked that Pierce existed as Fred Willard.  I could get down with that replacement, even though it would be harder to imagine Willard as a naturally rude and racist old man.  It was also cute that when the others were looking at job magazines, "Pierce's" magazine read "Coffins."  Still, even though it was just inside of Abed's world, it was a little annoying to hear the studio audience.  I thought at first they were doing that on the real show and I was about to get scared.  Later, when Abed went into his happy place within his happy place, I got a little kick out of him changing everyone into cartoon babies called "Greendale Babies."  I don't know why, but that was a little funny.  The best thing, though, was when everyone was trying to bring Abed out of his own mind and Jeff walked up to Abed.  In Abed's mind Jeff had told one of his trademark speeches to solve whatever problem was going on that week, but this time Jeff hadn't even gotten the chance:

[Abed] That was a killer speech, Jeff.
[Jeff] I-I didn't say anything.  I literally just walked up.

I also liked the little promos going on during Abed TV.  It was cute to see Abed and Troy in chef outfits in "American Sword Chefs."  What in the world would that show be about?

At the end, Chang was shown handing a mailman a note about his "Changnesia."  He was naked and seemed really confused.  Not sure what to expect from him this season, but I'm a little excited to see him get back into the mix.  Chang was definitely my favorite teacher of theirs.  He needs to have a place at the school again.

Lastly, there was a little extra segment of Abed TV where Abed and Troy were in drag.  It was kinda funny that Dean refused to believe that Britta wasn't a man.  I like the idea that Britta looks less feminine than Abed and Troy do if they were to dress like women.

This episode was okay.  I'm just happy enough that this show is back on the air to worry too much about what the first couple of stories are about.  I am worried that the show might not be able to continue once they do graduate, but I also couldn't see how they could stretch out another year of school at a community college.  There weren't many laughs this time around, but I mostly liked another glimpse of Abed viewing the world through TV eyes.  He seems to be already on board with the changes that will come with the new school year, but I'm sure Abed will find trouble adapting with something else and we'll be treated with Abed TV once more.

Everybody Hates Schmidt

New Girl, S02E04

Jess began to hang out with some kids that had just moved in, but didn't seem to like Schmidt because he was too old.  Winston worried about not having very long left to live.  Nick became obsessed with pranking Schmidt, especially in making him feel like he was getting older by the second.

It's funny what manages to ruffle Winston's feathers, and this time it was Schmidt's actuarial.  I mean, he really took that thing to heart, despite he thought at first it told him he should have died about 4 years ago.  Of the 3 guys, I would guess that Winston would live the longest because Nick both fails to take care of himself and is prone to stupid decisions, while Schmidt just seems like someone who would end up being stabbed or shot one day.  Still, I guess Winston freaking out about his life running short did inspire him to not so very eloquently demand that he be given a promotion at work.  Although he has his own show, it's at a graveyard time slot, so it's almost a non-promotion, but hey, he's at least taking a step forward.  I think that will end up being a very interesting new job for him.

Nick, on the other hand, was letting his insanity sink him further into debt because he wasted over a grand playing pranks on Schmidt!  What the hell??  One of the most elaborate was when Schmidt noticed that his height line was higher than his current height.  I was shocked at the detail he put into that when he explained it to Jess:

I took a photo of the wall, shrunk it down, made a copy at an architect’s office.  From there, it was just your basic spackle-and-silkscreen job.

Seriously??  I've never seen Nick put so much energy and work into something, and when he does it has to be something spiteful.  He is so crazy!  And Winston is also crazy because he doesn't know how to prank adequately.  I don't which is funnier:  the fact that he goes too small (like sprinkling dust near Schmidt's car) or goes too big (hitting people with skis or throwing acid on them).  I'm actually a lot more concerned about Winston attempting a prank than Nick.  Nick will bankrupt himself playing his tricks, but Winston is likely to kill you.

Finally, in the Jess and Schmidt story, it was a treat to see those kids looking upon Schmidt like an unwanted growth.  But I think when Schmidt first caught on that he was hated and had to pretend he had work so he could refuse the kids' invitation to hang, I did feel bad for him.  No one wants to be the unpopular guy, so I couldn't help but want Schmidt to somehow win them over.  But it was pretty funny in general watching Jess being treated like the coolest person in the world, while Schmidt, with all of his bad slang and nonsense hype, got nowhere.  I also loved when Nick said that nothing about Schmidt being hated was new:

If I had a dollar for everybody I couldn’t hang out with because they hated Schmidt, I’d be rich.  Like, fill my gas tank all the way up rich.

I wasn't too surprised that even when Jess tried to help him that Schmidt still failed because he was just trying too hard.  But what I really liked is that Jess came clean about stealing catchphrases from 80s sitcoms and realized that she wasn't really identifying with those kids, but had already grown as a person beyond them.  But the kids still liked her and wanted to hang with her.  Aww.  I like when people like Jess because she is sweet and fun, but sometimes people don't like her because she does things her own way and is overly awkward in the most simple situations (and is the victim of bad luck).  It really shows that interacting with younger people is what she was born to do.

 This was a great episode.  I wonder if Jess will continue to see her new neighbors every now and then--I think they could add a little more crazy situations in their apartment building.  I'm pretty sure Winston's little show is going to make his job even more interesting or probably make him go insane with the strange work hours.  Don't really care what happens with Schmidt right now, but I'd like to see Nick not do anything else to throw the money he doesn't have away.  Nick would be living in an alley right now if he didn't have his friends.