The Shows Mostly Formerly Affiliated with NBC's Thursday Night Comedy Block Thread **SPOILERS**

[GoGo Yubari]

Yeah. I think Harmon's gone on record as saying he thinks Chevy was the right decision in the end. Of course, Pierce would have developed into a decidedly different character with Willard playing him anyway.

Also, just watched The Office. The Andy plot was good, but Brian the Sound Guy is wearing on my last nerve.

[apsham]

Community fucking kicked ass. I wouldn't have been able to tell the difference if I didn't know about Harmon being gone. Fuck the haters.

[Jimmy]

That son of a bitch is astute.

I dug Parks & Rec way more than Community. I did like the gag of Sitcom Abed having his own happy place, though. And Fred Willard as Pierce (hasn't he played a teacher on the show before too?). Oh, and Pierce's struggling to come up with a joke re: the red balls. "Gay balls!"

I thought so too, but it was John Michael Higgins. E.g this guy

[LittleDaniel]

Community fucking kicked ass. I wouldn't have been able to tell the difference if I didn't know about Harmon being gone. Fuck the haters.

Sorry I didn't like a thing you liked?

[Josh]

Also, just watched The Office. The Andy plot was good, but Brian the Sound Guy is wearing on my last nerve.

I get the sense they have ended Brian's involvement there. I mean, I feel there's no plot-related need to follow him anymore. And that would be nice. I kind of want the Jim/Pam thing to go on for the sake of dramatic tension (if they can justify it), but I'm perfectly happy letting Brian's part in it be done.

[MalaCloudy Black]

Christina Applegate's left Up All Night.

Seems like the writing's on the wall now. I did like what little I watched of the first season, shame this "retooling" is fucking everything up.

[GoGo Yubari]

The saga of Up All Night should be subtitled "Hey, Community fans, it could be so much worse!"

[LL!]

Community was decent and I have faith they'll hit their stride again. Parks was awesome and hit real close to home for me as I had good poisoning last week.

The Office has made me uncomfortable for the past few weeks. I think that they've really dropped the ball with Andy. It's weird, but even when everyone hated Andy, I didn't feel it. I could sympathize with why others did, but I think he got a lot of the brunt for what was wrong with the show when every other aspect was just as weak. So, watching last night's episode made me feel awful for Andy and I dislike the entire situation. And the whole Brian the sound guy thing is just as uncomfortable. When the show has had me feeling uncomfortable/ sad for the characters MORE than having me laugh at what they do, that's not good comedy.

[Josh]

I felt that way about Andy early on, but my sympathies for him have left - I mean, I still connect with Ed Helms, and I still sympathize with the Andy we had before this season, but now? My big gripe here is just why did the writers feel they had to take this character - who had already transformed from a douchey, comic relief foil for Jim into someone you could genuinely root for - and make him over as essentially the villain?

[GoGo Yubari]

I don't really mind either way because I hated Andy last season too and thought he was basically a useless douche by the end of it anyway.

[Josh]

Maybe it was last season that change happened. I kind of forget. Point is that he used to be so lovable and now he's suuuuuuch a douche.

That said, I feel like last night's events are intended to knock him down a few pegs so we can pity him and later love him again. Whether that actually works remains to be seen.

[GoGo Yubari]

Nah. The thing with last season was the show tried SO HARD to make the viewer root for Andy as the manager and it ended up super-phony and insincere.

[TKz]

Good news, TKz!

Hooray! A thousand hoorays!

[Josh]

Nah. The thing with last season was the show tried SO HARD to make the viewer root for Andy as the manager and it ended up super-phony and insincere.

Ah, that's right. It wasn't their best television but I hadn't turned on him yet.

[LL!]

My big gripe here is just why did the writers feel they had to take this character - who had already transformed from a douchey, comic relief foil for Jim into someone you could genuinely root for - and make him over as essentially the villain?

That's how I feel too. Yes, Andy had his issues as a character, but the way I saw it was that he was trying hard to get people on his side seeing as I'm sure nobody thought he was qualified for the job, and just failing miserably. And no matter how douchey he came off, I still had sympathy for him and I wanted him and Erin to get back together, and I wanted him to get the position back from Nellie. No matter how terrible they wrote Andy, there was still this glimmer of hope that he would find his stride. All this time he was away? I was mad at Erin for getting close to Pete because though Andy was being an idiot, she was still getting chummy with someone even though she knew she was taken. I loved the old Andy, and before he became boss he was probably my favorite character on the show. They didn't completely drop the ball yet, however, until this moment right here. This episode was excruciating because the writers saw just how terrible they were at presenting Andy as a boss and made him a full blown villain. And when Erin kissed Pete, my heart sank for Andy because a character that I had grown very attached to over the last few years just got thrown to the dogs.

This is poor POOR writing. And it's even worse seeing it in a comedy. Especially a comedy that held such prestige at one point in time.

[GoGo Yubari]

Really good interview with the writer of the Community premiere, dissecting what he thinks he did right and wrong and the process of trying to do season four without Dan Harmon.

[Benjamin]

When I look at it, the critiques that I'm anticipating are "This is a sign of new showrunners trying desperately to assure die-hard fans that we're still gonna be the same."

Holy cow, that's almost word for word to what someone on here said.

Really interesting read, though.

[zero]

I thought the premiere was great and better than a lot of season 3. Certainly better than the French Stewart episode.

[GoGo Yubari]

I'd agree to better than the French Stewart episode, disagree to being better than any other episode of season 3. I'd have to rewatch a couple of the ones I recall being weaker, though. But certainly nowhere near the same level as most of it; the Law and Order episode, the Glee episode, the video game episode, First Chang Dynasty, the season finale, the psychiatrist episode, the second documentary episode, the Ken Burns episode, the model UN episode...

Hell, I'd even put some of the more maligned season three episodes (everyone vs. Todd, Horror Fiction) above the season 4 premiere.

EDIT: Also, definitely not better than the #AnniesMove episode. Not with the "Kiss From a Rose" montage.

[LL!]

That is a giant reason as to why Community needs to be available on Netflix streaming already damnit.