S06.E03: Basic Crisis Room Decorum

[formerlyfreedom]

The Greendale gang goes on the offensive when a rival college releases an attack ad.

 

Please note - the topic will be locked until the episodes have dropped on Yahoo! Screen at 12:01 a.m. PT, 1:01 a.m. MT, 2:01 a.m. CT, and 3:01 a.m. ET. This topic is for episode discussion only please.

[godonlyknows]

I really wish they'd stop with all the computer graphics. I didn't like this episode, especially everything to do with the Dean and the guy in Tokyo. Still not sure what Keith David's character adds to the show.

 

Why would Annie need to enroll at City College? Is she actually working towards a post-graduate degree rather than just trying to save Greendale?

 

So this was the 100th episode that aired but wikipedia has it down as production code 605 so is it possible another episode was planned as the 100th episode and they made more of it? Otherwise it was rather bland, much like Cougar Town's last week.

 

I've heard a lot of people complaining about Yahoo Screen sound/video quality but other than a minor pause after ad breaks, I haven't had any problems.

[VCRTracking]

 

I really wish they'd stop with all the computer graphics. I didn't like this episode, especially everything to do with the Dean and the guy in Tokyo.

I'm the opposite, I was laughing throughout that whole subplot especially the tag. I felt bad for Britta, lamenting that everybody treats her like a joke and she found a kindred spirit with Elroy but ended up driving him off with her awful singing. Gillian BTW looked and sounded great in her fantasy. I think Elroy had some good lines but hasn't really fit in with the group except for Jeff. I think Frankie is doing a better job actually. I like her friendship with Annie and her views on hope. Love Vicki schooling the kid with the afro on what it's like to play background to the study group/committee. 

 

I had trouble last week with the freezing watching on Yahoo! so I just decided to either torrent or watch on Dailymotion from now on.

[arc]

Love Vicki schooling the kid with the afro on what it's like to play background to the study group/committee.

I think that's Dave, possibly first introduced last season as a student taking Jeff's law class.

 

Frankie's great. She's a sort of mix of Annie and Abed - type A and driven like Annie, but weird and kind of disconnected like Abed.

 

So this was the 100th episode that aired but wikipedia has it down as production code 605 so is it possible another episode was planned as the 100th episode and they made more of it? Otherwise it was rather bland, much like Cougar Town's last week.

The writer Alex Rubens tweeted that this aired 100th, but was shot 102nd.

[VCRTracking]

I love the detail of Frankie having Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead by her bedside. I remember having to report to jury duty a few years ago and during selection there was a pretty young Asian woman sitting next to me wearing an expensive looking pantsuit, with her hair up and glasses and I spotted a paperback of Atlas Shrugged in her purse. Luckily I didn't get picked but I wonder how she would have been like on a jury!

[CletusMusashi]

I had the same problem with this week's episode that Eric Cartman has with "Family Guy." The jokes had little or nothing to do with the plot. Chang was funny, and the thing with the Dean and the olives was great, but the dog thing just wasn't as funny as it could have been.

Abed's comedic skills are being woefully ignored. I understand character development, but the man has comedic range. Making him the straight man is a big step down.

I had trouble buying Annie getting that upset over the dog ad. Was she supposed to have thought the dog's feelings would be hurt by the commercial? Annie is emotional, but she's not stupid or insane. Normally, she gives big funny reactions to real problems, but is perfectly capable of saying "yeah, that one's not important."

Britta was kind of funny, but, again, funny in a way that was completely cut off from the story.

Sure, they've always had their share of weird silly little jokes that pop up and disappear without effecting the story, but the stories themselves have also traditionally been comedy gold mines.

The first couple eps had new characters to introduce, and they had to get people drawn back into the world of Greendale even though three of the GD7 are gone. That's hard enough to do that I forgave them for not being as hilarious as I expected. But this week was a pretty straight forward comedy plot, and what I saw, sadly, was just plain bad lazy writing.

[VCRTracking]

I already like the episode but this review and analysis of Annie make me really appreciate it:

 

 

In season two, Annie couldn't stand that Greendale was a place that accepted and flew a butt flag. Greendale was a joke, and she didn't want a joke of a school to be on her resumé. She had too much self-respect and pride to stick around.

By season six, Annie's moved past the idea that maybe Greendale doesn't look so great on a resumé. She's accepted the school and its quirks and still takes pride in her success, her good grades, and her ability to run the "Save Greendale" campaign in spite of how Greendale looks on paper because, up until this episode, Annie's always believed that whatever problems she might encounter can be conquered with hard work, dedication, and the help of her friends. That's why she calls them in to help her stop City College's attack ad, only to end up horrified by their methods of doing so.

A fundamental trait in Annie Edison is that she wants the people around her to be the best people they can possibly be. She likes highlighting the good in others and trying to get them to see it in themselves, because Annie always sees it. But what if she stops seeing it? What if she starts only seeing the underhanded, manipulative, defeatist parts of the people she's spent all this effort trying to lift up? What if the people she's trying to help flat-out tell her that there's no reason to try and be good and that hope is pointless?

I'm sure that Annie is sick and tired of being the optimist in a sea of pessimism. After all: what's the point? Her friends apparently haven't grown in the six years she's known them, and even the new people in the group seem eternally fatalistic.

Annie thought she had an ally in Frankie, had another person with an A-Type personality and go-getter attitude to help inspire the people around her and bring Greendale out of whatever new darkness it might find itself in. Then she hears Frankie's declaration that she gave up hope a long time ago and was better for it, and Annie realizes that even Frankie is just the same as everyone else, just as pessimistic and just as content with her apathy and cynicism. If Frankie, a woman I'm sure Annie saw a lot of herself in, couldn't even keep herself from nose-diving into hopelessness, what chance does Annie have? If she's in a school full of people who have no drive, no ambition, and don't feel like they need to change anything – how long will it take before Annie is just like them?

So Annie wants out. She claims she wants to go to a place where her grades matter (and I'm sure that's a part of it), but the real motivation in her decision to bail on Greendale is watching her friends use dirty political tactics to fudge the truth instead of owning up to that truth and being better than it. She doesn't like seeing proof that her belief in the people around her was ill-founded and pointless, that maybe the goodness she saw in all of them was just an illusion brought about by the pointless trait of "hope." She cleans out her locker and thinks that, just maybe, things will be different at City College.

But then Abed brings Annie the new campaign commercial for Greendale, where a happy Dean Pelton is sitting with Ruffles the dog and promoting Greendale not as a place so terrible it give degrees to dogs, but as a place so full of hope and the possibility for improvement that it gives degrees to dogs. Annie is overjoyed; even when Jeff tells her the commercial was just a good tactical move. She doesn't care, because it finally looks like hope wins. Her belief in the people around her didn't let her down in the end, which means that she can keep on believing in people. She can keep being an optimist in that sea of pessimism and, just maybe, she might be able to make a difference.

She hopes.

 

 

[Amarsir]

 

In season two, Annie couldn't stand that Greendale was a place that accepted and flew a butt flag.

 

Speaking of the Greendale logo, I noticed it was watermarked on Ruffles' transcript. That doesn't make sense on a file that predates the study group. I spent way too long being bothered by that.

 

I had the same problem with this week's episode that Eric Cartman has with "Family Guy." The jokes had little or nothing to do with the plot.

 

 

That's a good point. I like the idea of a late-night emergency as catalyst and certainly it's very Greendale to give a degree to a dog. But it didn't tie together and you're right, that's why.

 

I think it's because the plot was fairly predictable. As soon as we got the setup we all knew the resolution would be something like "Greendale gives everyone a chance, no matter who you are."  So it was just a matter of how much they could add to that plot without going external to it. And apparently, not much.

[Latverian Diplomat]

I spotted a paperback of Atlas Shrugged in her purse. Luckily I didn't get picked but I wonder how she would have been like on a jury!

Easily to bribe, vote to the highest bidder, I should think. Ayn Rand would be disappointed by anything less.

Speaking of the Greendale logo, I noticed it was watermarked on Ruffles' transcript. That doesn't make sense on a file that predates the study group. I spent way too long being bothered by that.

 

Clearly, they went back and reprinted all the old transcripts when they adopted the new logo.

 

More seriously, I don't think anybody keeps paper copies of printed transcripts. It's been computerized for decades. 

[arc]

It's really weirding me out every time they show a Macbook with the Apple logo obscured with a grey disc.

[Amarsir]

Easily to bribe, vote to the highest bidder, I should think. Ayn Rand would be disappointed by anything less.

Did ... did you read it? "Anything for money" is what the bad guys in Atlas Shrugged do.

[Latverian Diplomat]

Did ... did you read it? "Anything for money" is what the bad guys in Atlas Shrugged do.

 

It's way off topic to debate this here, but the Galt's followers logo is a gold dollar sign. They are very fond of the stuff.

[TeeVee329]

I'm really liking Frankie so far.  I love her droll, dry humor and her response to Annie saying she kinda sounded like Jeff ("Jeff said I sounded like Abed.  I wonder if Britta thinks I sound like Chang.  I assume Chang thinks I sound like distant explosions and crying babies.  You know he's unstable, right?") was awesome.

[arc]

her response to Annie saying she kinda sounded like Jeff ("Jeff said I sounded like Abed. I wonder if Britta thinks I sound like Chang. I assume Chang thinks I sound like distant explosions and crying babies. You know he's unstable, right?") was awesome.

It was great the first time, but on rewatch it mostly made me sad that so many departed study group members weren't mentioned in that run. Of course they wouldn't be; Frankie never met them, but still.

[tennisgurl]

I really really like Frankie. I think she adds a good energy to the show. 

 

More later 

[Kalliste]

There were too many super weird things that didn't fit in this episode... Britta's singing and going into a dream mode.. it just didn't feel like a Community thing. I know there have been similar things but it didn't feel right.. the whole Britta storyline doesn't feel right. 

 

My favourite part of this season has been the dean. I especially loved his parts with thinking Jeff was being mean in real life but sweet in texts.. the olives part haha!

 

I feel like I'm getting no fun from Abed :( He used to be my favourite and now he barely matters. Hoping that improves.

[Unclejosh]

I literally had to stop watching after Keith David's look at Paget Brewster when she said she didn't own a TV because I was laughing so hard.  I must have rewound that part 5 times.  Funniest moment in the season so far by far, IMHO of course.

Edited April 1, 2015 by Unclejosh

[Nightbaron]

The scene where the Dean brings Jeff the 5 cans of olives was one of the funniest scenes I've watched in recent years.  Jeff's puzzlement and the Dean's satisfaction...I just cracked up.

[desertflower]

I literally had to stop watching after Keith David's look at Paget Brewster when she said she didn't own a TV because I was laughing so hard.  I must have rewound that part 5 times.  Funniest most in the season so far by far, IMHO of course.

I was going to comment on the same thing. That was a great reaction, and it's the same way I feel when someone says they don't watch tv.

[Skyfall]

Easily to bribe, vote to the highest bidder, I should think. Ayn Rand would be disappointed by anything less.

 

Clearly, they went back and reprinted all the old transcripts when they adopted the new logo.

 

More seriously, I don't think anybody keeps paper copies of printed transcripts. It's been computerized for decades. 

Even at Greendale?

[Latverian Diplomat]

Even at Greendale?

True. At Greendale, I could see an elaborate, expensive computer system and an immense file of paper transcripts that was instituted as a back up for Y2K and nobody told the Dean Y2K was over 15 years ago.