We are getting to the end of our beloved television seasons. This is sad to me. It’s sad because poors like us don’t have a lot of options for new television in the summer time. It’s also a little sad—but less so, of course—because this week we’re been getting set-up for big finales, and not too much is happening.
Community
Following the surprising death of Starburns, and the subsequent cancellation of their biology class, the Greendale campus processes their feelings as best they know how: with a riot. (They have a lot of riots don’t they? Way more than I saw, and I went to college in freaking Eugene.) Chang’s child soldiers are adorable, and then hilariously terrifying.
The Greendale Seven faces expulsion before a school board that has been sweet-talked by Chang. Depressing as it all is, at the end of it, they’re back at Troy, Abed and Annie’s apartment, eating pizza, thinking back on alternate timelines. Abed decides it is the right timeline because they are all together. Sweet looks are exchanged. And then—huh, it’s over? That is it?? Weird.
Parks & Rec and more, at the jump!
Winningest bit on the episode might have been Dean’s can-can outfit, and his stapling song. Pierce’s rant against the school was my favorite. Annie seems to exist for gifs these days. Starburns’s miming in front of a green screen so Abed could make a memorial video gave me a chortle.
But, okay, like I just said, at this point we’re being set up for the series finale. Some internet nerds are criticizing this filler episode by pointing out it’s not what Community exactly does best. I think it all seemed a bit clunky, and it was weird to wrap it up with a look back at “Remedial Chaos Theory” and those forlorn glances, but whatever. I suspect that Community writers have A Plan that will knock all of our socks off.
In closing: Jesus Christ people, watch your TVs! Or this season finale will be the series finale and I’ll have to go Chang on all of you.
30 Rock
Here is an episode that is NOT filler or stories. And it is brilliant! The riff on Bravo reality shows (which, of course, I can’t actually watch because I’m poor (tear) is hilarious. Two sucky aspects are the bit with Jack and Avery’s mom, because it skeezes me out, and the fact that a lot of the smaller stars’ parts have seemed to vanish this season (Frank, Lutz and Toofer rarely get more than a line or two each anymore). OTHERWISE: Excellent show! Kenneth’s turn as a model and asking what cocaine was like, and his cord drama, rule it all.
The Office
Speaking of drama: PAPER DRAMA.
Parks and Rec
Another set-up episode. As Leslie is closing in on Bobby Newport in the polls and election day nears, her election team is in overdrive. It all seems to be going very well with the t-shirt cannons and Gloria Estefan dancers until Leslie calls Bobby’s deceased father a jerk. The episode ends with Bobby and Leslie facing the crowd together, and I just don’t know what’s coming. Part of me thinks maybe Bobby will drop out since he doesn’t need to impress his father anymore. And it doesn’t look like his campaign manager is getting paid, so she might ditch him. (I hope she doesn’t stick around to keep banging Traeger. That character bugs me.) But another part of me thinks Leslie HAS to lose because the show IS called Parks and Rec, and shouldn’t she stay working there??
Once again, Andy gets the biggest laughs in an episode. I could watch him hitting Jerry in the face with a pie in slow-motion forever. Here is a screengrab that is about to become my desktop wallpaper:
Also: naming everybody for his sexual feelings about them, except for Ben “Eagle 2” Wyatt.
Honorable mention to Donna for crashing her Benz into the van rental guy’s truck. And for everything else she says. I really love Donna.
But overall, I did not have as many STRONG FEELINGS this week as I typically do. Anybody else?
Yeah, I’ve been wondering where Parks & Rec is headed with the city council storyline, because Leslie can’t win. There’ll be some sort of spanner in the works, she’ll make a nice speech about how much she loves Pawnee and the Parks department and her coworkers and she’ll concede defeat although she’s ahead in exit polls. Then the show will keep going for another four seasons, getting increasingly unfunny and tiresome and we’ll all feel bad about how it used to be good. (Remember when The Office was funny?)
Or she could win! And leave the Parks dept. And the show could end on a high note. Not happening, though.
It would be SO GREAT if P&R could stay strong another two years and then end gracefully. But are there still shows that do that? I think that Friday Night Lights is the only recent example I can think of of a show ending about when it needs to end, and doing it well….
this column should be “ending about when it needs to end”
worst thing ever.
My feelings were not strong. I kept thinking, “yeah, yeah, season finales are soon.” On the other hand: SEASON FINALES ARE SOON!
This was a very solid P&R, definitely the best Andy episode in a while.
There’s a big article at avclub about ending TV series, and we all know about all the internet hand-wringing that occurs on the subject. http://www.avclub.com/articles/end-it-alre…
Here’s my thought:
IT’S A FUCKING TV SHOW. I like the shows I like because the plots are just vehicles for gags and character development – I don’t actually give two shits where the stories are going or how they all stand together as some complete artistic statement, because that’s just not how TV works.
I watch until I no longer find the jokes/character interactions interesting and then I stop watching. And then at some point the show ends. And lives move on. Why are we so fucking precious about TV?
@ CC: Because we love TV. And we want for it to always be as good as we think we deserve, and we are often disappointed. And there is a lot of space on the internet, so all things need to be exhaustively addressed and obsessed over. ALSO, WTF, you don’t care where shows are going?! I agree that in sitcoms the end game isn’t really The Thing, but caring about what happens next is how I’ve lost many hours of many weekends to various DVD box sets. Because you gotta know!