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Holy loving poo poo, I actually did not recognize Billy Zane until just now, and I watched the episode on Tuesday. I just figured you goons were talking about some inside joke I'll look up later, but now I realize that actually was Billy Zane.
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Apr 24, 2015 05:29
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pnumoman posted:Holy loving poo poo, I actually did not recognize Billy Zane until just now, and I watched the episode on Tuesday. I just figured you goons were talking about some inside joke I'll look up later, but now I realize that actually was Billy Zane. The Phantom himself!
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Apr 24, 2015 05:46
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The reason the episode worked for me was they started off making a big deal about "Guerrilla Marketing" and ended up being as overt as possible. It's taking money from the dumbest thing in the world (marketing) and putting it towards exposing it's flaws and disagreeable elements (taking advantage of people like Todd/the Dean). I thought the first Bar seen did a good job exploring some of the hypocrisy being fundamentally against advertising produces: you can sell/recommend something with the best of intentions and still be serving a brand. Britta's always been caught in the world between idealism and practicality, she survives because she's good at finding justification from others or herself. I also really appreciate the idea that Honda was a stand in for addictive drugs, which I didn't completely connect until it was posted here. As for people who don't like this episode, good! Product placement sucks, capitalism sucks, rejecting forms of it at the expense of your own enjoyment is quite admirable. Harmon made it easy, you just have to ignore the show whenever Rick shows up. He then gets written out and everyone but Britta is happy. I thought the episode was funny in addition to the concept, but I'd probably be singing a different tune if it was season 4 level writing and an ad.
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Apr 24, 2015 07:38
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Death By The Blues posted:Also, Billy Zane was wasted, that entire silly gag about him "disappearing" has been done a million times. I kinda like Frankie. She's the Buzz Hickey of this season where she seems like an interesting, likeable, three dimensional character who will sadly never get the focus or reach their potential.
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Apr 24, 2015 08:19
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I've enjoyed the extra Britta time now that the cast is cut down. She's been really good this season.
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Apr 24, 2015 08:30
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You guys are so deluded if you think this episode contained some novel critique of capitalism. it was the same product placement lantern hanging that's been done as many times as Billy Zane's disappearing gag. At this point I have more respect for sitcoms actually doing graceful integration than I do this done-to-death smarmy meta schtick.
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Apr 24, 2015 09:02
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Giggs posted:The worst thing in the episode was Paget Brewster pretending to play the steel drums. It's always super noticeable when actors are pretending to play instruments, but it's also completely understandable and fine. Agreed. Maybe they should have stuck with kettle drums; I think it would be easier to look like you're playing those.
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Apr 24, 2015 10:29
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The main plot of the episode is about how Rick's constant advertisement of Honda makes him fake and unsatisfying, and in the end drives (heh heh) him to ruin. It's not just hanging a lampshade on the fact that they're advertising, it's pretty actively satirical. When you hang a lampshade it's just "ha ha, look, we're acknowledging that we're doing something bad!", when you move past simple acknowledgement it's something else.
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Apr 24, 2015 10:39
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I hate ads the much as the next guy, but if you're going to integrate them - and in today's world, it's seems you have to - then you do it in a way that makes the ad fit in your show. In 30 Rock, that meant slyly mentioning them with a wink and a nod, but Community is not 30 Rock. Community's only way to make ads work within the context of the show is to integrate them into the story. As I said before, Community is not a show that is satisfied with hanging a lampshade and then moving on. Community hangs a lampshade and then puts a spotlight on the lampshade and tells a story about how beautiful the lampshade is. There's not a single, 'correct' way to handle integrated ads that will work for every show. A single tear falling on a Honda logo as the final bit of commentary on the sadness\hopelessness of corporate ad integration and how it interferes with how people relate to one another? That is exactly the kind of integrated ad Community should be doing.
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Apr 24, 2015 19:04
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I didn't like this last episode and the Jeff hates what's his name thing came out of no where and felt forced. It reminded me of the bitch in apartment 23, where every episode they'll introduce "a thing"/some kind of character flaw that wasn't present in the previous episode nor is ever present again in future episodes and just beats the concept in over and over and over.
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Apr 24, 2015 21:17
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Boris Galerkin posted:I didn't like this last episode and the Jeff hates what's his name thing came out of no where and felt forced. It reminded me of the bitch in apartment 23, where every episode they'll introduce "a thing"/some kind of character flaw that wasn't present in the previous episode nor is ever present again in future episodes and just beats the concept in over and over and over. Jeff hates Elroy? Did you watch the episode?
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Apr 24, 2015 21:22
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More important question - does Jeff really use pomade? Because that hair looks more waxed to me.
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Apr 24, 2015 22:27
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XboxPants posted:It felt like the product placement wasn't actually jokes this time. It was as if they were just doing 100% sincere product placement, and that was meant to be funny, or ironic. But somewhere I felt like it crossed a line where they were no longer actively making fun of obvious product placement, and instead just doing totally straight faced product placement, with the expectation that you'd laugh at how silly it was that they were doing that. Dude I already did this fakepost like 2 pages ago, keep up.
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Apr 24, 2015 23:30
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The commercial joke was done perfectly once in Revenge of the Killer Tomatoes and has never been done correctly since.
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Apr 25, 2015 00:36
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According to this thread, insincere product placement is one weird trick capitalists hate instead of just a novel way of shoveling poo poo.
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Apr 25, 2015 00:42
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i thought the episode was funny and laughed when they made the jokes about honda and the subway man
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Apr 25, 2015 00:44
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On a more positive note, Britta is legitimately becoming the best character on the show. She seems the most human out of anyone at this point.
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Apr 25, 2015 00:48
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Rexides posted:Are people disappointed with the episode just because there was heavy product placement (understatement), or because having that product placement somehow necessitated having fewer jokes or less interesting character development? Because I believe that you could replace Honda with whatever fictional car manufacturer could exist in the show's universe and it would still be a great episode. The "shameless product placement" joke has been done so many times by so many other shows, it just isn't funny or original enough to sustain an entire episode for me. As a one-off gag, sure, the entire episode, you lost me. I do think I would have enjoyed it more if it was a fictional car brand. Some people just don't like being pitched to constantly, and I own a freaking Honda.
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Apr 25, 2015 01:02
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Cake Attack posted:i thought the episode was funny and laughed when they made the jokes about honda and the subway man how dare you
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Apr 25, 2015 01:03
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Sinteres posted:According to this thread, insincere product placement is one weird trick capitalists hate instead of just a novel way of shoveling poo poo. According to this thread, the problem with product placement on TV isn't that it creates a conflict between the business and creative sides of production to the potential detriment of story and direction, but actually some kind of burning/vomiting effect that makes it physically unbearable to witness a real life brand name or logo regardless of context, even when the company in question is clearly being portrayed (at their own expense) as being an evil corruptive force and a source of ridicule that the writers use to comment on the phenomenon itself and the people behind it, just loving urgh barf get that stylised "H" away from me
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Apr 25, 2015 01:19
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Yeah it's super loving edgy and cool to portray your capitalist overlords as being evil while they're paying you to put out their message and are obviously more than okay with accepting the criticism that comes along with it. The product placement doesn't really bother me as much as the people who think there was anything genuinely subversive about it.
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Apr 25, 2015 01:26
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Sinteres posted:Yeah it's super loving edgy and cool to portray your capitalist overlords as being evil while they're paying you to put out their message and are obviously more than okay with accepting the criticism that comes along with it. The product placement doesn't really bother me as much as the people who think there was anything genuinely subversive about it. No it's not edgy and subversive you massive clown, it's just loving appropriate to show marketing in an episode about marketing. The point is it doesn't matter that it's really "Honda" instead of like "Bonda (wink, you know we mean Honda)", it makes literally no difference to the jokes (whether you think they were funny or not) or to anything else at all. I hate marketing as much as the next guy but some of the reactions ITT are 100% preposterous.
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Apr 25, 2015 01:55
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"Digital Exploration of Interior Design," aka "The One With the Character Subway In It' was a great episode. A pillow fort became a serious exploration of a nation in a state of civil war. Britta fell for a character (Subway) who literally represented the corporate machine she hated, and the episode dealt with that tension. The product placement worked as a plot point without making either the show or the brand look bad, and there's no good reason to pretend it hurt the episode. I don't know what "Advanced Safety Features" aka "Buy a Honda You Piece of poo poo" was about aside from reminding people that a brand of car exists. The hurting-deep-inside-a-sweet-corporate-candy-shell character Subway turns into Rick, a massive douchebag, with a shaky at best explanation as to what completely killed his humanity. Elroy reveals that he's been a '90s-themed recluse for twenty years thanks to a failed relationship with a woman who he has absolutely no chemistry with once they finally meet up again. Frankie goes from being a corporate drone with no personality to being somebody who notices the most basic fact about the dean (he's an idiot? Why didn't anybody tell me before?!) and can't shut up about it, but otherwise still has no personality. Britta immediately wants to settle down with somebody and have a family now that she doesn't completely hate her parents. You don't have to give a gently caress one way or the other about capitalism to think that this episode sucked. At least the Dean killed it. Jim Rash is clearly too much of an actor to give anything less than 140%, even considering that this season completely fumbled his character coming out of the closet and removed any overt reference to the Dean's love of yiffing (the Dean's 'political.' Because that's what you call it now when a dude in a Tina Turner costume fucks two other dudes in dog suits). teamcharlie fucked around with this message at 02:20 on Apr 25, 2015 |
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Apr 25, 2015 02:08
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Lord Of Texas posted:The "shameless product placement" joke has been done so many times by so many other shows, it just isn't funny or original enough to sustain an entire episode for me... Yeah it was like watching a 30 minute version of the Wayne World's food table scene. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KjB6r-HDDI0
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Apr 25, 2015 02:08
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This episode was so good I just re-watched it and laughed twice as hard as the first time
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Apr 25, 2015 03:18
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teamcharlie posted:You don't have to give a gently caress one way or the other about capitalism to think that this episode sucked. Yea, but you give actual criticisms, which I can understand, even if I liked the episode. I particularly agree on the episode screwing up Rick, in so far as there was no mention of his ultimate goals (that I recall), which gave him his motivation for being a shill. After this episode it isn't clear that Rick ever truly intended to stop working for Subway, or why that experience would drive him to continue working as a salesman.
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Apr 25, 2015 03:30
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Do addicts have goals beyond the next hit?
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Apr 25, 2015 04:48
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Avulsion posted:Do addicts have goals beyond the next hit? I appreciate the addict angle, but that transition is what was glossed over. I don't believe addiction was any part of the Subway plot, he was a good guy willing to sacrifice his personal beliefs to do something he thought was right. Why did Subway replacing him drive him toward Honda (or anyone else he worked for in between)? Was he still trying to achieve his dream and at what point did he become an addict? That's the piece that was missing for me. Milovan Drecun fucked around with this message at 05:03 on Apr 25, 2015 |
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Apr 25, 2015 04:59
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Sinteres posted:On a more positive note, Britta is legitimately becoming the best character on the show. She seems the most human out of anyone at this point. 
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Apr 25, 2015 05:02
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Came here to ask if they were actually taking money from Honda or just screwing around. Turns out everyone is angry about how much they sold out or something. Anyway why was subway getting arrested at the end?
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Apr 25, 2015 05:39
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Dr_Amazing posted:Came here to ask if they were actually taking money from Honda or just screwing around. Turns out everyone is angry about how much they sold out or something. He wasn't getting arrested, just thrown off campus because Frankie finally caught him as the guerrilla marketer that was preying on the dean.
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Apr 25, 2015 05:42
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Dr_Amazing posted:Came here to ask if they were actually taking money from Honda or just screwing around. Turns out everyone is angry about how much they sold out or something. They were campus security, not police. They were probably just banning him from campus.
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Apr 25, 2015 05:42
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Milovan Drecun posted:I appreciate the addict angle, but that transition is what was glossed over. I don't believe addiction was any part of the Subway plot, he was a good guy willing to sacrifice his personal beliefs to do something he thought was right. Why did Subway replacing him drive him toward Honda (or anyone else he worked for in between)? Was he still trying to achieve his dream and at what point did he become an addict? That's the piece that was missing for me. You mean they brought a character back to a TV show to quickly reintroduce a particular relationship but changed the dynamic to tell a different story? Why I never! And on a sitcom no less! Look, I agree, it's a point that is glossed over. I think it's glossed over because it was a more expedient way to tell the story they wanted to tell, and they only have 13 episodes anyway. Was it an easy shortcut? Yeah. Has Community earned the right to take an easy shortcut now and then? I think so, but that's up to you I guess.
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Apr 25, 2015 07:25
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Dr_Amazing posted:Came here to ask if they were actually taking money from Honda or just screwing around. A couple of the Honda-related lines are lifted straight from the Honda commercials that usually air during the episode, so yes, the Honda 2015 Fit with its 1.5L 4-cylinder and 7" Display Audio is in fact the car for you.
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Apr 25, 2015 08:01
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It took my third watch to realize that Annie was miming milking cow-Abed in their handshake, not miming jacking him off. Yeah, I'm kind of ashamed, but it's a good handshake either way.
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Apr 25, 2015 08:24
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JesusFists posted:It took my third watch to realize that Annie was miming milking cow-Abed in their handshake, not miming jacking him off. Yeah, I'm kind of ashamed, but it's a good handshake either way. I don't know why you'd think that. They try not to sexualize her. 
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Apr 25, 2015 08:31
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ashpanash posted:You mean they brought a character back to a TV show to quickly reintroduce a particular relationship but changed the dynamic to tell a different story? Why I never! And on a sitcom no less! I may be nitpicking, but I was initially responding to someone who didn't like the episode, agreeing that it wasn't perfect. That was the bit for me, I liked the episode on the whole. I'm not upset the dynamic changed, I just thought it stepped back good guy Rick a bit without doing the work. They still showed why Britta and him were a good fit, it wasn't like all of Rick's character was forgotten.
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Apr 25, 2015 09:31
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Does anyone recognize the tap handles in the bar?
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Apr 25, 2015 14:14
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ETB posted:Jeff hates Elroy? Did you watch the episode? So I wrote it backwards.
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Apr 25, 2015 19:22
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