I HAVEN'T POSTED IN MONTHS

I haven't posted in a months so why not start with this long rambling post about Community?!

I started a Community rewatch today, for the first time in a while. Some things I've noticed!

1) The version of Social Psychology on Hulu is slightly different than the version on the S1 DVD (which was the first time I watched it.) What the hell! The DVD has some cut scenes (like the Chang scene in the cold open). Is the Hulu version the producers' cut or something?

2) I don't think this show gets enough credit for how diverse its characters are, not just in ethnicity but even in just their backgrounds and personalities. Like, it's interesting to see a show where people like Britta and Shirley or Troy and Pierce can talk and generally get along despite being polar opposites. A lot of shows, comedies in particular, focus on a particular subset of people that are all pretty similar in class/age/race/ect, usually the subset that the creator or audience is in....especially in this new niche programming world we're living in. I love a lot of those shows so I'm not knocking it or anything, but I had forgotten how rare Community is in that regard.

3) Speaking of which, these early episodes got me thinking about where S1 of Community would fit in today's TV landscape. I was thinking it would probably end up on cable or streaming, but honestly, I think it would just be a flat out different show. Ambitious shows masquerading as mainstream fare don't really exist anymore, because cable and streaming allows those kinds of shows to be profitable on their own.Community kind of came at a perfect time, then, didn't it?

4) "Introduction to Film" is always a lot more emotional than I remember it being. And it fucks me up every time!

5) It's weird to see Gillian playing the straight woman in the episodes. I keep expecting Britta lines to end with a joke, and then they just...don't.

6) Community S1 also feels like a show people would be writing a zillion thinkpieces about, if that was more of a thing in 2009. It dealt with some of Tumblr's favorite issues before Tumblr even existed. (Race! class! sexism! activism!) Maybe Community and shows like it even influenced the Tumblr generation that followed shortly after?

That's all for now. Hopefully more to come!

I LOVE BROAD CITY

HI GUYS! It's now a new year! Well, it has been for a while, but this is the first time I am posting in it on this here blog. Television is, basically, back with a vengeance now - most broadcast shows have returned from their winter breaks, and there's a slew of shows on basic cable that have just started new seasons. One of them is Broad City, which is currently my favorite show on television, a show that resonates extremely deeply with me despite it being, mostly, an incredibly silly comedy. But if you can't tell from everything I've posted about this blog, I really, really love comedy (I know, how boring), so to see it executed so freely and so perfectly on a weekly basis is kind of like, the best thing ever.

But what ultimately makes me love and connect with Broad City so much is because it's one of the few shows on television that lets its character be totally and completely free. The Abbi and Ilana of Broad City (which I assume are at least slightly different than the Abbi and Ilana of real life)  live completely by their ids, never worrying much about how they come off or societal pressures or how other people want them to live. They live for them. This is so refreshing not just because characters, and especially female characters, rarely get written like this, but because hardly any people actually live like this. Of course, there's good reason to - to be a functioning member of society, you need to think about other people, and concern yourself at least a little bit with what those other people think of you. But holy shit, is it fun to sit down and watch a show where no one cares about any of that. Even better, Abbi and Ilana aren't concerned with making their characters "TV ready" in terms of how they act and behave - they're honest, they're real, and they make you feel a little bit better about being a human being. So much of TV or film or art in general is often centered around the idea that there's a best version of yourself that you should be living, which is a nice idea but just winds up making you feel shitty in your moments where you're kind of falling apart. Broad City is here to remind you that there is no best version of yourself. There's just you. And that you is sometimes great, sometimes awful, sometimes a mess, sometimes covered in pepperspray while you're standing on the subway holding a shower pole. It wants you to know that all of that is okay, and that being you is okay. Even when it's not. And that's why I love Broad City.

Also, it's hilarious!