Review Roundup for 4x06, Advanced Documentary Filmmaking
The reviews are kind of all over the place this week. Par for the course this season, I guess. Let's take a look!
Luke Gellineau of TV Equals called last night's episode "a definite step back from last week’s funny Thanksgiving episode." Possible reasons for that: he doesn't like Chang very much; he wasn't a big fan of the last Abed-makes-a-documentary episode; and beyond that he thought Chang's "newfound naivete and innocence is so obviously fake that it’s hard taking him seriously as a new character." But he did think Donald Glover was hilarious.
"Reformed reality star turned journalist crazy person" Matt Carter, on the other hand, says that the episode was "the best of the season by a pretty wide margin." That's not to say he thought it was perfect; he doesn't like the way Pierce is being written, and he senses that "the 'aws' from Annie and Shirley are being completely overdone."
Gabrielle Moss of TV Fanatic likewise thought that "Advanced Documentary Filmmaking" was "one of the best episodes of Community Season 4 so far." She attributed this to amnesia and faux documentaries being such familiar sitcom tropes: "When your viewers have all the beats memorized (like the amnesiac not recognizing his former wife, or the documentary crew discovering a hidden scandal), you can find new energy in mixing and matching them--as well as subverting them, which this episode did ably." She also really enjoyed the description of Britta as "basically a therapist," which she said was "a title card worth waiting three-plus seasons for." She gave the episode 4.6 stars out of 5.
Aisha Harris and Anna Husted of Slate wonder how long Chang's amnesia will last and where exactly his plotline is going. Harris hopes it doesn't lead to another multiepisode Chang-tries-to-kill-everyone storyline; Husted just hopes the person on the other end of the phone call reveals him- or herself soon. Harris thought it was obvious Chang was faking, whereas Husted "wanted to believe that Chang was getting a do-over," especially after Jeff became convinced. They both agree they'd like to have mimosas with the Dean.
Processed Media founder Randy Dankievitch was disappointed by the way the tag undermined what he took to be the point of the episode: "Jeff learning a lesson about second chances, and [the show] finally moving past all of the Evil Chang" material. He also didn't think it was funny: "it might be the first time I’ve ever watched a Community episode and not laughed out loud at something once." He gave it a letter grade of C.
Speaking of letter grades, John Bowling of Character Grades assigned plenty of them: Jeff got a B; Annie and Troy both got As, despite Annie not using her feminine wiles to get answers from the trout farmer ("There should always be more of Annie using her feminine wiles."); Britta and Shirley got a B and a C respectively; Abed got a B-plus; Pierce an F ("Is he even a character anymore?"); and Chang a C. As for the episode as a whole, he felt that "the question that hung over the entire episode in the tag was disappointing" and that the show could stand to be as weird as it was in previous seasons, but he enjoyed seeing some fresh pairings and jokes, and liked it well enough to give it a B.
Todd VanDerWerff of the A.V. Club also gave the episode a B, calling it "a mostly enjoyable half-hour of television." He goes on to say that "in story terms, 'Advanced Documentary Filmmaking' is likely the best episode of the season," because it "[runs] all seven of the characters through [one] storyline" instead of trying to give equal weight to two entirely separate storylines, as was seen in "Cooperative Escapism In Familial Relations." But he still thinks "the jokes just aren’t as good as they were" in previous seasons, and suggests that "it’s hitting the whimsy button hard, then hoping that our affection for the characters is enough to carry the day."
Wrapping up the letter grades segment of our roundup, Matthew Guerruckey of ScreenSpy gave the episode an F. He hopes that "last night’s disjointed episode of Community will end up being the worst episode in the series’ history," but thinks there's a possibility it won't be. He didn't think the documentary footage was realistic - "[it] begins in a scratchy 8mm style, switches to standard sitcom episode blocking, and ends with a sweeping crane shot and cheery music" - and that it represented a regression in style from his "expertly made Pillow War documentary." Was that made by Abed? I don't remember any indication that it was.
Laura Aguirre of ScreenCrave gave the episode a score of 7.5 out of 10. She thinks "there’s nothing better than an out-of-control Jeff Winger," so she really appreciated that aspect of the episode, and she was also happy to see some good screen time for Annie, who "has been sinfully underused this season." She's not sure what to make of the whole Changnesia thing, though; "We definitely don’t want a repeat of last season, but for now, the mystery behind Kevin’s disease seems to be working."
Making her Review Roundup debut, Meg O'Connell of andPOP said all the stand-offs between Jeff and Chang "delivered in terms of providing hilarious confrontations" and that "everyone from the writers to the cast brought their comedic A-game." She also liked seeing Annie and Troy together: "I don’t know what it is about Troy and Annie, but I like it. … It could be that I’m just willing to see my beloved with anyone but Britta Perry." Wait, her what? I need to go back and check out her old reviews. She's conflicted about Chang's storyline; on the one hand, she's "not sure how crazy I am about this being a central theme for the duration of the season," but on the other hand, she seems to think the episodes featuring Chang have worked better than some others this weekend, "and it’d be far less disappointing to have the show stick to what’s been working recently rather than having the writer’s grasp desperately for episode concepts and end up falling short."
Ryan Schwartz of the Voice of TV suggests that "this was one of the best episodes out of the Port and Guarascio era thus far." And not just because he loves Chang! He thought most of the characters "felt like their old selves," the exception being Abed, whom he thinks the writers "don’t truly grasp as a character." But getting back to Chang, he was glad to see the character return - "I miss him when he’s not present for weeks at a time" - and is intrigued to see how the new producers proceed with the story that was teased in the montage that ended the third season.
Alexis McLaren of TV Overmind declares with this episode that "a Dan Harmon-less Community was [sic] a terrible one," but literally offers no examples of things she didn't like about the episode. She does say that "I thought they would've wrapped up this whole Changnesia plot or at least sprinkle some breadcrumbs about it every episode," but that strikes me as more of a critique of her own predictive capacity than of the episode.
Cory Barker of tv.com received "conflicting signals" from this episode and with the season as a whole. This episode and the last "suggest that the new Community might be building toward something," he still feels the show has "tried too hard to recreate some former version of what it was" and is a bit too willing to "open … that box on the shelf that’s marked 'Things That Work.' " Like Todd VanDerWerff, he liked seeing all the characters "brought everyone into one singular plotline, which is where the show has traditionally done its best work." He also thought it was a solid episode for Jeff, but finds it "interesting to me that the show is so reliant on Jeff this year. … Re-centering on a lead character suggests that the writers are holding on to what’s a little easier to do while they attempt to find the other characters’ voices."
Alan Sepinwall of HitFix "wasn't crazy about all of 'Advanced Documentary Filmmaking,' which like a lot of this season's parody episodes didn't seem fully committed to the bit, … but there were some funny moments." What really bugged him was the tag, which undid Kevin's admission that Chang was a terrible person, a scene he "quite liked," and teased "Chang continuing to play deranged supervillain," which is something he has "no interest in at all."
Jill Mader of Couchtime with Jill "didn’t enjoy this episode at all," because she "didn’t think the jokes in this episode landed" and she doesn't like Chang.
Eric Goldman of IGN, conversely, "thought this was a great episode," because it "felt 100% 'natural' [and] also was the funniest episode this season by far." He felt "most everything worked," the exception being Pierce's racist sock-puppet bit, which "was just OK." But even there he willing to cut the show some slack because of what the writers have said about "how shaky the situation with Chevy Chase was all season." Overall, he gave it a score of 8.8.
Mike Papirmeister of the Filtered Lens, unlike Sepinwall, thought the tag helped the episode: "I’m glad this happened because nice-guy Chang is boring, and it gives me some hope for what’s to come." Priot to that point, he'd not been particularly enthused; aside from a few lines, he didn't think it was that funny, he missed "the brilliant confessionals" seen in the previous documentary episodes, and he regretted not seeing the brawl that Abed deemed to shocking to be shown to the audience. He gave the episode a C. (I know I said we were done with letter grades, but I'm at the stage now where I go back to look for things I missed when I looked for reviews earlier.)
Shannon of the Two Cents Corp. was unfamiliar with MacGuffins, but once she'd been filled in she thought calling the institute by that name was "a clever piece of writing." She's not 100% convinced she's "really on board with this Chang story line but it’s nice to see it going somewhere instead of just lurking in the background."
Brian Collins of Badass Digest called the episode "lazy filler" that a shortened season doesn't have room for. "Part of the problem is that the episode focuses on Chang, easily the most grating character and also the one that's never felt like a necessary PERMANENT addition to the show." Beyond that, he thought Jeff's efforts to discredit Chang were out of character with the more selfless Jeff we've mostly seen this season, and that Pierce's racist hand puppet bit was "forced and shockingly unfunny." He warmed to the episode a bit on a second viewing, but even then he still considers it "the season's low point by a wide margin."
Abby Koenig of the Houston Press Art Attack blog wrote, "With this week's episode, Community has (pretty much) returned to form." It made her laugh more than any other episode this season, and the characterization seemed spot on. She's glad to be done with "all that Jeff family crap," and she liked the twist at the end, even though "you could see coming a mile away." (Also, she seems to be confusing a MacGuffin with a red herring, but she's not the only reviewer to seem confused on the concept this week so no biggie.)
Josh Gondelman of Vulture amusingly compares "Advanced Documentary Filmmaking" to M. Night Shyamalan's Signs, calling them both "breezy and fun with a vexing conclusion." Continuing with that analogy, he says that the episode "attempts to provide just enough of what it promises in order to be worth the viewer’s time," namely "enough Community-type jokes to elicit chuckles at appropriate intervals. But the ending rubbed him the wrong way, because it "undercut the message of the value of second chances and once again broadened the scope of the show beyond just an oddball community college." And it probably didn't help that he's sick of Chang.
Jeremy Sollie of Geek Binge was surprised to find that " 'Advanced Documentary Filmmaking,' while flawed, completely works." He was disappointed by the ending, though: "It doesn’t ruin everything that came before it, but it ends the episode on a down note" and undercut the scenes of Chang talking about how much he loves his wife and forgiving Jeff. Nevertheless, everything else was strong enough that he ended up giving the episode a score of 8.
The ratings weren't pretty this week; the episode earned a 1.1 rating/4 share in the 18-49 demo. Both Shark Tank and The Vampire Diaries also had a 4 share, which means they essentially tied in terms of how many TVs in use were tuned in. (The rating is a measure of what percentage of total television-owning households watched, which doesn't take into account how many people actually were watching.) But there's good rating news too; in the Live+7 DVR Ratings released earlier this week, "Conventions of Space and Time" rose 0.6 percentage points, from a 1.1 Live plus Same Day to a 1.7, a 55% increase. On the Twitter, #AbedsDocumentary trended as the episode aired in the Central and Eastern time zones and continued to do so for a couple of hours after the episode aired, which is weird if so few people are watching live or same day, but what are ya gonna do.
Thanks for reading!
Luke Gellineau of TV Equals called last night's episode "a definite step back from last week’s funny Thanksgiving episode." Possible reasons for that: he doesn't like Chang very much; he wasn't a big fan of the last Abed-makes-a-documentary episode; and beyond that he thought Chang's "newfound naivete and innocence is so obviously fake that it’s hard taking him seriously as a new character." But he did think Donald Glover was hilarious.
"Reformed reality star turned journalist crazy person" Matt Carter, on the other hand, says that the episode was "the best of the season by a pretty wide margin." That's not to say he thought it was perfect; he doesn't like the way Pierce is being written, and he senses that "the 'aws' from Annie and Shirley are being completely overdone."
Gabrielle Moss of TV Fanatic likewise thought that "Advanced Documentary Filmmaking" was "one of the best episodes of Community Season 4 so far." She attributed this to amnesia and faux documentaries being such familiar sitcom tropes: "When your viewers have all the beats memorized (like the amnesiac not recognizing his former wife, or the documentary crew discovering a hidden scandal), you can find new energy in mixing and matching them--as well as subverting them, which this episode did ably." She also really enjoyed the description of Britta as "basically a therapist," which she said was "a title card worth waiting three-plus seasons for." She gave the episode 4.6 stars out of 5.
Aisha Harris and Anna Husted of Slate wonder how long Chang's amnesia will last and where exactly his plotline is going. Harris hopes it doesn't lead to another multiepisode Chang-tries-to-kill-everyone storyline; Husted just hopes the person on the other end of the phone call reveals him- or herself soon. Harris thought it was obvious Chang was faking, whereas Husted "wanted to believe that Chang was getting a do-over," especially after Jeff became convinced. They both agree they'd like to have mimosas with the Dean.
Processed Media founder Randy Dankievitch was disappointed by the way the tag undermined what he took to be the point of the episode: "Jeff learning a lesson about second chances, and [the show] finally moving past all of the Evil Chang" material. He also didn't think it was funny: "it might be the first time I’ve ever watched a Community episode and not laughed out loud at something once." He gave it a letter grade of C.
Speaking of letter grades, John Bowling of Character Grades assigned plenty of them: Jeff got a B; Annie and Troy both got As, despite Annie not using her feminine wiles to get answers from the trout farmer ("There should always be more of Annie using her feminine wiles."); Britta and Shirley got a B and a C respectively; Abed got a B-plus; Pierce an F ("Is he even a character anymore?"); and Chang a C. As for the episode as a whole, he felt that "the question that hung over the entire episode in the tag was disappointing" and that the show could stand to be as weird as it was in previous seasons, but he enjoyed seeing some fresh pairings and jokes, and liked it well enough to give it a B.
Todd VanDerWerff of the A.V. Club also gave the episode a B, calling it "a mostly enjoyable half-hour of television." He goes on to say that "in story terms, 'Advanced Documentary Filmmaking' is likely the best episode of the season," because it "[runs] all seven of the characters through [one] storyline" instead of trying to give equal weight to two entirely separate storylines, as was seen in "Cooperative Escapism In Familial Relations." But he still thinks "the jokes just aren’t as good as they were" in previous seasons, and suggests that "it’s hitting the whimsy button hard, then hoping that our affection for the characters is enough to carry the day."
Wrapping up the letter grades segment of our roundup, Matthew Guerruckey of ScreenSpy gave the episode an F. He hopes that "last night’s disjointed episode of Community will end up being the worst episode in the series’ history," but thinks there's a possibility it won't be. He didn't think the documentary footage was realistic - "[it] begins in a scratchy 8mm style, switches to standard sitcom episode blocking, and ends with a sweeping crane shot and cheery music" - and that it represented a regression in style from his "expertly made Pillow War documentary." Was that made by Abed? I don't remember any indication that it was.
Laura Aguirre of ScreenCrave gave the episode a score of 7.5 out of 10. She thinks "there’s nothing better than an out-of-control Jeff Winger," so she really appreciated that aspect of the episode, and she was also happy to see some good screen time for Annie, who "has been sinfully underused this season." She's not sure what to make of the whole Changnesia thing, though; "We definitely don’t want a repeat of last season, but for now, the mystery behind Kevin’s disease seems to be working."
Making her Review Roundup debut, Meg O'Connell of andPOP said all the stand-offs between Jeff and Chang "delivered in terms of providing hilarious confrontations" and that "everyone from the writers to the cast brought their comedic A-game." She also liked seeing Annie and Troy together: "I don’t know what it is about Troy and Annie, but I like it. … It could be that I’m just willing to see my beloved with anyone but Britta Perry." Wait, her what? I need to go back and check out her old reviews. She's conflicted about Chang's storyline; on the one hand, she's "not sure how crazy I am about this being a central theme for the duration of the season," but on the other hand, she seems to think the episodes featuring Chang have worked better than some others this weekend, "and it’d be far less disappointing to have the show stick to what’s been working recently rather than having the writer’s grasp desperately for episode concepts and end up falling short."
Ryan Schwartz of the Voice of TV suggests that "this was one of the best episodes out of the Port and Guarascio era thus far." And not just because he loves Chang! He thought most of the characters "felt like their old selves," the exception being Abed, whom he thinks the writers "don’t truly grasp as a character." But getting back to Chang, he was glad to see the character return - "I miss him when he’s not present for weeks at a time" - and is intrigued to see how the new producers proceed with the story that was teased in the montage that ended the third season.
Alexis McLaren of TV Overmind declares with this episode that "a Dan Harmon-less Community was [sic] a terrible one," but literally offers no examples of things she didn't like about the episode. She does say that "I thought they would've wrapped up this whole Changnesia plot or at least sprinkle some breadcrumbs about it every episode," but that strikes me as more of a critique of her own predictive capacity than of the episode.
Cory Barker of tv.com received "conflicting signals" from this episode and with the season as a whole. This episode and the last "suggest that the new Community might be building toward something," he still feels the show has "tried too hard to recreate some former version of what it was" and is a bit too willing to "open … that box on the shelf that’s marked 'Things That Work.' " Like Todd VanDerWerff, he liked seeing all the characters "brought everyone into one singular plotline, which is where the show has traditionally done its best work." He also thought it was a solid episode for Jeff, but finds it "interesting to me that the show is so reliant on Jeff this year. … Re-centering on a lead character suggests that the writers are holding on to what’s a little easier to do while they attempt to find the other characters’ voices."
Alan Sepinwall of HitFix "wasn't crazy about all of 'Advanced Documentary Filmmaking,' which like a lot of this season's parody episodes didn't seem fully committed to the bit, … but there were some funny moments." What really bugged him was the tag, which undid Kevin's admission that Chang was a terrible person, a scene he "quite liked," and teased "Chang continuing to play deranged supervillain," which is something he has "no interest in at all."
Jill Mader of Couchtime with Jill "didn’t enjoy this episode at all," because she "didn’t think the jokes in this episode landed" and she doesn't like Chang.
Eric Goldman of IGN, conversely, "thought this was a great episode," because it "felt 100% 'natural' [and] also was the funniest episode this season by far." He felt "most everything worked," the exception being Pierce's racist sock-puppet bit, which "was just OK." But even there he willing to cut the show some slack because of what the writers have said about "how shaky the situation with Chevy Chase was all season." Overall, he gave it a score of 8.8.
Mike Papirmeister of the Filtered Lens, unlike Sepinwall, thought the tag helped the episode: "I’m glad this happened because nice-guy Chang is boring, and it gives me some hope for what’s to come." Priot to that point, he'd not been particularly enthused; aside from a few lines, he didn't think it was that funny, he missed "the brilliant confessionals" seen in the previous documentary episodes, and he regretted not seeing the brawl that Abed deemed to shocking to be shown to the audience. He gave the episode a C. (I know I said we were done with letter grades, but I'm at the stage now where I go back to look for things I missed when I looked for reviews earlier.)
Shannon of the Two Cents Corp. was unfamiliar with MacGuffins, but once she'd been filled in she thought calling the institute by that name was "a clever piece of writing." She's not 100% convinced she's "really on board with this Chang story line but it’s nice to see it going somewhere instead of just lurking in the background."
Brian Collins of Badass Digest called the episode "lazy filler" that a shortened season doesn't have room for. "Part of the problem is that the episode focuses on Chang, easily the most grating character and also the one that's never felt like a necessary PERMANENT addition to the show." Beyond that, he thought Jeff's efforts to discredit Chang were out of character with the more selfless Jeff we've mostly seen this season, and that Pierce's racist hand puppet bit was "forced and shockingly unfunny." He warmed to the episode a bit on a second viewing, but even then he still considers it "the season's low point by a wide margin."
Abby Koenig of the Houston Press Art Attack blog wrote, "With this week's episode, Community has (pretty much) returned to form." It made her laugh more than any other episode this season, and the characterization seemed spot on. She's glad to be done with "all that Jeff family crap," and she liked the twist at the end, even though "you could see coming a mile away." (Also, she seems to be confusing a MacGuffin with a red herring, but she's not the only reviewer to seem confused on the concept this week so no biggie.)
Josh Gondelman of Vulture amusingly compares "Advanced Documentary Filmmaking" to M. Night Shyamalan's Signs, calling them both "breezy and fun with a vexing conclusion." Continuing with that analogy, he says that the episode "attempts to provide just enough of what it promises in order to be worth the viewer’s time," namely "enough Community-type jokes to elicit chuckles at appropriate intervals. But the ending rubbed him the wrong way, because it "undercut the message of the value of second chances and once again broadened the scope of the show beyond just an oddball community college." And it probably didn't help that he's sick of Chang.
Jeremy Sollie of Geek Binge was surprised to find that " 'Advanced Documentary Filmmaking,' while flawed, completely works." He was disappointed by the ending, though: "It doesn’t ruin everything that came before it, but it ends the episode on a down note" and undercut the scenes of Chang talking about how much he loves his wife and forgiving Jeff. Nevertheless, everything else was strong enough that he ended up giving the episode a score of 8.
The ratings weren't pretty this week; the episode earned a 1.1 rating/4 share in the 18-49 demo. Both Shark Tank and The Vampire Diaries also had a 4 share, which means they essentially tied in terms of how many TVs in use were tuned in. (The rating is a measure of what percentage of total television-owning households watched, which doesn't take into account how many people actually were watching.) But there's good rating news too; in the Live+7 DVR Ratings released earlier this week, "Conventions of Space and Time" rose 0.6 percentage points, from a 1.1 Live plus Same Day to a 1.7, a 55% increase. On the Twitter, #AbedsDocumentary trended as the episode aired in the Central and Eastern time zones and continued to do so for a couple of hours after the episode aired, which is weird if so few people are watching live or same day, but what are ya gonna do.
Thanks for reading!