Review Roundup for 5x10, "Advanced Advanced Dungeons and Dragons"
Good afternoon, Communies! It is I, John the Ranger, here to track down reviews of last night's new Community episode. Huzzah! Adventure!
Mat Carter, cartermatt.com:
there were also still plenty of laughs and, more so than that, plenty of imagination. There are some “Community” episodes that you really need to watch more than once to fully understand, and this is one of them. (A-)
Tim Surette, tv.com:
Did it triumph? In a word, no; it was fine, not amazing. But even if I'd never seen the O.G. version, I'd still be saying that "Advanced Advanced Dungeons & Dragons" was an okay-but-not-great episode of Community, as it relied on gimmick over substance.
Britt Hayes, ScreenCrush:
Jonathan Banks is really settling into the role of Hickey, and this week gives him a chance to really show how comfortable he’s gotten, using the former cop skills of his character along with his gruff demeanor to play the game rather well. I’m also consistently pleased with how that gruffness is translated into the world of ‘Community’ - someone with Banks’ natural inflection and tone could be so easily limited and typecast, but there’s so many shades to what he does, and he finds a playfulness and quirkiness that has really sewn itself into the fabric of the study group almost seamlessly.
Alan Sepinwall, HitFix:
Comedy-wise, though, only a couple of the gags could be reasonably held up against the ones that were overflowing in the first: Buzz interrogating a pair of hobgoblins (both played by Abed) and masterfully turning one against the other like the nasty cop he used to be, and Dean Pelton getting his hug from Jeff no matter the cost.
Todd VanDerWerff, A.V. Club:
I liked the idea that having the two of them in the same room-even if they couldn’t stand each other-talking through their issues via the proxy of the game was almost as good as an actual reconciliation. But it also felt incredibly rushed, as if the episode wanted to make sure it wrapped everything up in time. (B+)
Polar Bears Watch TV:
Thankfully, “Advanced Advanced Dungeons and Dragons” is able to maintain a sense of uniqueness as it delivers a flawed, yet entertaining, 21 minutes. (B)
Brian Collins, Badass Digest:
There's a fun bit where Hickey (once he starts figuring the game out) interrogates Abed's troll NPC, and the big showdown is kind of funny since we just see a montage of McHale, Brie, Jacobs etc making funny gestures and shouting nonsense while LOTR style music pumps over the soundtrack, but scattered moments aren't enough to overcome the fact that the episode has no reason to exist beyond "let's do D&D again."
Joe Matar, Den of Geek:
I admire the episode for changing up the format, but, for reasons already discussed, the new premise ultimately doesn’t carry a lot of dramatic heft with it and, well, what can I say? The best moments in this episode are never going to stand up to Pierce towering over Fat Neil and declaring, “Baste your chubby cheeks in tears of gravy.”
Jared Russo, GeekBinge:
I thought it did manage to maintain the creativity of the first episode while staying consistent with the hot streak this season has been on. It was a bit higher quality in terms of the game being played, but didn’t quite tug at my heart strings like the Fat Neil story did. (10/10)
Gabrielle Moss, TV Fanatic:
But while one of Community's greatest pleasures is simply watching the characters talk to each other, it helps when something - anything - else happens on an episode. Though there were some wonderful jokes, and Abed's performance as two hobgoblins was a tour de force achievement in field of Community lunacy, by the end of the show, nothing had really happened: no lessons had really learned and nothing had really changed. (4.6/5)
Eric Goldman, IGN:
It was the right call to not try to emulate something as heavy and big as Neil's suicidal thoughts, but it still felt like Buzz and his son’s reconciliation felt a bit undercooked at the end - there wasn’t a big enough moment to really help us see the shift that Jeff and the others saw and it felt like things wrapped up because it was time to wrap them up. (8.5/10)
Sarah Shachat, ScreenCrave:
The one thing that keeps this episode down is that Hickey and his son’s issues are pretty generic. They weren’t expanded on or exploited by the episode’s conceits. Cross is an actor who can carry that emotional load and be as funny. It was a shame he didn’t get to do both. (8/10)
Spenser Milo and Jacob Harrington, Based on Nothing:
The nice, personal story of Hickey’s brings the episode’s stakes to a moderate level where they’re believable just so we understand why our study group characters are involved in this nonsense. (SM) Maybe I would have preferred Dungeons and Dragons to stay out, and maybe I am weary of Community retreading too much old ground - but this episode was solid enough to beat those worries of mine back. (JH)
Jennifer Marie, Just About Write:
I’ll admit: the ending/resolution of “Advanced Advanced Dungeons & Dragons” felt a bit understated for me. While I do appreciate that the show didn’t wrap up the episode exactly like it did with the first installment, I felt slightly befuddled by how quickly everything ended. The “revelation” and Winger speech by Jeff seemed to be like that of a fog on a sunny morning - prevalent enough to see and understand, but still not completely there.
George Prax. Better With Popcorm:
What a journey it was too. The best part was most certainly Hickey interrogating Abed's two goblin characters, which is wrong on so many levels. All of it was great. A worthy sequel, both in theme and content, to one of the best Community episodes ever. "Advanced Advanced Dungeons & Dragons" gets 9.5 dingleberries out of 10.
Nick O'Malley, masslive.com:
The funniest sequence of the episode was easily Prof. Hickey's interrogation of the two goblins, as played by Abed. It's a great riff on the usual "separate two suspects and get them to turn on each other" shtick.
Lauren Stern, Pop-Break:
One thing I really was a tad disappointed with was Abed being the Dungeon Master. I kind of wish Harmon gave this role to someone else. I understand that this is really Abed’s forte, but I kind of felt his passion overshadowed Hank and Hickey reconciling.
Randy Dankievitch, Sound on Sight:
It has its heart in the right place, but “Advanced Advanced” is never really able to get off the ground, sputtering along with a perfectly competent, unexciting return to the fantastical, dice-laden world of Dungeons & Dragons.
Nick Hogan, TV Overmind:
This episode is one of those that you’d have to watch over and over again to get everything, but that’s what I love about Community. No matter how much you re-watch an episode, you always find something new.
Sean Gandert, Paste:
“Advanced Advanced Dungeons & Dragons” did such a good job of self-criticism that it feels almost pointless mentioning the elephant in its proverbial room. The episode is a repeat (or sequel, if that’s what you want to call it), and Community, for all its strengths, doesn’t always repeat itself well. That being said, it really didn’t matter that we’ve seen this format before, as the sequel fully lived up to the original.
There's no new episode nexte last week in March is when Greendale has its spring break. Thanks for reading, and see you in April!
Mat Carter, cartermatt.com:
there were also still plenty of laughs and, more so than that, plenty of imagination. There are some “Community” episodes that you really need to watch more than once to fully understand, and this is one of them. (A-)
Tim Surette, tv.com:
Did it triumph? In a word, no; it was fine, not amazing. But even if I'd never seen the O.G. version, I'd still be saying that "Advanced Advanced Dungeons & Dragons" was an okay-but-not-great episode of Community, as it relied on gimmick over substance.
Britt Hayes, ScreenCrush:
Jonathan Banks is really settling into the role of Hickey, and this week gives him a chance to really show how comfortable he’s gotten, using the former cop skills of his character along with his gruff demeanor to play the game rather well. I’m also consistently pleased with how that gruffness is translated into the world of ‘Community’ - someone with Banks’ natural inflection and tone could be so easily limited and typecast, but there’s so many shades to what he does, and he finds a playfulness and quirkiness that has really sewn itself into the fabric of the study group almost seamlessly.
Alan Sepinwall, HitFix:
Comedy-wise, though, only a couple of the gags could be reasonably held up against the ones that were overflowing in the first: Buzz interrogating a pair of hobgoblins (both played by Abed) and masterfully turning one against the other like the nasty cop he used to be, and Dean Pelton getting his hug from Jeff no matter the cost.
Todd VanDerWerff, A.V. Club:
I liked the idea that having the two of them in the same room-even if they couldn’t stand each other-talking through their issues via the proxy of the game was almost as good as an actual reconciliation. But it also felt incredibly rushed, as if the episode wanted to make sure it wrapped everything up in time. (B+)
Polar Bears Watch TV:
Thankfully, “Advanced Advanced Dungeons and Dragons” is able to maintain a sense of uniqueness as it delivers a flawed, yet entertaining, 21 minutes. (B)
Brian Collins, Badass Digest:
There's a fun bit where Hickey (once he starts figuring the game out) interrogates Abed's troll NPC, and the big showdown is kind of funny since we just see a montage of McHale, Brie, Jacobs etc making funny gestures and shouting nonsense while LOTR style music pumps over the soundtrack, but scattered moments aren't enough to overcome the fact that the episode has no reason to exist beyond "let's do D&D again."
Joe Matar, Den of Geek:
I admire the episode for changing up the format, but, for reasons already discussed, the new premise ultimately doesn’t carry a lot of dramatic heft with it and, well, what can I say? The best moments in this episode are never going to stand up to Pierce towering over Fat Neil and declaring, “Baste your chubby cheeks in tears of gravy.”
Jared Russo, GeekBinge:
I thought it did manage to maintain the creativity of the first episode while staying consistent with the hot streak this season has been on. It was a bit higher quality in terms of the game being played, but didn’t quite tug at my heart strings like the Fat Neil story did. (10/10)
Gabrielle Moss, TV Fanatic:
But while one of Community's greatest pleasures is simply watching the characters talk to each other, it helps when something - anything - else happens on an episode. Though there were some wonderful jokes, and Abed's performance as two hobgoblins was a tour de force achievement in field of Community lunacy, by the end of the show, nothing had really happened: no lessons had really learned and nothing had really changed. (4.6/5)
Eric Goldman, IGN:
It was the right call to not try to emulate something as heavy and big as Neil's suicidal thoughts, but it still felt like Buzz and his son’s reconciliation felt a bit undercooked at the end - there wasn’t a big enough moment to really help us see the shift that Jeff and the others saw and it felt like things wrapped up because it was time to wrap them up. (8.5/10)
Sarah Shachat, ScreenCrave:
The one thing that keeps this episode down is that Hickey and his son’s issues are pretty generic. They weren’t expanded on or exploited by the episode’s conceits. Cross is an actor who can carry that emotional load and be as funny. It was a shame he didn’t get to do both. (8/10)
Spenser Milo and Jacob Harrington, Based on Nothing:
The nice, personal story of Hickey’s brings the episode’s stakes to a moderate level where they’re believable just so we understand why our study group characters are involved in this nonsense. (SM) Maybe I would have preferred Dungeons and Dragons to stay out, and maybe I am weary of Community retreading too much old ground - but this episode was solid enough to beat those worries of mine back. (JH)
Jennifer Marie, Just About Write:
I’ll admit: the ending/resolution of “Advanced Advanced Dungeons & Dragons” felt a bit understated for me. While I do appreciate that the show didn’t wrap up the episode exactly like it did with the first installment, I felt slightly befuddled by how quickly everything ended. The “revelation” and Winger speech by Jeff seemed to be like that of a fog on a sunny morning - prevalent enough to see and understand, but still not completely there.
George Prax. Better With Popcorm:
What a journey it was too. The best part was most certainly Hickey interrogating Abed's two goblin characters, which is wrong on so many levels. All of it was great. A worthy sequel, both in theme and content, to one of the best Community episodes ever. "Advanced Advanced Dungeons & Dragons" gets 9.5 dingleberries out of 10.
Nick O'Malley, masslive.com:
The funniest sequence of the episode was easily Prof. Hickey's interrogation of the two goblins, as played by Abed. It's a great riff on the usual "separate two suspects and get them to turn on each other" shtick.
Lauren Stern, Pop-Break:
One thing I really was a tad disappointed with was Abed being the Dungeon Master. I kind of wish Harmon gave this role to someone else. I understand that this is really Abed’s forte, but I kind of felt his passion overshadowed Hank and Hickey reconciling.
Randy Dankievitch, Sound on Sight:
It has its heart in the right place, but “Advanced Advanced” is never really able to get off the ground, sputtering along with a perfectly competent, unexciting return to the fantastical, dice-laden world of Dungeons & Dragons.
Nick Hogan, TV Overmind:
This episode is one of those that you’d have to watch over and over again to get everything, but that’s what I love about Community. No matter how much you re-watch an episode, you always find something new.
Sean Gandert, Paste:
“Advanced Advanced Dungeons & Dragons” did such a good job of self-criticism that it feels almost pointless mentioning the elephant in its proverbial room. The episode is a repeat (or sequel, if that’s what you want to call it), and Community, for all its strengths, doesn’t always repeat itself well. That being said, it really didn’t matter that we’ve seen this format before, as the sequel fully lived up to the original.
There's no new episode nexte last week in March is when Greendale has its spring break. Thanks for reading, and see you in April!