Applied Anthropology and Culinary Arts Hmmm, good point about the Shirley storyline there. It really feels that the show has no idea what to do with her.
A Fistful of Paintballs I had to watch Once Upon a Time in the West [Dir. Leone,1968] for a class and thought I was going to die trying to get through it Once Upon a Time in the West is an all time classic of the genre! And you're right, it's boring as hell!! I don't get why that movie is held in such high regard. That said, I love me some Leone Westerns. Specifically the trilogy which was the inspiration for this episode, Clint Eastwood's Man With No Name trilogy. The way they take elements from all three films and weave them into one 21 minute episode is one of the most amazing things I've ever seen. Also because the underlying emotional story here is also really good (which isn't always the case with these big concept episodes, more on that later).
side note:If you love this episode, make sure to watch The Good, The Bad and The Ugly at least once in your life. It's a long film,
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Annie and Abed as Han Solo and Princess Leia: I'm pretty sure the reason she initially rebuffs him is because in Star Wars Leia at first does not like Han and thinks he's a jerk. So it's paying tribute to that.
I might have more to say later but it's 3 am and I have to sleep!
Fair enough, that may well be homage and she hadn't had significant exposure to him in-character at that point so it tracks... I just like to think that at least part of it was her maturing and not being as susceptible, given the blow up with Jeff, to carousing cads. She sort of frowned when Abed first donned the persona (back in the classroom when the school was first uniting to fight City College) so I was hoping it was carry over from that.
Biology 101 Regarding Pierce taking the fall for Jeff... (Copied from TV Tropes Fridge Brilliance Page (Not mine, but that's basically my interpretation of the scene)) Why does Pierce help Jeff out even though he was the member who was the most antagonistic to him? It's cause Pierce saw Jeff and himself as Not So Different. Up until Annie tells Jeff that they are no longer friends. Even during all of Pierce's antics, Annie always stuck by him. Jeff was basically losing the one positive thing Pierce had last season, so he took pity on the guy. (...). To go even further with this: Pierce's lowest point in the last season was arguably when even Annie got fed up with his antics and turned on him in "A Fistful of Paintballs". They really are Not So Different - but the group was willing to give Pierce another chance, so Pierce pays it forward with Jeff.
To add to that theory (that I agree with), I wonder if Pierce did it not just for Jeff's sake (since Pierce often sees Jeff as himself, but younger) but for Annie's. She is clearly not happy with the situation and way Jeff is acting, and so Pierce does what he can to fix the situation, because she is his favorite in the Study group.
I wonder how much the Annie being fed up with Pierce/Jeff parallel was intentional in the writing, and also how intentional Pierce's concern for Jeff vis-a-vis Annie was, but it definitely works that way.
Between the paintball stuff and the jeff-annie interactions in Biology 101, the end of season two, beginning of season three is where I peg the change in Jeff's perception from "the study group" to (as much as he might try to pretend otherwise) "Annie and the rest of the study group." It goes from subtext to straight-up text in the model UN episode in a little bit.
You're not wrong about the Jeff and Britta relationship. Over at my tumblr I've really gone in depth analyzing their relationship, why it doesn't work, why it's clear that their feelings for each other aren't romantic after season 2 (it can also be argued that genuine romantic feelings hadn't existed since the end of season 1), and how the show has clearly demonstrated why they wouldn't work and that their feelings have not been genuinely romantic for a long time
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I would argue that they've never really had romantic feelings for each other. They may have had romantic intentions (and they may have even acted on them), but those intentions never really resulted in a loving connection, at least not significantly.
I could not possibly agree with you more. I feel pretty strongly that Jeff and Britta have never at any time, had any actual romantic emotions for each other.
That's a good way of explaining it, that they had romantic intentions toward each other but I don't think these intentions, even if they were acted upon, ever evolved into genuine romantic love or even the beginnings of love. I do think they love each other as friends, but that's a different kind of love.....
This is exactly what I mean when I get asked why I don't ship Jeff and Britta, although I sum it up with, "There's an edge of nastiness they have with each other that I simply can't get behind."
Lack of respect for each others' opinions on key things that are important to them as individuals, though, is a pretty good way of summing it up, too.
It's funny, but I always point to "Herstory of Dance" as a prime example of this dynamic, which I'm sure confuses the hell out of a lot of people. I'll get into it more when we get to that episode. Then I'll probably rant for pages about how it's an example of the writers thinking they were telling us one thing, when really what showed up on screen was the exact opposite.
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Hmmm, good point about the Shirley storyline there. It really feels that the show has no idea what to do with her.
A Fistful of Paintballs
I had to watch Once Upon a Time in the West [Dir. Leone,1968] for a class and thought I was going to die trying to get through it
Once Upon a Time in the West is an all time classic of the genre! And you're right, it's boring as hell!! I don't get why that movie is held in such high regard.
That said, I love me some Leone Westerns. Specifically the trilogy which was the inspiration for this episode, Clint Eastwood's Man With No Name trilogy. The way they take elements from all three films and weave them into one 21 minute episode is one of the most amazing things I've ever seen. Also because the underlying emotional story here is also really good (which isn't always the case with these big concept episodes, more on that later).
side note:If you love this episode, make sure to watch The Good, The Bad and The Ugly at least once in your life. It's a long film, ( ... )
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I might have more to say later but it's 3 am and I have to sleep!
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Regarding Pierce taking the fall for Jeff...
(Copied from TV Tropes Fridge Brilliance Page (Not mine, but that's basically my interpretation of the scene))
Why does Pierce help Jeff out even though he was the member who was the most antagonistic to him? It's cause Pierce saw Jeff and himself as Not So Different. Up until Annie tells Jeff that they are no longer friends. Even during all of Pierce's antics, Annie always stuck by him. Jeff was basically losing the one positive thing Pierce had last season, so he took pity on the guy. (...).
To go even further with this: Pierce's lowest point in the last season was arguably when even Annie got fed up with his antics and turned on him in "A Fistful of Paintballs". They really are Not So Different - but the group was willing to give Pierce another chance, so Pierce pays it forward with Jeff.
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That's a good way of explaining it, that they had romantic intentions toward each other but I don't think these intentions, even if they were acted upon, ever evolved into genuine romantic love or even the beginnings of love. I do think they love each other as friends, but that's a different kind of love.....
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Lack of respect for each others' opinions on key things that are important to them as individuals, though, is a pretty good way of summing it up, too.
It's funny, but I always point to "Herstory of Dance" as a prime example of this dynamic, which I'm sure confuses the hell out of a lot of people. I'll get into it more when we get to that episode. Then I'll probably rant for pages about how it's an example of the writers thinking they were telling us one thing, when really what showed up on screen was the exact opposite.
Reply
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