The post that will get me defriended!
May. 22nd, 2010 08:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
okayawesomeSo I watched the Community finale! And I feel the need to, IDK, defend it or something.
Obviously the first possibly unpopular opinion is that I liked the finale, which already I think a lot of people disagree with me on. But I did! It wasn't perfect, but it had the Dean/Yiffsuits and Troy/Giant Cookie and Jeff/Annie and meta commentary and callbacks all over, and a fantastic line about jumping the shark in an episode that I'm 100% positive Dan Harmon realized was going to be accused of jumping the shark itself. I dug it.
But really here is the reason I'm making this post: I don't think they fucked up. I don't think anyone was OOC. I don't think it was any more sexist than the show has already been this whole season. I think it was not the way I would have capped off the show, but it was a reasonable way to do it.
And I say this because the chief criticisms I've been hearing that I disagree with are:
1) They made Britta or Jeff or Annie OOC;
2) Everyone's actions came out of nowhere;
3) The Britta/Slater Jeff-off was sexist in a way the show has never been before (and a lot of people specifically commenting on this Dan Harmon interview and taking it to mean that he actually does hate Britta and all of his ex-girlfriends).
(Also 4) Jeff is a horrible person for the way he reacted and Britta deserves better anyway.)
1) Now, I think I have a different interpretation from some people of what went with the Britta/Jeff/Slater stuff. When Britta came out with the, "I love you," I definitely had a moment of WTF? But then when I thought about it for a second, I realized that, to me, of course it didn't make sense that Britta was saying "I love you," because, of course, she doesn't. Neither does Slater, which I think was made pretty clear.
2) Britta and Slater have never liked each other (see the Halloween episode, the drunk dialing episode, basically every episode that has both of them in it) and, according to those, have always felt a little competition with each other. Britta can be a petty, jealous person with a fragile ego (like every episode), and Slater is a suspicious person who has never liked the group or the way they dominate Jeff's attention (again, every episode with her in it). Britta has shown that she can take things too far (like every episode again, but especially the prank war), especially when reacting out of hurt or embarrassment (and especially "Romantic Expression").
So what happened, IMO? Britta was fine until she was nominated for "Tranny Queen" (I am not even getting into that -- I get why people are upset about it). Then, having to embrace stereotypical "girliness", even being urged into it by her psychologist, she started to crumble a little; and faced with Jeff prodding her about being guarded, and telling her they weren't going to see each other for months, and having Slater show up in Jeff's life again, she freaked the hell out. I don't think she loves Jeff. She likes him, and feels threatened by the possibility of Slater taking him away, especially when she's not going to see him for months. She felt pushed into going bigger and bigger, until it almost had nothing to do with Jeff anymore. I think it's clear that at a certain point, it became way more about Slater than Jeff. Jeff wasn't the point, he was just the prize.
To prove my point: What happened right before Britta's confession? She got cocky, tried to accept an award she didn't win, and was humiliated. And while she was up there, she saw Slater trying to take what she was thinking of as "hers." So basically, she reacted in the worst way possible, which was to put Jeff on the spot with a big love confession -- one that she assumed she'd win with, because she thought she had that in the bag.
3) Now, is this all sexist? Debatably, and I'm not going to try and argue that it isn't. The only point I want to make about the sexism is that it's not any more sexist than the rest of the season has been. Britta and Slater have always been competitive, Britta has always struggled with "acting like a girl," and she's always had a fragile ego. To me, it would be objectionable if they really were all in love with Jeff, but, like I said, I also don't think they really are.
And I also get that people are mad about Dan Harmon saying the writers "hate" Britta, but that quote is being taken way, way, way out of context. The point he was making is that when Britta was first introduced, everyone thought she was the stereotypical "do no wrong" boring "lead female" character, who just had to warm up to Jeff, and wouldn't have much other personality. I mean, I saw SO MANY COMMENTS to that effect when the show first started. So the point of "hating" Britta is that the only way to make her sympathetic was to beat her up a little first. The part of that interview that no one is quoting is: I also knew that doing that would have the natural result of really letting Gillian shine how she shines best and also making you start to sympathize with her. The characters people identify with the most tend to be the ones who suffer: look at RayK, or Sawyer on LOST, or Joan on Mad Men. Look at the woobie phenomenon.
I also don't believe he was intentionally making an abuse joke, although maybe he was, because he does wander into the realm of the LOL edgy now and then. But I think he just meant that it was easier to "beat up" Britta because he's so aware of her flaws as a character -- and also aware of how they can be made endearing. And please, I challenge anyone to tell me Britta isn't totally endearing by the end of the season. She still had one of my favorite lines in the episode ("They should retire the table we did it on!").
Back to 1) and also 4) As for Jeff, I don't think he was OOC, nor do I think what he did was particularly scumbaggy. He was put on the spot in a hugely awkward way and he's incredibly bad at feelings (which has also been going on all season). He even admitted to Annie that he ran the hell away. And kissing her, as much as I liked that, was just another way of avoiding what he knew he really needed to do. It wasn't scummy of him to react that way, and I'm really kind of skeeved out by the people who think that Britta "deserves" his affection, or that his not reciprocating made him a horrible person. Yeah, it was kind of douchey of him not to go back in there, but again: this is Jeff Winger, and he is kind of a douche! That doesn't mean he owes anyone anything but basic human respect.
.....................So this is embarrassingly long. Okay then.
No, really, I just wanted to say that whether or not you're Team Britta or Team Annie, I feel like the episode went a little deeper and a little more twisted than it may have come across to a lot of people.
I'm NOT trying to tell anyone that they should have liked it. I'm not even trying to say that people shouldn't be angry. I'm just trying to say that I think there was a lot more to this episode than it's being accused of, and that at the very least it's nothing that the show hasn't been building towards over the course of the season.
And, personally, I think the first episode of season two is going to take a lot of people by surprise.
edit OH GOD I DIDN'T EVEN TALK ABOUT ANNIE AND JEFF/ANNIE. That will have to wait for a new post, I'm already totally embarrassed by how long this one is.
SON OF EDIT: More thoughts here, here, and here.
Obviously the first possibly unpopular opinion is that I liked the finale, which already I think a lot of people disagree with me on. But I did! It wasn't perfect, but it had the Dean/Yiffsuits and Troy/Giant Cookie and Jeff/Annie and meta commentary and callbacks all over, and a fantastic line about jumping the shark in an episode that I'm 100% positive Dan Harmon realized was going to be accused of jumping the shark itself. I dug it.
But really here is the reason I'm making this post: I don't think they fucked up. I don't think anyone was OOC. I don't think it was any more sexist than the show has already been this whole season. I think it was not the way I would have capped off the show, but it was a reasonable way to do it.
And I say this because the chief criticisms I've been hearing that I disagree with are:
1) They made Britta or Jeff or Annie OOC;
2) Everyone's actions came out of nowhere;
3) The Britta/Slater Jeff-off was sexist in a way the show has never been before (and a lot of people specifically commenting on this Dan Harmon interview and taking it to mean that he actually does hate Britta and all of his ex-girlfriends).
(Also 4) Jeff is a horrible person for the way he reacted and Britta deserves better anyway.)
1) Now, I think I have a different interpretation from some people of what went with the Britta/Jeff/Slater stuff. When Britta came out with the, "I love you," I definitely had a moment of WTF? But then when I thought about it for a second, I realized that, to me, of course it didn't make sense that Britta was saying "I love you," because, of course, she doesn't. Neither does Slater, which I think was made pretty clear.
2) Britta and Slater have never liked each other (see the Halloween episode, the drunk dialing episode, basically every episode that has both of them in it) and, according to those, have always felt a little competition with each other. Britta can be a petty, jealous person with a fragile ego (like every episode), and Slater is a suspicious person who has never liked the group or the way they dominate Jeff's attention (again, every episode with her in it). Britta has shown that she can take things too far (like every episode again, but especially the prank war), especially when reacting out of hurt or embarrassment (and especially "Romantic Expression").
So what happened, IMO? Britta was fine until she was nominated for "Tranny Queen" (I am not even getting into that -- I get why people are upset about it). Then, having to embrace stereotypical "girliness", even being urged into it by her psychologist, she started to crumble a little; and faced with Jeff prodding her about being guarded, and telling her they weren't going to see each other for months, and having Slater show up in Jeff's life again, she freaked the hell out. I don't think she loves Jeff. She likes him, and feels threatened by the possibility of Slater taking him away, especially when she's not going to see him for months. She felt pushed into going bigger and bigger, until it almost had nothing to do with Jeff anymore. I think it's clear that at a certain point, it became way more about Slater than Jeff. Jeff wasn't the point, he was just the prize.
To prove my point: What happened right before Britta's confession? She got cocky, tried to accept an award she didn't win, and was humiliated. And while she was up there, she saw Slater trying to take what she was thinking of as "hers." So basically, she reacted in the worst way possible, which was to put Jeff on the spot with a big love confession -- one that she assumed she'd win with, because she thought she had that in the bag.
3) Now, is this all sexist? Debatably, and I'm not going to try and argue that it isn't. The only point I want to make about the sexism is that it's not any more sexist than the rest of the season has been. Britta and Slater have always been competitive, Britta has always struggled with "acting like a girl," and she's always had a fragile ego. To me, it would be objectionable if they really were all in love with Jeff, but, like I said, I also don't think they really are.
And I also get that people are mad about Dan Harmon saying the writers "hate" Britta, but that quote is being taken way, way, way out of context. The point he was making is that when Britta was first introduced, everyone thought she was the stereotypical "do no wrong" boring "lead female" character, who just had to warm up to Jeff, and wouldn't have much other personality. I mean, I saw SO MANY COMMENTS to that effect when the show first started. So the point of "hating" Britta is that the only way to make her sympathetic was to beat her up a little first. The part of that interview that no one is quoting is: I also knew that doing that would have the natural result of really letting Gillian shine how she shines best and also making you start to sympathize with her. The characters people identify with the most tend to be the ones who suffer: look at RayK, or Sawyer on LOST, or Joan on Mad Men. Look at the woobie phenomenon.
I also don't believe he was intentionally making an abuse joke, although maybe he was, because he does wander into the realm of the LOL edgy now and then. But I think he just meant that it was easier to "beat up" Britta because he's so aware of her flaws as a character -- and also aware of how they can be made endearing. And please, I challenge anyone to tell me Britta isn't totally endearing by the end of the season. She still had one of my favorite lines in the episode ("They should retire the table we did it on!").
Back to 1) and also 4) As for Jeff, I don't think he was OOC, nor do I think what he did was particularly scumbaggy. He was put on the spot in a hugely awkward way and he's incredibly bad at feelings (which has also been going on all season). He even admitted to Annie that he ran the hell away. And kissing her, as much as I liked that, was just another way of avoiding what he knew he really needed to do. It wasn't scummy of him to react that way, and I'm really kind of skeeved out by the people who think that Britta "deserves" his affection, or that his not reciprocating made him a horrible person. Yeah, it was kind of douchey of him not to go back in there, but again: this is Jeff Winger, and he is kind of a douche! That doesn't mean he owes anyone anything but basic human respect.
.....................So this is embarrassingly long. Okay then.
No, really, I just wanted to say that whether or not you're Team Britta or Team Annie, I feel like the episode went a little deeper and a little more twisted than it may have come across to a lot of people.
I'm NOT trying to tell anyone that they should have liked it. I'm not even trying to say that people shouldn't be angry. I'm just trying to say that I think there was a lot more to this episode than it's being accused of, and that at the very least it's nothing that the show hasn't been building towards over the course of the season.
And, personally, I think the first episode of season two is going to take a lot of people by surprise.
edit OH GOD I DIDN'T EVEN TALK ABOUT ANNIE AND JEFF/ANNIE. That will have to wait for a new post, I'm already totally embarrassed by how long this one is.
SON OF EDIT: More thoughts here, here, and here.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2010-05-23 01:22 am (UTC)But I do think a lot of this episode was out of character for a lot of characters, and I don't know if that's a result of the additional episode orders and adding things in after the fact, or not - I don't know if English as a Second Language was one of those or not. But all of a sudden Annie goes from going to obscene lengths to keep the group together to bailing on all of them for Vaughn? I realize it was 'living in the moment' but... I don't buy it. Jeff and Britta go from being totally cool with each 'nothing happened' to THAT? Jeff claims that Slater makes him feel like New Year's Day Jeff when he'd stated that she was the best girlfriend ever because he didn't have to work at the relationship at all? And yes, I realize it was prodding from Shirley and irrational reaction to Slater from Britta, but once again.. I don't buy it. I know, oh I know, that Britta's reactions to this stuff can be totally ridiculous, as seen in Interpretive Dance, but when she can't even make a stand on her feelings on what doin' it in the study room meant without knowing what his were first, I really cannot see grand declarations of Love, even if they're not completely genuine - it's in front of the entire school, and to them, it is.
So basically, I don't know what I'm getting at - I know what you're saying, and I see what you're saying, and I can even support what you're saying, but there are some parts I really feel were off about the finale. Also, and Jeff's a douche. But we knew that.
Bring back Conan.
I HAVE THOUGHTS
Date: 2010-05-23 01:26 am (UTC)I have to say -- I am in the minority of people that didn't have any real problems with the finale (aside from tranny queen. Seriously, guys?). I enjoyed it thoroughly.
One thing that I haven't seen many people talking about, which *heavily* influenced the last five minutes of the finale, was how much of a genre commentary the entire prom scene was. One of the aspects of Community that I enjoy the most is how it's simultaneously an entertaining TV show and also a TV show about being an entertaining TV show. We've seen them get meta about what a holiday episode should look like, about what a back-to-school episode should look like, about what a fight episode should look like...almost every episode has the writers (read: Abed) examine what being a "real" TV show entails. Almost like how community college is supposed to help people figure out what being in a "real" school is like.
This is not to say that I do not find community colleges to be any less valid than their drastically overpriced counterparts! I know many people who have community college degrees and are doing way better in the job market than I am. It's just that there is that view of community college as being a wholly transitional space, of being not quite legit, and the show uses that stereotype as a vehicle to explore what exactly one has to do to be seen as legit (fake being a lawyer, follow your friend's advice about dating when your own style works just fine for you, follow the plot of a mafia movie to the letter, etc).
So, we've got this really funny show. Part of this show's humor lies in deconstructing traditional elements of other funny shows. The time rolls around for this funny show's season finale. So the writers (again -- hey, Abed) take a look at what traditionally defines a season finale. Which gives us our prom scene -- the last ten minutes of almost every movie/TV show set in high school ever made. And they line the elements up perfectly. There's the ex-flame and the current love interest, declaring their feelings in a very, very public venue. This is what the entire season's been building up to. In any other TV show, our lead would either:
A) Choose the fan-favorite love interest, making the audience happy.
B) Choose the less popular ex (Julie from Friends, if you will), making people unhappy but providing plenty of tension for the following season.
C) Look from one woman to the other, start to speak, only to be cut off by the credits and the text "to be continued", leading to a very long summer wait.
That's what would happen, and has happened, in almost any other show. Because it's compelling TV (or was ten years ago). But the thing is, people don't work like that. If your best friend tells you in front of a crowd of people that she loves you, you're blindsided. If your ex reappears after months of ignoring you and tells you she loves you in an equally public setting, you're even more blindsided. What Jeff did was the natural reaction -- he got the fuck out of there. And when he ran into another friend that he's been involved in a mutual attraction with for months, he kissed her. Does it make him the best guy ever? No. But this is Community -- that's who our lead is. He isn't Ross, he isn't Sam, he isn't any of the plethora of trustworthy leading men who have come before him. He's Jeff -- he's human, he freaks out, he does poorly thought out shit. That's the kind of character that we get on this show. And given the option, that's the character that I'll take.
Re: I HAVE THOUGHTS
Date: 2010-05-23 01:28 am (UTC)*WAIT THERE IS MORE
Date: 2010-05-23 01:30 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-05-23 01:31 am (UTC)But yeah actually in retrospect, cross that one out. CHANDLER.
(no subject)
Date: 2010-05-23 01:32 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-05-23 01:35 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-05-23 02:40 am (UTC)I still don't think there's anything OOC about Jeff and Britta. On Jeff's part, his reaction hasn't really changed -- yeah, he gave that speech about why he cares about her, but that's deeper stuff that he was sort of just digging up in the moment. And Britta... again, I just don't think that love thing was natural or genuine, and I don't think it's out of character for her to react wildly when pushed hard enough. I'm not even necessarily thinking of romantic stuff -- although I think her "let's completely destroy Annie/Vaughn" thing is a good example of that -- but also, like, how intense she gets about the teenagers, or the prank war. Abed says it best: with Jeff, she has the most fragile ego in the group. And I don't think she had any reason to think she wouldn't win Jeff with that.
I kind of support Jeff's douchiness in this case, TBH. I would freak the fuck out too if my best friend and my ex were both suddenly in love with me and said so in public and got everyone to gawk at me like a circus freak.
(no subject)
Date: 2010-05-23 02:40 am (UTC)Re: *WAIT THERE IS MORE
Date: 2010-05-23 02:48 am (UTC)Re: I HAVE THOUGHTS
Date: 2010-05-23 02:49 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-05-23 04:14 am (UTC)Also I don't ship Jeff/Annie as a couple, but I don't mind how they got together at the end. They won't last.
(no subject)
Date: 2010-05-23 05:52 am (UTC)Re: I HAVE THOUGHTS
Date: 2010-05-23 05:53 am (UTC)Re: I HAVE THOUGHTS
Date: 2010-05-23 05:57 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-05-23 06:12 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-05-23 07:17 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-05-24 03:32 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-05-24 02:03 pm (UTC)