Taking questions to distract myself.
March 18
As a sign of how my brain is working this morning, deleting a spam email with the subject line “Are You Online? Browse Singles NOW!” sends my brain spiraling back in time to when I was a student and music was my radar, to steal a phrase. Mondays meant new releases, and I have such strong memories of being in record stores and eagerly checking out the singles that had been released that week — it was the height of Britpop and so there would be new releases from the big bands everyone knew like Blur, Oasis and the like, and smaller bands that few remember these days: Astronaut! Mover! Heavy Stereo!
Each week would be a revelation; I’d buy whatever I knew I wanted — I was an eager listener to Radio 1 and reader of NME and Melody Maker, so had a good idea about what would be coming out — and always try and pick up something new if I could afford it. There was always excitement about what would be on the B-sides (Really, CD extra tracks), and much time would be spent listening to songs over and over again as I fell in love with them or tried to convince myself that it was happening. In many ways, I miss that kind of thing — the hours I’d spend in a record store, wandering from the singles section to the albums, educating myself on a world out there that I didn’t know enough about.
At one point Abed (Danny Pudi) tells Frankie that she is just a character that doesn’t represent ‘our show’, which used to be about a group of loveable misfits but is now about a group of loosely connected students and teachers. Abed adds that Frankie is going to try to ground them by asking questions about how they make money and why they don’t have degrees yet. The show is literally talking about what we are seeing happen in barely veiled terms. It’s like trying to eat dinner while someone is reading the recipe out loud. But then he concludes that ‘good shows change.’
This show won’t, however. Its fans love the fact that it eats itself – and then excretes itself while making a poop joke. Community is a niche taste; it makes sense that it has found a home on the internet where those that love it can enjoy it and those that don’t can forget about it.
From here. Got to say, the first episode of the new season just felt entirely unnecessary in a way that the Harmon-less season did. Pretty much half of the original cast is gone now! Let the show end!