You wanna know why Community is so terrible this season? I'll tell ya why...

Dear blog,

A lot of people are bellyaching over the current (and, let's face it, final) season of Community.  I really didn't want to be one of those people. I wanted to keep an open mind! I wanted to look at Dan Harmon as a figurehead, and wish him well in his future endeavours, but not allow his departure to taint my opinion of the show itself.

The main criticism that I've seen levied at this season is simply that "it's not funny". Disagree. I'm laughing plenty. But I'm not appreciating it the way that I used to, and here's the reason why: Community used to be a tv show that was largely about tv shows. Community brought the word "meta" to the forefront of everyone's mind, and it was great. But then it became too self-aware. See, the problem is that, this season, the writers aren't content to just make the jokes, and the references, and trust their audience to figure it out. They've been spelling it out for us, as if to say, "SEE WHAT I DID THERE?" after every punchline.

The thing that I liked about Community was not just that it was timely, but also that it was smart. Now, it might as well be any other pandering sitcom.

All of my favourite shows are dropping like flies. First, New Girl got... really stupid. And, let's face it, the bar wasn't set too terribly high to begin with, so... Anyway, then Community bit the dust, and now Girls is due to air its season finale pretty much any minute now. What will I watch?? How will I waste my time?? God, I might have to actually read a book or something.

Ha ha, who am I kidding? I can put off reading pretty much indefinitely, so long as I have you, internet.    

Favourite TV Shows

Fall is my favourite time of year. For one thing, cool-weather clothing is better at hiding my muffin top. For another, it marks the beginning of the new tv season! Yay! 

I love tv. There are so many great shows on the air now. There are some impossibly terrible ones, as well (you all just pictured Honey Boo Boo, didn't you?), but for right now, we're going to think like optimists and focus on the good. 

New Girl. Might as well get the obvious one out of the way first. Zooey Deschanel plays Jess, who moves in with three single dudes after a bad breakup, and hijinks ensue. Season 2 just began this week, and currently, we are all holding our breath while we wait for Nick and Jess to just make out already.  

Awkward. You know, when MTV catches on to something good, they really knock it out of the park. Isn't MTV responsible for publishing Perks of Being a Wallflower? Anyway, how to explain Awkward? Essentially, Jenna Hamilton has the worst day of her life, which culminates in everybody thinking she tried to kill herself, and, again, hijinks ensue. Do you remember that show from the late 90s called Popular? Awkward is basically the love child of Popular and Gilmore Girls, if you can imagine that.

Community. Oh, Community, you beautiful, polarizing thing. Community is the type of show that's so weird, you feel shocked whenever it occurs to you that other people like it too. If it's your type of humour and you "get it", it feels like it was written just for you. I can't even tell you what this show is about, beyond "a group of misfits at community college". The Hijinks-o-meter is off the charts with this one. One of the most entertaining things I've ever done in my life was go through the photos for this show on IMDB. I recommend that you do that, if you want to find out what the show is about without actually having to watch it, because nobody will ever do a better job of conveying how weirdly great this show is than that series of still photographs.

Girls. No hijinks here. Well... okay, there are still hijinks, but they're less wacky, and more cringeworthy, but you love it even while you're wishing they'd just make better choices, because dammit, you've made bad choices too. Like with Hannah and her on-again, off-again relationship with Adam. That man his wholly repulsive, but with a few redeeming qualities that keep Hannah coming back to him over and over and over again... just like you and your ex-boyfriend. Love it, hate it, love to hate it... whatever. Girls is awesome.

  

How I Met Your Mother. I can't believe this show has been on the air since 2005. Moreover, I can't believe I've been paying such devoted attention to a show that's been on the air since 2005. HIMYM is to me what Lost was to everyone else. I'm obsessed with the mystery of it. It was actually a little bittersweet watching the premiere of season 8 this week, knowing that it's the beginning of the end. I'm nervous about how they plan to end this series! I don't want them to just go, "And that's how I met your mother!" and leave it at that. But at the same time, I can't think of any other way. Come back to me in June, I guess, and we can talk about how I feel then. 

Turns out, I like more tv shows than I like movies, and it was a lot harder for me to cut this list down to just 5. And, as before, I still don't know how to end a blog post. Um... it's over! Byyyyye.