They did a finale. I mean, not just a season finale with gun violence ("we found a way to main paintball cool again" - ehhh), but a straight up we are going out like this is the end of the series and wrapping up the main arc series finale. For Jeff, if not for anyone else*, but very much wrote an ending for Jeff that either means a plot twist to start the next season or Joel McHale off to do other things and popping in just a few times. It's a school show, and it's a show where all the other characters were cheerfully pointing out they just had one more semester to graduate together, so I expected something wacky to happen to keep Jeff around a few more months. The wackiness was just limited to his mind.
If they were going to do a finale, I think I would've prefered the big blow out finale - everyone graduates, relationships are forever altered and put back together, Magnitude gets a line** - but this was definitely them trying to resolve the plot of the opener, which is totally fair. The big shoot out at the end didn't do a lot for me, some stuff with Evil Jeff and Evil Annie was amusing, but I would've rather spent that time with the real characters if that was it.
They did throw out hints about how they'd be very fine with another year if people want to push for it. A retooled Cape made two more seasons on cable. The white board in the study room, home of hidden messages the last couple of weeks, got in one last Six Seasons and a Movie line. I want them to get a chance for everyone to get out of Greendale, but I wouldn't be as worked up about missing it. This show, this season was fine, but if everyone else is actually moving on to better things.
* - did Pierce get his certificate and actually graduate? was Pierce even in the final table scene? They left it unclear, except in the "he's never going to be on this show again, there's his 15 second write out" way.
Chang bit was blown off last week, but that ended with the Dean from the rival college promising some retribution at Greendale that wasn't paid off here.
Pretty good little season. Better then I expected. Evil Troy and Ahbad in the morning at the end was pretty funny. Evil Jeff-"How many times do I have to tell you! Nobody watches this program!"
I thought it felt really rushed. Would liked to have seen this be a one-hour episode to get some more characters in there. I definitely enjoyed this season, some low points, but still better than a lot of comedies out there.
While the episode was a little too gimmicky for my tastes, I thought the last 5 or so minutes was just about perfect, and exactly what I was looking for as a conclusion to the series. Plus, I thought the sheer volume of callbacks in this episode to previous seasons was a pretty monumental undertaking. So overall it's a thumbs-up from me.
Can we pretend the whole season was a Winger dream sequence? On the whole, it was basically "kind of decent fan fiction" quality. Except for the puppets, yikes.
I kept expecting graduation to get interrupted by Dean Spreck's robot. He's been planning that thing since last May.
I really wish Pierce's final line in the series could've been "So Jeff, are we still best friends?"
Originally posted by JustinShapiroCan we pretend the whole season was a Winger dream sequence? On the whole, it was basically "kind of decent fan fiction" quality. Except for the puppets, yikes.
Now, that's not entirely fair. The knock-off muppets were pretty awful, but "Herstory of Dance" and "Intro to Knots" were very strong episodes, and there were some very good moments in "Basic Human Anatomy," "Economics of Marine Biology," "Cooperative Escapism in Familial Relations," and "Conventions of Time and Space." Overall this season was definitely above fan-fiction quality.
I was thinking the whole time how disappointed I would be if they actually pulled the trigger on the darkest timeline jumping over, and I'm glad they didn't. I figured it was all in Jeff's mind. I liked how he was conflicted over who he was (especially after last week learning how he directly affected Shirley's life) and who he is.
The odd thing is that I want to see more of the other timelines. Can we just jump between them next season and not worry about how they all do or don't comingle?
The way they integrated paintball was nice. They didn't do a full on paintball episode but at least they acknowledged its part of their DNA.
I should probably put this in the thread about the show returning, but I'm glad. It hasn't quite been up to Harmon quality, but its still been better than it has been crappy, and Guarascio and Port have been decent. I'm not ecstatic, but I'm satisfied, and right now, I'll take that.
I enjoyed this episode and I've enjoyed the season. My only major criticism of the post-Harmon era is that this seems to have been by far the schmaltziest season. A few of the highly charged emotional plots/scenes were handled really well, but every so often i felt like if we went back in time there'd be fewer obvious words and more subtlety and complexity in the interactions. The "Jeff sums things up" recurring speech never used to seem like it was reaching too much.
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Shades of the Pepper/Boss Man/Al Snow angle, where Al displayed a hotline for those with info on his missing beloved pet and future meal...with Val Venis's real-life cell number. Quite a rib, that.