Box Set Binge: Community Series 1 and 2

Sometimes you come across something and you feel like it was just made for you. It's that eureka moment when the title sequence rolls and something clicks. This is how I feel about Community.

Picture from here

I recently finished the second series and the third is not yet available in the UK. Basically it follows an 'eclectic' study group in a community college. The show is super meta and self referential with a healthy disregard for the fourth wall. Usually this can come off smug but it works here. The plots are ludicrous and it manages to play tropes straight, off centre or both complete with rapid fire snarks and a dollop of the warm fuzzies from time to time.

There is also a tumblr that splices Community quotes with screen caps of Downton Abbey. Ace.

Top Five Raiders of the Lost Ark Musings

It seems pointless to do my usual under 500 word review on such a film, however I re-watched it today and felt it couldn't go without mention.

It is one of those films constantly referred to as "iconic" so I want to steer away from "Best Lines" or "Best Moments" and instead focus on the nostalgic musings and various thoughts a second viewing conjures.

Echo Chamber

I'm a big fan of the TV Tropes website and they have just released the first two episodes of the second series of Echo Chamber, the show made by tropers for tropers.

Basically the story is this: A guy named Tom has been tasked with making videos about certain tropes (for those who don't know a tropes are "devices and conventions that a writer can reasonably rely on as being present in the audience members' minds and expectations"  (according to the website) for a mysterious employer. Along with his snarky producer Dana and his cloudcuckoolander cameraman Zack, he struggles to complete videos, the subject of which always seems to relate to whatever they are doing.

Show Within a Show is the first episode:

Obviously the show relies a lot on meta humour and reflexivity and is a must for anyone who has so much as glanced at the main site. I sat and watched all twelve episodes today and I am hooked. It's updating every Tuesday and Thursday and the videos can be seen here along with the relevant tropes!