@lschin12: There's something beautiful in the fact that essentially Pierce's last line will be "Did that sound gay at the end?"

I respect your opinion but my observation is that the tenor of this conversation for S5 is already different. With S4, it was whether something was good or bad. There's already deeper analysis of these eps (granted a lot of this is on the old review amongst the AVC Community regulars). I bet people will be able to…

We'll see tomorrow if people were happy enough with S4 to stick around for S5. It makes me nervous because not everyone was aware of the behind the scenes shenanigans.

Fun. I'll try to keep an eye on him.

What does he tend to do in general? I follow him but I'll stop if he's a jerk.

The Mad Men-like bar made me happy. If Chang walked around there with drinks like Hugh Hefner all season, I'd be happy.

The darkness was also practical. You have to start things off low to give yourself room for arcs and building the characters up again. I wish we had gotten an indication that they had at least helped each others' lives during their tenures, even if Greendale hadn't, but it was still effective.

Agreed. And I'm sick of Abed having breakdowns all the time. It's repetitive, extreme, easy, and also hard to watch for those who care about him as a character. I was hoping for less of that in S5 in comparison to S3. If you're going to have to incorporate that due to the way you want him to be mentally, reserve it…

I would've noticed immediately that something was different. There's actually layers of meaning to discuss in these eps and way more good quotes. They are leagues ahead of S4 in my estimation.

Yes. I liked where they were going with it but they were tackling heavy subject matter and didn't follow through. Maybe future eps will develop this Abed plot further?

Yes. I don't know what form it would take, it would have a very small budget if it wasn't just more eps, but I bet it would happen. All involved are too ambitious and in love with the show for it not to happen. Fingers crossed.

People keep noticing parallels that I didn't see on first watch. I don't know how many were purposeful but nice.

I didn't even think of that. Ha.

I may feel the same way. I was pretty riveted by the ep 1 plotting and also didn't love all the Abed stuff. It was a little grating and didn't feel fully fleshed out though I did appreciate some of the jokes and the meaning behind it.

I loved that. A lot is the same, what with most of the group still being students, so there needed to be some significant changes.

It was propulsive, had weight, and didn't feel overly expositional. Shit was happening, maybe too fast, but it was great.

I loved those. They're so happy! And Dan Harmon was there…and messed up. A-mah-zing.

What he said.

Yes, they are going to make it more teacher heavy. Jeff will serve to bridge both worlds. Instead of replacing Pierce and Troy with other students, they decided to expand on the faculty.

@Olivececile: I need Abed to find the perfect pop culture reference for how locked out of the conversation Disqus makes me feel.