Community- A Retrospective
It is hard to look back at a show like Community, it had
such a troubled and bizarrely complicated past accompanied with such a meta and
self-aware tone that I can’t help but feel overwhelmed when I think about this wonderful
show. Created by now world-famous ‘Rick and Morty’ creator Dan Harmon and
starring a line-up of would-be gigantic stars as well as directed and written
by a collection of the most successful people in the industry, ‘Community’
revolves around a study group in a Community college and well it is very rarely
about anything that simple episode to episode. I’m going to do something a bit
different for this retrospective, reviewing each season individually because
that’s what I distinguish this show as, there are so many stellar episodes that
I would love to spend hours unpacking them all but for now let's explore what
made Community great.
Season One
There is this weird pleasure to revisiting Season One of
Community, like watching old baby videos of people you know taking their first
steps, Season One is pure joy and potential. Like most shows, it takes a few
episodes to find its feet, characters start off as quite bland and predictable,
where you are convinced you know the type of joke they would be involved with.
It is like every character is a guest star in the pilot until Community starts
to play with its formula, with the perception of its own show, within three
episodes it incredibly jumps the shark and becomes outstanding with
‘Introduction to Film’ where Harmon blends the line between creating art and
the art that is created through the character of Abed (Danny Pudi). Like most
typical sitcoms, the motivation of the characters is through how their
relationships develop and progress, but this is accompanied by this outstanding
level of episodic uniqueness. We get a Justin Lin Halloween episode in
‘Introduction to Statistics’ or a Mafia movie motivated by Chicken in
‘Contemporary American Poultry’ that make every episode have this feeling of
unpredictability. The feel of a lot of the episodes is oxymoronically cohesive,
Season One has this classic sitcom feel of trying to find its feet which allows
it to experiment and using Harmon’s writing every episode feels like what it
finds is justifiably Community. I know this is weird and disorientating but
Season One is really hard to put a finger on, a lot of the more straight-edge
episodes are quite hit and miss and I don’t love the romantic triangle of the
finale, but ‘Modern Warfare’ is without a doubt one of the most daring an
inventive episodes of a sitcom still finding its place that I can’t help but
look back in bliss.
Season Two
It’s so hard to break down Community, I look back at this
show and most episodes have a moment or a scene that I quote endlessly and
every character sticks in my brain as unique and fascinating. Season Two has
this unwavering ambition and motivation to it, Harmon lets loose, gets excited
and starts throwing anything and everything at the wall and the surprising
thing is that most of it works. He thankfully abandons the romantic
entanglement issues from the previous season and there are about five episodes
in this season I wouldn’t call classics. Episode 4 sees the fantastic Sci-fi
parody of ‘Basic Rocket Science’ being grounded yet presented as an homage, or
the literal zombie episode ‘Epidemiology’ which is sharp witty and genuinely
tense. He isn’t scared to explore his casts dynamic with ‘Cooperative
Calligraphy’ and ‘Paradigms of Human Memory’ that are high concept parodies of
the bottle episode and clip show that are as chaotic and hilarious as most of
Community. Maybe I’m biased but my favourite episode of the season is ‘Abed’s Uncontrollable
Christmas’ due to its commitment to a new style and genuine emotional
motivation for the plot that opened the door for ambitious emotional
storytelling in Community, which we have to thank for several outstanding episodes
to come. Harmon commits to one-upping himself with the paintball two parter as
the finale which every part as seriously whimsical as it is hilariously self-aware.
Season Two is the equivalent of watching a show blossom into greatness, pure
creative excitements and commitment from all the crew and cast really pays off.
Season Three
This is my favourite season of the show, featuring some of
the most critically acclaimed set of episodes in the show as well as a running
plot that is so genuinely compelling and pays off, Harmon treats his story
circle episodically as well as season wide which is amazing. If it’s the
outstanding high concept ‘Remedial Chaos Theory’ exploring the complexity
between this groups co-dependency, what conflicts and relationships lie
underneath and the introduction of the darkest timeline. Or perhaps ‘Documentary
Filming Redux’ which is showcasing a descent into madness through a
mockumentary and a commercial filming or the Christmas episode ‘Regional
Holiday Music’ which is ‘Glee’ meets ‘Invasion of the Body Snatchers’ every
episode is just stellar and unique with full commitment and entertainment in
every idea. We of course get the best episode of the show ‘Pillows and Blankets’
which is a war mockumentary about the falling out of Troy (Donald Glover) and
Abed (Danny Pudi) which is hilarious yet personal and genuinely emotional. It
isn’t as emotional or challenging as ‘Virtual System Analysis’, although not
quite as perfect, a brilliant exploration into Abed’s character and his
relationship with Annie (Alison Brie) and Harmon’s mature look at those who are
different. The incredible crime drama ‘Basic Lupine Urology’ which utilises as
many tropes of the genre as possible motivates the season into its epic saga of
a final stretch, with Chang (Ken Jeong) as the antagonist in a surprising
linear turn for Community’s narrative. It is a phenomenal season, it stands out
as creatively refreshing, challenging and downright hilarious.
Season Four
And then everything went wrong. After several conflicts
between Dan Harmon and Chevy Chase, Harmon was fired off the show and a new
head writing team took over to reanimate Community’s corpse. Season Four is
such a mess, it betrays what the show is trying to communicate, when a show has
a reputation for playing with meta ideas and self-awareness, recreating that
often falls thin. Rather than playing with homages and parody in a contextual
perspective from inside the world of these characters, every episode feels like
‘what if Community but…’ which is a safe and cheap trick to disguise lack of
creativity. The first episode ‘History 101’ sees a collection of messy ideas
and jokes tripping over each other that is exhaustingly unauthentic, nothing is
ever committed to or taken to its full potential, instead the audience is
treated with the amount of respect of presuming telling you a meta idea is
enough. The writers didn’t understand Community, they saw it as a ‘genre-hopping
meta and self-aware sitcom’ but in many ways forgot the last part, this is a
show about characters that we love and this character writing pales in
comparison. Abed is reduced to just saying meta punchlines, Troy nothing more
than his counterpart, Britta (Gillian Jacobs) is just there for either physiology
or protesting jokes, Annie is about as flat as you can get and Shirley (Yvette
Nicole Brown) is the stereotype that the show makes fun of for being a
stereotype. Pierce (Chevy Chase) is hardly in this season at all, its clear Chase
didn’t show up and the horror stories of set experiences are evident in the
show itself, he leaves at the end with such disregard for his character it’s
just sad. It is very much a sad and lifeless version of a show I loved, and it
really misses the mark and the show never recovered.
Season Five
And then everything went right again, sort of. Community Season
Five is such a wonderfully constructed and well put together season that really
delivers its full potential with the hardships the production was going through.
Chase had left and Glover was planning on leaving later this season, Harmon had
to write around a reason for these characters getting back together, losing
Pierce and Troy and maintaining Community’s identity. Admittedly the first episode
‘Repilot’ is a bit messy but then it finds its amazing feet, Jonathan Banks
becomes a season regular as a different hilarious character who plays off this
cast fantastically, he is truly one of my favourite parts in the season. Iconic
moments like the Noir thriller ‘Basic Intergluteal Numismatics’ about the Ass Crack
Bandit and ‘Cooperative Polygraph’ where Walton Goggin’s delivers Pierce’s will
in one of the best jokes in the whole show in those closing moments. But it is
Season Five’s golden hour ‘Geothermal Escapism’ that is a perfect send off for
one of the best characters in the show, Troy, it is an epic post-apocalyptic
action film with an emotional motivation through Glover’s departure that even
the toughest of people will cry at, I love the bittersweet beauty of this episode.
The second half of the season isn’t as strong, but still features episodes like
‘App Development and Condiments’ and ‘G.I.Jeff’ which are creatively challenging
and so compelling yet so high concept. I don’t love the finale plot, it re-treads
a lot of Season Three’s finale, but it does feature some off the walls insane
comedy such as every scene the School Board is in. It’s a really solid season
and it’s a shame that the viewership dropped so much but I really think it deserves
the recognition.
Season Six
I know what you are thinking, Community did have a sixth
season, just nobody watched it because it was on a dead streaming site and not
advertised at all. Despite this Season Six is a breath of fresh air, it feels
authentic and stripped back, a bit quieter and a bit more self-aware about not
jumping the shark, Season Six is ridiculously underrated. Like Five, a lot of
the cast has left and it simply can’t reach the levels of the original three
seasons because of it nevertheless the newcomers are fantastic, Paget Brewster
as Frankie is a compelling unique character as she has a completely different relationship
with the group. Keith David as Elroy is perfect, every delivery and line this character
is given makes me laugh I adore his addition and just wish he had more involvement.
This season even features guest appearances from Matt Berry and Jason
Mantzoukas in two of the stand out episodes and characters. Harmon strips back
revealing the concept of each episode, it’s the antithesis of Season’s Four ‘what
if Community but…’ idea, instead building a plot that makes sense and authentically
seeing where that progresses due to these characters and world being so
ridiculous. This results in episodes like ‘Intro to Recycled Cinema’ a Star
Wars pastiche that is a goldmine in comedic editing, or ‘Modern Espionage’ a
tribute to both spy thrillers and Community’s history of paintball episodes. Harmon
also got to take more risks with this season, exploring The Dean’s complex sexuality
and genuine political issues whilst also having a short epilogue to every
episode usually with one-off characters that destroys the fourth wall and are some
of my favourite moments in the season. But it is the finale, ‘Emotional Consequences
to Broadcast Television’ that makes this season something special, Harmon
wanted to bring back Community for this episode, to rightfully send it on its
way. The episode revolves around the Group sat discussing what season seven is
going to be, it’s meta and melancholy, with the focus on the character of Jeff
(Joel Mchale) coming to terms with finality and moving on, it will never fail
to make me cry and then cry with laughter at that epilogue.
…and a movie
I can only hope this retrospective is premature, that that
famed ‘#AndAMovie’ will one day come true but in the reality of it the cast has
become so insanely famous nowadays it would be almost impossible to recreate it.
The show has a fascinating legacy, without it names like Donald Glover, The Russo
Brothers and Dan Harmon might not be the Hollywood gold they are, we might not
have had the crazy popularity behind ‘Rick and Morty’ and its ultimately
bittersweet. I always perceive Community as lightning in a bottle, every component
came together and worked for three perfect seasons, when those elements were
stripped away the show struggled to keep what it is and that is a shame, it
almost makes me wary about the possibility of this movie, I want more Community
no doubt, but maybe we should be happy with what we’ve got, its not perfect but
it is Community.
Thanks for reading.