'Community' Watch: "History 101"

Community without Dan Harmon still has plenty of sex appeal.

The relationship I have with Community is different from any other sitcom I've had the pleasure of watching. There have been others that I've found funnier (Arrested Development), been totally obsessed with (The Office), that I was with from the beginning even when seemingly no one else was watching (Party Down), or that I even think have a better cast (Parks and Recreation), but there's always been something unique about Community.

 Part of it is simply a a combo of all the above. The darkest timeline in "Remedial Chaos Theory" is the funniest 90 seconds of TV I've ever seen. I may never match my obsession for season 2 of The Office but with Community I haven't been limited to one season in particular, but rather devour all the DVD commentaries & other extras & reading multiple recaps of each episode. That first season of Community I had few, if any people, besides my brother to discuss the show with before finally talking friends into watching it* or finding others who were already streets ahead. & while I'd give Parks brilliant cast** the edge there's not a weak spot in the Community cast.***

*It's possible I've done more facebook posts on "Community" than all other shows combined, I've certainly posted more clips, & that's saying something. 

**This is where I have to remind anyone not watching"Parks" to get their shit together. 

***I've had problems with Pierce &, especially, Chang but that's had much more to do with the writing than Chevy Chase of Ken Jeong's performances. 

Beyond that it's a show that in many ways seems tailor made for me, & other TV/movie geeks, with the many pop culture references, the various theme episodes, & Abed himself whose use of television knowledge to better understand real life is not altogether different than my own thinking. So when Sony announced they had let Den Harmon, the mad genius behind the show, go after last season there were some big questions about the future of this show that I, & a few million others, loved so much.
When I wrote about Harmon's departure back in May I titled the post: "Dan Harmon's Gone... Does That Mean "Community's" Dead?" Indeed some fans assumed that, while it had already been renewed, the show they knew & loved was over with. Ultimately I would engage in a couple arguments with some of these pessimists because, as I wrote in my piece:

[W]e'll probably never get anything as brilliantly weird as "Virtual Systems Analysis," but I disagree with the "it's all over," darkest timeline, stance. The new showrunners (who were last seen producing the hilarious Happy Endings) are by all accounts fully capable, at least some of the writers will be back, &, heartbroken though they may be, the brilliant cast will be back. Community may never be quite the same, but considering how good it's been the last 3 years it can drop off & still be one of the best shows on TV.  That's why I'm definitely sticking around for the next 13, & I hope you do too.  

So I continued to have fairly high hopes for Community, hopes that were only strengthened by things like the October 19th video in response to NBC's postponing the show's return that demonstrated even sans-Harmon the writers still had a solid grasp of the characters. Then the reviews for the show's return started trickling out earlier this week with many still bullish on the show but my most trusted television critics were more tempered saying that while the show still had many of the same beloved qualities it felt like it was trying to hard to emulate the Harmon era without quite the same skill to fully pull it off & hence I went into the episode hopeful but with expectations tempered.

I'll admit there was something a little off about the show. Britta & Troy's fountain fight seemed out of character for the show,* Jeff's Hunger Deans challenges were also similarly physically broad (though I can't think of a better way to play them out), & baby Greendale seemed a step to far (especially baby Pierce bouncing between breasts). Annie's struggles with pranks is also something done, & done better, on many other sitcoms though I still enjoyed the payoff of the Dean mentioning to Jeff that someone had moved his stapler. So no, it wasn't a perfect episode of Community but while I've listed a number of things I found problematic in the episode I must say that the vast majority worked for me.

*One might point out Annie & Britta's oil fight in season 2's "The Psychology of Letting Go" but Harmon is on record saying that was probably his least favorite episode of the season in large part because of that scene & the preceding storyline. Personally I think the other half of that episode, revolving around Pierce's mom's death & Jeff's realization of his own morality, more than makes up for it. 

Senior year is always a big moment in anyone's life,* be it in high school or college. It's the final year of this stage of your life, a stage that's helped define exactly who you are, & preparing to enter into a new one that you may not feel entirely prepared for. As the show points out it's also potentially the finale for many of your friendships, or at the very least it's the end of your friendships as you know them. This is a pretty obvious theme for the show to explore at the outset of its fourth season but it's also a necessary one, that I hope they continue to explore throughout the season, & in this first episode they do so in way that explores various reactions to this realization. 

*Unless you're part of the 30% of Americans who fail to graduate high school. USA! USA! USA!

Jeff has secretly taken enough summer classes to graduate early, provided he get one more history credit, & thus is motivated to save seats for the rest of the Greendale 7 so that they can get into the one history class offered, The History of Ice Cream.* However someone has hacked into the school's registration closet (another joke I enjoyed), so the class has been overfilled & the Dean decides to make the students compete in a number of Hunger Games like competitions though, & I think this is part of the joke, they bear no resemblance to the actual hunger games. When the rest of the group learns of this they turn on Jeff for being selfish & leave him to compete on his own to try & win them all a spot in the class. In reality Jeff 's only being selfish in that he kept his actions hidden from them, not that he's graduating early. He simply wants to move on with his life but he also doesn't want to do so without his friends. It's everyone else who's truly acting selfishly, wanting him to stay at Greendale however long they do. I'm not sure the show ever fully points this out, but regardless it deserves credit for creating that dynamic.

*A class that would've fit in well with the other fake night classes (Math 1 2 3, Theoretical Physical Education, Learning!) in season 2's "Conspiracy Theories and Interior Designs." 

It's Abed though who, of course, is most traumatized by the dawning of their senior year & for good reason––which I'll explain. Jeff, as the original center of the show, has been the character whose life has seemingly been most altered by the study group. He was a self-centered guy who's gradually come to care about others, or at least those others in the study group. I'd argue however that Abed's life has been altered just as much, if not more. Abed's been alone most of life with a mother who left the family, though still seeing him on Christmas & I would assume some other occasions, a father & indeed a whole world that never understood him. He used TV to keep him company & thus his entire worldview if filtered through that lens. Then he joined the study group & three years later he has a best friend and 4 or 5 (depending on if you count Pierce) other very close friends. Now his greatest fear, as spelled out in last year's fantastic "Virtual Systems Analysis," is losing these people & going back to the loneliness he felt before they were there. While Annie assured him in that episode that everyone suffers from such fears it's a fear that can't truly be dispelled until that moment of truth when they all graduate. It's only then that he can find out which friendships are truly lasting & which were significant for only a brief, brilliant, moment in time.

It's not a surprise then that he spends much of the episode trying to cope with this fear by retreating to his happy place, as Britta advised him to do when worried. It's hear where I think the divide between those who thought this episode was still their beloved Community & those who felt it was now a significantly lesser show. Abed's happy place is the study group as a multi-camera sitcom filmed in front of a live studio audience. Those critical of the storyline say it functions only as a meta look at the worst fears fans had of what would happen with Harmon gone, personally I think that alone would've justified it, & that had Harmon done a similar storyline he'd have found something deeper to go along with the meta commentary. I disagree. Not that Harmon wouldn't have done something amazing but because I think this was more than a purely meta commentary. It further showed us how Abed's mind works in that he ran the scenario of what was happening, through a fake sitcom version of their lives, in order to find an emotional truth. "I was trying to hang onto this moment because I was so afraid of the future,  but then I realized all of this was once the future and it was completely different from what I'd known before and it was happening so fast but in the end, or the now I guess, it all turned out great." Yea, that's extremely meta but it's also heartfelt & as long the show continues to mix expertly mix those two components it will be Community.

Grade: B (This was a lot closer to a B+ than a B-)


Other Notes:

• Andy Bobrow, who's been with the show since season 2 & wrote classics such as "Mixology Certification" & "Pillows and Blankets," wrote this episode. It'll be interesting to see the results of a less tenured or entirely new writer. 

• The hipster look really is cool, but also not.

• "All of our wishes come true. Last year Troy wished we got bin Laden & the Dorito taco." "Yea but Obama got credit for both.

• "The overbooked it so it's first come first serve." "Just like real ice cream."

• Britta & Troy have "progressed, but not progressed progressed. It's progressive."

• "I've been pissing in jars for an hour trying to keep this seat." Never change Leonard.

• Remember "fyne" means fine, "fine" means not fine.

• The way Gillian Jacobs says "I got skillz," & the dance she does while saying it is the reason why she remains the queen of physical comedy.

• "Gay balls! I nailed it!" Pierce is definitely the same.

• If there's one thing we can definitely say Harmon wouldn't have done it's a don't ask don't tell joke. If you're going to make a joke like that it has to be presented as lame, here it wasn't.   

• Community's not the first show to use fake adds but they're used to great effect here with Troy & Abed starring in "American Sword Cooks" & Annie & Britta in "Blind/Blonde."

• "You smell like the floor of a movie theater." "Yea, but not for the usual reasons"

• I love the idea of Dean Pelton moving in next to Jeff, opens up a lot of possibilities.

• We'll see how Changnesia works out but in theory I think it's a fantastic idea. Professor Chang was great, but student & security guard/Greendale dictator Chang were problematic & it was difficult to see how they could continue to use Ken Jeong so a blank slate was a smart way to go.

• With Chevy Chase gone for any potential future seasons, which would be possible if last night's ratings can hold up, would anyone object to Fred Willard replacing him?
  
  That's it till next week, as always your thoughts are welcome.