Oh, how long I’ve waited for the new Community episode. No, not just waited. I fretted, worried, predicted, and dreamed
about it, wondering what the Harmon-less season would feel like. As a general rule of thumb, I think that
anytime a network or studio makes significant changes to a show or movie, it
can’t be good. And when they rip out the
heart of a show and replace it with two people of their choosing, can that
possibly end well?
Well, as the first episode showed, it can end somewhat
well. While watching last week’s
episode, I certainly laughed and enjoyed myself. There were several great moments. Troy and Britta’s fountain scene was a hilarious
highlight, despite being short. Whenever
Jeff feuds with Leonard during an episode, it’s going to be hilarious. And the studio audience version sitcom worked
really well as a piece of dry, alternative comedy. But, despite all this, I can’t help feeling
disappointed.
I likely would have been disappointed by the episode no
matter what, just because of my state of mind.
I was automatically going to be critical of everything, and bash the
show executives for taking away Dan Harmon.
But I’ll try to be as objective as I can in the following criticisms.
First, I want to criticize the side stories. As I said, I thought the fountain scene with
Troy and Britta was hilarious, and the dynamic between Troy’s super serious
silliness and Britta’s ruining everything worked really well. However, I would have liked the side story to
last more than one scene. It felt like a
funny bit that didn’t really have any significance to the episode as a whole
besides the overarching theme of change.
Next, Annie and Shirley’s pranks. This side story felt forced, and seemed like
just a way to get the pair involved in the episode. And again, at the end, it felt like the side
story didn’t have anything to do with the rest of the episode. Yes, it brought up Annie’s possible desire to
not become a hospital administrator, going along with the theme of change, but
that could have been done in practically any scenario. I would have loved to see this prank scenario
being played out much more, or at least having it connect to what else is going
on in the episode. That said, it seems
like they’re continuing the trend of letting Alison Brie bust out her comedic
chops and become a bigger part of the show, which I love since straight-edged
sweet and silly Annie is much more entertaining than the straight-edged
defensive bitch from early on in the first season.
My point about these two side stories is that in the past
three seasons, side stories were featured heavily, but almost always seemed
fully fleshed out and tied in better with the main storyline than this episode’s
side stories did. Yes, these side
stories did have to do with the overall theme of change, but they just seemed
like they could have been edited out of this show and placed in another episode
with little consequence. I think back to
the episode where Rob Corddry appears as Jeff’s former lawyer coworker, leading
to Troy, Annie, and Abed breaking into his office. This was a hilarious little side step that
not only provided tons of laughs, but did so in a way that tied in with
everything else going on in the episode.
The Hunger Deans storyline could have used some support from the other
characters, even if it was just in a bit of a side step bit.
Speaking of the seemingly forced and underutilized parody of
The Hunger Games, how could anyone not be disappointed by something with so
much potential. This seemed like it
would be a lot funnier, but like the rest of the storylines (except Abed’s),
just doesn’t seem to have been fleshed out nearly well enough. The challenges were almost all
forgettable. Jeff fighting Fat Neil was
a funny bit, and the dance was a little funny, but I’m shocked they didn’t come
up with anything funnier than that. I’m
also shocked that Jeff didn’t question where the Dean got two men to dress like
sparkly shirtless unicorn servants. This
was a wasted storyline that served as little more than something to put in the
commercials, because it was nothing more than a concept that they refused to
make a reality.
One of the most concerning parts of the episode had to be
Pierce. It’s been a running gag lately
that Pierce is losing his mind and is useless, but with the ball joke gag, the
show just made him a flat dunce. Pierce
is best when he is not getting references or saying inappropriate things, or at
least doing more than laughing maniacally at balls. The “there’s a joke here somewhere” gag
worked well with Troy (don’t eat the crab dip!), but just seems like another
forced part of the episode.
I also am concerned by the use of side characters in the
first episode. Leonard was used well
when he and Jeff got into a fight during the first challenge, but him saying
that he had been pissing in bottles at the beginning of the episode was blue
comedy that is beneath Community. Asian
Annie made a random appearance, which can only be explained by the writers
wanting to include her in the episode.
She doesn’t add anything meaningful in her second appearance on the
show, which makes me wonder if they were just pandering to the fans by adding
in a random side character from the past.
Fat Neil and Becky are both present, but neither are really involved in
the plot at all, which once again makes me feel they are only there to provide
a sense of familiarity to the fans in an attempt to comfort them. Also, oddly enough, there is a long-haired
guy wearing a top hat who appears to be similar to Starburns post-season
1. Is this a strike at or nod to Dino?
Overall, despite some laughs, I’m worried. It’s clear they are trying to comfort the
fans by making fun of their worst fears that the show would turn into a Two and
a Half Men-esque sitcom, but was that there to distract from the other
shortcomings with this new season? I’m
immediately worried that they are just going to take all the characters’ basic
attributes and only use those instead of featuring the characters’ full
personalities. Pierce’s main bit was
based on him being oblivious, and didn’t work.
Shirley had no character depth in this episode and merely served as
Annie’s sidekick. Troy and Britta’s side
story was so short that it didn’t really feature much of the characters. Hopefully they don’t expect that the Dean can
be a heavily featured character despite him being a shallow side character who
can be featured heavily on an occasional episode but is by far best when he
stops in quickly with some off-beat antics.
And most importantly, I pray that they don’t make Abed a simple weird
character. Abed is the maladjusted
character with a lot of hidden depth and subtleties, and if they take away all
subtleties and just turn him into a freak it will ruin the show. In this episode, Abed was just in his head
the whole time. His interactions with
other people are much more rewarding to the audience than just him doing
something weird and meta by himself.
I guess I’m probably overreacting and making a big deal over
a very limited sample size. I’ve been
terrified of the new direction of the show for months, and it’ll take a few
episodes before I have any chance of calming down. But when you change a show that has been so
important to me for the past three years, I’ll never be truly happy. Just like Abed, I’ll be afraid of change for
a while, but am trying to embrace a fourth season of Community (we made it
farther than Arrested Development!) while not being too scared of something
new. I’m looking forward to next week’s
episode, and am trying to realize that even if the show strays from how it was
with Dan Harmon, that doesn’t mean it won’t be a good show by its own
merits. And besides, the show changed a
lot from the first episode through the end of season 3, with characters finding
themselves and everything getting progressively weirder, but those changes
helped make Community into the show I now obsess over. So maybe a little Chang won’t hurt so bad.
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