Instead of sitting down and watching yet another bad movie this week, I decided I would attempt to sell people on what I consider to be one of the greatest television shows ever produced - Community. Many of you may already be familiar with Dan Harmon’s work of genius and to you I say “Good job!” For those who have yet to experience the awesomeness that is Community, I whole-heartedly encourage you to take some time out of your schedule (about a week or so) and power through at least the first three seasons. If you make it that far, you’d might as well go and watch season 4 as well, because season 5 is fast approaching (January 2nd!) and you’ll want to be all caught up. For this review, I shall break down the series into seasons, talking about what I liked most and what fell short. Enjoy.
Season 1 - The Character-Driven Year
At first, Community emerged upon the television scene like any other sit-com, albeit one with better writing and less clichés (well, sort of…). The first season introduced us to the main characters, telling most of their stories and giving us a reason to keep watching. The characters were well written to the point that by the time you make it half-way through the season, you will definitely have your favorites. Here we see Harmon bringing his vision to life and catch a glimpse of the crazy humor that will shape the show in seasons to come. Season 1 is, in my opinion, the best season if you are interested primarily in the characters, as subsequent seasons switch gears to focus on Harmon’s bizarre sense of humor.
Season 2 - The Transition
During season 2, we see the focus on characters begin to fade, replaced by gimmicks. Normally, I would begin the mourning process at this point. I watched another of my favorite shows, Scrubs fall into this same pattern, a pattern which left it stripped of most of its originality by season 4. With Harmon, however, the switch carries its own pros and cons. The major con is, of course, the lack of character development. The actors begin to become caricatures of themselves and we see little in the way of growth. The major pro is that Harmon gets a chance to really play with pop culture, bringing amazing and sometimes amazingly surreal episodes that will have you in tears despite the fact (or perhaps because of the fact) that they step so far outside of reality. This is when the show almost enters the realm of sci-fi for all its craziness.
Season 3 - The Gimmicks Have Won
At this point, almost all the characters have lost any chance of becoming more developed. There are still a few favorites that the writers concentrate on - mainly Abed and Troy - but some of the characters - mainly Britta and Jeff - are so far gone that they barely resemble the people we were first introduced to in season 1. Britta is by far the worse, stumbling around like a drunken idiot and doing nothing of value. It made me sad to see this happen, but at the same time season 3 brings some of the most outlandish and creative gimmicks to the table that you can’t help but keep loving the show. This season also happens to be when my all-time favorite episode, ‘Pillows and Blankets’ aired. At this point in the series, however, I began to wonder if Harmon could keep up the comedic momentum while still sacrificing character development. As it turns out, I need not ask myself that question, for Harmon was canned as showrunner, leading to…
Season 4 - The Hated Year
With Harmon gone, people began to despair, and rightly so. Most of the episodes from season 4 were quite mediocre, losing the seemingly supernatural insight into pop-culture that Harmon possesses. The writers did their best and even came up with a few truly excellent episodes, but mostly the series just floundered about. The only thing that I appreciated about this season was the fact that they returned the characters to being human as opposed to the cartoonesque form they had shifted into during season 3. As far as gimmicks went, however, all was lost. It seemed as if the heart and soul of Community had been ripped out with Harmon’s departure. But there is hope!
Season 5 - ???
Seeing their horrible mistake, the folks at NBC brought Harmon back into the fold. The new season of Community is almost upon us, in fact, airing in less than two months. Will the show be able to return to its once-glory? Can Harmon restore the magic? Will he also shy away from the gimmicks a bit and bring back the heart to the show? Only time will tell…
Photo Credits -
Community courtesy of fizmarble.com
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