Community is one of those rare shows that is enjoyable to watch from start to finish even when some seasons aren't as good as others, or are just outright horrible seasons of Television. It struggled through it's entire run and it didn't have an easy, overnight, success like The Big Bang Theory and How I Met Your Mother had just a couple of years before. And it certainly didn't have as large a fanbase as other sitcoms of it's type like The Office, Modern Family, 30 Rock, and Parks and Recreation ended up having either. So the fact that it's an underdog series about a group of misfits and underdogs makes it that much more appealing to me in a way that even The Big Bang Theory couldn't. And The Big Bang Theory was one of my favourite sitcoms of all time.
Community was never afraid to take risks and do things that went against what was expected for a sitcom of this type. It not only had a solid continuity but it did entire episodes that could never have been done on any other show. For example "Basic Lupine Urology" is an episode where they shoot it like it's an episode from Law & Order as an homage of that show. Another example is the final two episodes of season 2 "A Fistful of Paintballs" and "For a Few Paintballs More". They're an homage to the Clint Eastwood Spaghetti Westerns A Fistful of Dollars and For a Few Dollars More as well as The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. Except they're also a sequel to "Modern Warfare" the paintball episode from season 1. No other sitcom could get away with doing episodes like these without it feeling forced and ridiculous.
That's the thing about Community. It's stupid and ridiculous, but nobody cares that it's stupid and ridiculous because it works so well. That comes down to Dan Harmon and the writers. They understand that the show isn't about the school and it isn't about the jokes and gags and Meta Humour. It's about people. Specifically the people who attend Greendale Community College and how they connect and relate to one another. It's about Jeff and Britta hooking up for almost an entire season with nobody but Abed knowing about it. It's about Pierce feeling left out and marginalized because he's problematic and nobody wants to be around him. It's about Abed feeling alienated and frustrated because he can't connect to people the way he wants to. It's about Annie feeling insecure because she's the youngest member of the Study Group and feels she has something to prove. It's about the group coming together and supporting each other when nobody else will.
The reason the characters are so relatable and likable is because they're flawed Human Beings. Not only are they flawed, but they never actually overcome those flaws. Like real people, these characters acknowledge those flaws and accept them, but their growth doesn't come from erasing those flaws. Instead the growth comes from their acceptance of those flaws and learning how to come to terms with themselves as people. Which is something that TV shows rarely do with their characters. Jeff is still selfish in the series finale, and that never changes throughout the entirety of the show, but he learns to acknowledge that he's selfish and his friends learn to accept that Jeff will always be a selfish jerk, but will come through for them when they need him to be there for them.
Back in my season 1 review I said that Abed and Annie are my favourite characters on the show and that stayed pretty consistent throughout the show, though I came to appreciate other characters as each season went along. But now, having seen all 110 episodes across all six seasons, I can say that without a doubt Abed is my absolute favourite character on Community. Not only was he consistently well written throughout the entire series and Danny Pudi played him extremely well, but Abed is the character that I can relate to the most. I'm autistic and because of that I find it difficult to understand people and oftentimes people like me aren't portrayed on Television or in movies or if they are they're done so in a way that draws attention to them. However with Abed, that portrayal isn't done for a laugh or to satisfy a checklist of minority groups that need to be on the show. He embraces his weird behaviour as do his friends, much like how I embrace my weird behaviour as do my friends. This series shows that people who are on the Spectrum are just like everyone else, except we just behave a little differently than most people would to varying degrees.
Another character that I really came to love and admire is Britta. At first she was played up as a joke because she was an activist who became a psychology major. But by the end of the series, she was just a person struggling to get through a regular day without screwing something up. Just like everyone else in this crazy world. And just like the rest of us, she puts her pants on the same way we do, one leg at a time. Well, except for the time she put them on while hopping balconies so that Abed wouldn't find out that she and Troy had started sleeping together. Like me, Britta's plans for college didn't pan out the way she'd thought they would. She didn't get her Psych degree any more than I got my diploma in Radio Broadcasting. Yet she continued at Greendale, much like I continued at Algonquin College after Radio Broadcasting didn't work out for me. And that makes her relatable.
My two absolute favourite episodes in the entire series are both Abed centric episodes. The first is "Abed's Uncontrollable Christmas" from season 2. Not only is it a great Christmas special done in the stop motion animation style favoured by Rankin/Bass in most of their Christmas specials from the '60s and '70s, but it's also an exploration of how Abed is feeling after discovering that his mom won't be able to join him for Christmas despite the fact that she's done so every year since her and Abed's dad divorced. It's also about how the Study Group steps in as Abed's surrogate family over the holidays.
My other favourite episode in the entire series is "Virtual Systems Analysis" from season 3. This episode deals with Abed's feelings concerning his friends. After Annie encourages Britta and Troy to go out on a lunch date during their extended lunch break, she joins Abed in the Dreamatorium, a room that looks like the Holodeck from Star Trek: The Next Generation and discovers that her encouragement of Britta and Troy made Abed afraid that he was going to lose Troy if Troy got a girlfriend. Which is how I've felt sometimes when one of my friends has gotten a boyfriend or a girlfriend. Which is absurd, but that's how I've felt and that's how Abed has felt in this episode. I also like that Annie learns to loosen up a bit as well and become more tolerant of Abed's behaviour.
While Community's strength comes from Dan Harmon, and season 4 didn't have him, when he returned for season 5, it helped a little bit, but the season started showing the failing health of the series, as NBC seemed to have lost interest in the show and probably hoped that them firing Harmon would result in the show being canceled. Which didn't happen, even after the showrunners they hired for season 4 left at the end of the season because their contract was for one year only. Instead Harmon returned but the show continued to decline in quality because it had been disrupted by the change in showrunners and the arrival of showrunners that just didn't understand the show they were in charge of. They just saw it as a typical sitcom, which it isn't.
Final Thoughts and Rating: Overall Community is a fun, wacky, enjoyable show that was so easy to binge. I generally have a difficult time with comedies because I don't understand the humour in them very well and oftentimes that's all there is to the show or movie. But Community has substance and heart as well as characters I can relate to and believe they could be real people, despite the insanity that happens in it. I would definitely recommend checking it out if you've never seen it before. It is absolutely the kind of show that we need right now. Now, if only we could get the movie part of the hashtag Six Seasons and a Movie. Despite seasons 4, 5, and 6 being significantly lower in quality than the first three seasons, the series as a whole was compelling through the entire run. Therefore I'm giving Community 9/10 stars.
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