The second season of Community is way bolder than season 1 was in the way it was written and the way it changed some of the characters. But in other ways it's also playing it safe. Which I'll talk about in more detail in a little while. Personally I enjoyed this season as much as I enjoyed the first. I gained some new favourite characters to go along with the two I had from season 1. I also gained a character that I like to hate. Unfortunately. But overall it was a funny and enjoyable season.
The thing I liked most about season 2 is that they weren't afraid to go off formula for the sake of storytelling. For example this season's Christmas episode was done entirely in the style of Rankin/Bass's Christmas specials from the '60s and '70s like Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer and Santa Claus is Comin' to Town. Which is pretty great. Though Pierce is a Teddy Bear in one sequence near the end of the episode and he just ends up looking like an Ewok from Return of the Jedi. Which is amusing though it makes me want to take Chevy Chase seriously even less than I already did. Which I guess is a compliment since he's a comedian and some comedians don't want to be taken seriously. Also this season's Paintball match in the two part season finale had more of a Western/Star Wars feel to it rather than the Mad Max/post-apocalyptic feel that the one in season one had. Which made the look and feel to it even more different than the usual look and feel the show has.
Annie and Abed are still my favourite characters on the show. Though I'm even more convinced that Abed and I are the same person, split between two different bodies because I constantly reference TV shows and movies in order to connect to the people around me like Abed does. Case in point, I was texting with a friend the other day and when I was telling her that I was watching the show, I mentioned that Abed reminded me of myself, while Britta reminded me of her and Annie reminded me of another friend. She had no idea what I was talking about, but it's a good story that illustrates my point here.
My new favourite character is honestly Britta. She was kind of one note and tried too hard last season, but this season she really grew on me as a character. Probably because she's one of the things the writers dialed back from last season, along with Shirley being religiously bigoted towards everyone last season. Because of this dialing back of the more over the top personality quirks, Britta became another favourite character of mine. Of course the dialing back of the more over the top personality quirks of some characters, meant the escalation of the more over the top personality quirks of other characters.
Both Pierce and Senor Chang, now just called Ben, because he's not a professor anymore, became even more unlikable this season. Especially Pierce. Chang is just an annoying character, but Pierce actually becomes an outright villain this season. Which is kind of a waste of a character, given that Pierce is an older person and could be giving the younger members of the study group, like Troy, Annie and Abed, advice. Instead he belittles them and harasses them and hurts them.
The third character that has been added to my dislike list is Dean Pelton. Jim Rash is an incredible actor, but Dean Pelton, the character that he plays on Community has become extremely obnoxious and I don't like the scenes he's in. I don't know if that was intentional or not on the part of the writers, in order to add more drama to the show, but it's working because even the rest of the characters don't like Pelton very much. Even though he was annoying, I do like that they actually gave Chang a story arc this season.
One of the things I found interesting about this season is the way they got Jeff and Britta together temporarily. Remember how on How I Met Your Mother in the early part of the third season it was revealed that Ted and Robin had broken up at some point during season 2? Well they did the opposite of that with Jeff and Britta. In Season 2, Episode 21, "Paradigms of Human Memory" Abed reveals that Jeff and Britta had been sleeping together for the majority of the season even though there had been no evidence of that in previous episodes. I mean, it was a definite possibility considering Jeff's attraction to Britta is the entire reason the study group was created in the first place back in the pilot, but the way it was revealed was kind of out of nowhere considering the season was almost over and there had been flirtation between Jeff and Annie throughout the season as well. Though that was mostly one sided on Annie's part.
I appreciate that these writers don't take relationships lightly on the show. Their philosophy was that no pairing was off limits, but if it didn't suit the characters or didn't make for good Television, then they didn't pair characters up. Romantically or platonically. Which is pretty refreshing as oftentimes TV shows pair characters together even if those characters don't really work well as a romantic couple. While that works on a dramatic level, particularly if there's a "Will they, won't they" element to the relationship, it often doesn't work in the long run or on a character level. Just like in real life when you try to force a romantic relationship to work between two people if the chemistry isn't there.
I also appreciate that they took their continuity seriously this season as well. On most shows like this if a character gets injured in an episode, they're back to normal by the very next one. However Pierce gets hurt in Season 2, Episode 7, "Aerodynamics of Gender" and is in a wheelchair from episode 8 until episode 11, which is the Christmas episode, which is a pretty long time for a character to be incapacitated in any way. So that was cool that they kept that going for a few episodes.
Final Thoughts and Rating: Overall Community season 2, while not as good as season 1 was, is still a pretty solid season. Dan Harmon and his creative team knew what they wanted the show to be right from the get go, but as good producers and writers should, they knew how to evolve their show in season 2 without it feeling like a completely different show. I was still laughing pretty hard throughout the whole season. Yes, some characters aren't great, and there were a few episodes I didn't like quite as much, but as a whole the season was solid and the creative team did well this season despite losing an episode, dropping the count from 25 to 24 for this season. I'm giving Community season 2 9.9/10 stars because of Pelton being way too obnoxious and for them basically turning Pierce into a monster for the majority of the season.
Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community_(season_2)
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