Well, it’s back, ladies and gentlemen. The sitcom with arguably the most passionate fanbase still on television (RIP Happy Endings) has returned, and with it we are given back Dan Harmon and relieved of Chevy Chase. There’s a lot to deal with here: a season’s worth of episodes outside of the original vision, the graduations, the new cast members, the oncoming changes…
So how does it stack up? In one hour, did Community return like a phoenix from the ashes, or was it more like a bird hatching from an egg that’s cute enough but not too impressive yet because it’s just a baby bird?
Let’s find out.
1. The Answer To My Bird Analogy
It’s somewhere in between.
In looking at the hour-long premiere — which, really, is two episodes that aren’t related placed back-to-back in order to give a ratings boost — we’re given an okay starter and a hilarious ramp-up. I think that “Repilot,” for what it is worth, is the kind of stuff that keeps Community in jeopardy of being cancelled all the time: it’s the epitome of the show’s dark side, a touch esoteric and overly meta. That stuff can be good, but “Repilot” was not as strong of an opening as we could’ve had — but I’ll generally let it slide because, you know, Harmon essentially had to turn the show around from a year in which he had nothing to do with it. Ok. Fair is fair.
“Introduction to Teaching,” though, is why I tune into Community at all. It was funny, it played up the good aspects of the characters, it balanced the show’s trope-bashing and pop-culture references with some quiet and honest moments of character growth. “Introduction to Teaching” is why Commmunity is a show that is worth saving, that is worth coming back to week after week, and why it’s the only NBC show worth tuning into anymore.
Let’s break it all down a bit more, shall we?
2. The Good
When the show is on point, it’s absolutely on point. The way that the writing can seed little jokes in early, particularly with the Scrubs references (which is double-funny as the people who produced Scrubs also produce Community), shows how smart the show can be: the Scrubs reference not only foreshadowed Jeff’s future role via allusions to Scrubs season 9, but it allowed the show to make reference to sitcom tropes, to smash those tropes apart as stupid, and then to use those tropes in a way that felt meaningful. That, and Troy’s line about Zach Braff leaving Scrubs has a particularly on-point pang of sadness/humor to it.
And speaking of, it was nice to see Community call itself out on all of its faults. In fact, it was a surprising bit of meta-honesty; the show has never been afraid to break the fourth wall, but to blatantly acknowledge the direction all of the characters have gone and how they’ve devolved into cartoon caricatures and why Chang can be teacher as a bad thing was amazing, something I’m not sure any other long-running sitcom on television would be willing to come to grips with (I’m looking at you, Parks and Rec).
On top of that, the return of lots of side characters (Garrett, Magnitude, Fat Neil, Leonard and Mr. Garrity!) helped the show’s celebration of its weird cast and culture. Throw in Jonathan Banks as the New Pierce and I think we’ve got a rather winning combination.
OH! And all the background jokes. What a welcome return those are. The posters in Mr. Garrity’s classroom were a fantastic addition. “Always Be Caging.”
3. The Bad
So, I openly praised the show’s ability to call out everything that made it unaccessible to people outside of Community‘s core fanbase, but I’m also going to call that out as not necessarily a good thing either. It kind of felt like Harmon was left with a catch-22 in this episode; he had to acknowledge everything that happened (references to everyone being weird during “the gasleak year” was a nice touch) but he had to figure out a way to make it work.
Well, he did, but only barely. Harmon’s a smart guy and a sharp writer, and the return to an early dynamic of the show with a few changes is something I’m all for — but the premise to which we are doing so is pretty flimsy. That everyone would graduate and re-enroll is a rather unbelievable premise, and while it is ostensibly an aspect of the show’s nature to call itself and the sitcom genre out, it still ultimately felt forced.
Continued belowThere were good jokes and nice moments in “Repilot,” some of which illustrate of why the show without Harmon wasn’t quite the show. The cast dealt with real issues again and (I keep coming back to this singular point) it felt refreshingly honest. But it is a sweater comprised of incredibly flimsy threads that can be unraveled at any second with even the slightest tug.
4. The Ugly
I’m going with a Sergio Leone pop-culture reference here, so “ugly” is not so much a repulsive appearance, but mostly just the other stuff I can’t fully categorize, OK? Cool.
Really, the only thing that I felt was odd was the inclusion of Hologram Pierce. I’m sure others may disagree with me, but while I may have felt that aspects of “Repilot” were weak, that was the only thing that felt genuinely out of place.
Here’s the thing about Pierce: they had to somehow acknowledge his absence, right? I mean, talk about a sitcom tradition; Two and a Half Men had a funeral for Charlie Sheen when he went haywire and quit the show, so Community was bound to do something in that grand tradition. But as much as I get the joke about a hologram appearance, that’s the sort of joke that either lands or falls, and for me it felt flatter than an owl that I shouldn’t blame for my inability to make analogies.
Pierce was the least popular member of the study group within the study group, family or no, and the cast seemed to not be a fan of working with Chevy either. If Chevy Chase’s placement on the show (a network decision, if my understanding is correct) originally felt disingenuous to the rest of the cast assembled, this hologram moment felt just as disingenuous.
…But in a weird way, I guess that makes sense?
5. #sixseasonsandamovie
I was never a huge fan of Community; at least, not compared to the people on the reddit that I subscribe to and occasionally read in order to pick up some of the callbacks that I didn’t get (like, wow, how “Repilot” is identical to “Repilot”). I’ll admit that, too; I think the first two seasons are very funny, the third season as rather funny, the fourth season as something I’d never rewatch — and the whole endeavor like a show with an enormous amount of potential that is frequently flirted with.
But if Season Five can maintain the momentum that the second episode built, I’m happily all in. I’d love to see this show succeed in an era where it feels shows like this are slowly and rapidly losing their place on our televisions and in our hearts. Community has been incredibly hit or miss for the last two seasons (more hits than misses in Season Three, more misses than hits in Four), but it has always been a smart and clever show that is eternally grateful and very rewarding to its fanbase.
If you hopped into Community for the first time tonight, you were likely greeted with the reason that so many people find the show hard to get into. If you stuck it to the episode, I think you were given a pretty compelling reason to stick around and learn more about the students of Greendale. It’s a mixed bag, but Community always is.
But if you’re a tried and true Community fan? Then I imagine you’re probably buzzing pretty highly right now, because without a shadow of a doubt, Community is back.
