#andygreenwald

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Britta and Drama are the worst

I’m prepared for this season of Community to break my heart and resemble a bastard red headed step child. Essentially, I’m prepared for it to be the worst, yes worse than Britta. I’ve read some of the reviews and criticism on the show particularly this season. Andy Greenwald’s critique of the new season and the departure of Dan Harmon for Grantland.com was particularly spot on highlighting my fears about this season. I didn’t keep up with the drama surrounding Community, mostly because I can’t bring myself to read about pop culture often. I know Chevy Chase and Dan Harmon got into it. I know Harmon and the network got into it, but that’s really where I stopped listening. It all sounded too dramatic for me.

 I read Greenwald’s critique, but took it with a grain of salt after all I hadn’t seen the new episodes yet. It might not be so bad, though in retrospect that was the same thing I said about X-men Last Stand. One of the things I love about Community is the avant-garde nature of the show so even when I don’t find something particularly funny or useful there still is a reason for it. Some plot lines and jokes would be offensive anywhere else, but because of the way the show ties together, and its casting off of traditional storylines like Britta and Jeff, a love story for the bromance between Troy and Abed. Even the way the characters are presented tend to rebut convention and adds to the awesomeness of the show. Though at times each character invoke a stereotype there is so much more complexity to each character.

 All that said Greenwald sent up a flare in his piece sighting the Dean and Winger’s relationship as something to watch because it could quickly become an easy punch line. After last night’s episode, I’m worried Greenwald is right. So the Dean cross-dresses and is in love with Winger. We all know it is a subplot. It creates awkwardness whenever it comes up in overt ways, but if memory serves it isn’t overt often. That is the beauty of it. The Dean cross-dresses, and no one really thinks anything of it after the first few times. It just is part of his character like Abed’s narration or Shirley’s foosball obsession. Yeah, it’s weird sometimes, but we’re all weirdoes. The problem is cross-dressing is kind of a complex issue, easily confused with being trans (added to the Dean’s infatuation with Winger adds to the confusion), and it isn’t widely accepted as convention. So it always gets a laugh. Last night’s episode had Winger running around through an obstacle course set up by the Dean in a convoluted attempt to prevent Winger from graduating early and leaving him (and the study group). Abed is going through his own existential crisis in a very Abed way, made worse by Britta, who is still the worst.

 The Dean spends most of the episode in a gown and has two dress costume changes and a scene at the end where she asks Troy and Abed where they got their dresses (because Troy and Abed cross-dress at the end of the episode too). Jim Rash (Dean) is amazing. He’s funny every time. But Greenwald suspects the Dean’s increased involvement this season doesn’t have a lot to do with Rash’s abilities as an actor opposed to easy laughs. I’m inclined to agree with Greenwald at this point.

 As always there is a self-awareness on the show. Abed’s happy place is a show about a community college inside Abed’s mind with a laugh track, where the characters are a bit more one dimensional so much so there is actually a cartoon. It almost feels like the writers knew what the fans feared and made it Abed’s mind to show us how bad it could be. A laugh track, with the expected jokes, and each character reverting back to the one dimensional stereotype, it is what we all feared.

 Now, we’re just one episode in, and I take a lot of abuse from my fandoms…do I even have to mention the murder of Fred Wesley or for the love of god the murder of Scott Summers, love him or hate him you can’t have the X-men without him? I’m still not ready to talk about it. So I’m not quitting. I’ll watch every week, and take note the cheap laughs.

 Greenwald puts it best in his conclusion: “Now it’s a show about playing out the string and meeting corporate quotas. It’s decent ventriloquism; it’s passable karaoke. In its final—and they will be final—episodes, Community isn’t terrible. It’s just terrible pointless. It turns out the darkest timeline isn’t the one in which Pierce is shot or Jeff loses an arm. It’s the one in which nothing bad happens at all.”