'You're Ruining Fuddruckers for Everyone!': Community Recapped
For the last few weeks, I've been one of those reviewers bemoaning the fact that Community doesn't have any stakes, relatable heroes or weight behind its story arcs. Much of season two has been very funny -- not as funny as season one, admittedly, but still very funny -- but not much has occurred that is likely to be remembered. Watching season two of Community has been like eating Cap'n Crunch for breakfast: Delightful, a little bit naughty and wholly unsatisfying in the long run. Which is why "Mixology Certification" was actually a welcome departure from the track of the season. It wasn't funny, but it was certainly meaty.
Make no mistake, though: This was not a funny episode. It was Troy's 21st birthday, but there wasn't really a lot of celebrating going on. Unless by "celebrating" you mean beer tears (Annie) and pathetic attempts at holding onto failed youth. Yes, Britta and Jeff, I'm looking at you.
What little laughs there were, happened in the first act -- Pierce might have less than nothing to do on Community nowadays, but watching Chevy Chase struggle with a sheet cake while sitting in a wheelchair is comedy of the highest order -- and by the end of the episode, "Mixology" almost reached a level of pathos usually reserved for The Office (see last night's brilliant "China" as an example of this).
"Mixology" was exceedingly well-handled and fairly interesting, yet it left me wondering: Was this type of development actually earned? It sounds picky and finnicky -- especially from someone who has been beating the character development drum for weeks -- but much of "Mixology" felt flat to me because I was waiting for the other shoe to drop. The comedy shoe, as it were. Community has been many things this season -- a Meta deconstruction of sit-coms, a parody-palooza, a Family Guy torrent of reference humor -- but it hasn't been this. And really, as The Office shows, you need to build to these types of dramatic-comedy episodes gradually, not all at once. Perhaps on a second viewing, "Mixology" will please me even more, but despite how much was accomplished, it still left me a tad unsatisfied.
That said, it's a credit to Donald Glover and Alison Brie that "Mixology" even worked as well as it did. Their performances were rich with not just comedy, but emotional pain and self-realization. The episode's final big moment -- when Troy walked Annie to her apartment and talked about her awesomeness -- was one of Community's best set pieces yet. A wholly believable scene, pushed along not by references or cheap sexual tension, but by deeper bonds like friendship, acceptance and familial love. It was sweet and rewarding -- I just hope it isn't an isolated incident.
Some other loose strands:
· I'm just going to say it: Shirley is not developed. And giving her a past alcohol problem that also wasn't developed (or dealt with afterward) felt cheap and silly and totally unnecessary. I know Community is an ensemble, but if you lopped off Shirley and Pierce, would the show really lose anything?
· Speaking of the ensemble: Remember when Joel McHale was the star of this show?
· Gillian Jacobs is never given enough credit for her work as Britta. Last night she embodied past-her-prime desperation so perfectly that I wish they gave Emmy Awards for Best Embodiment of Past-Her-Prime Desperation at a Bar or Tavern.
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Comments
Wrong!
I agree wholeheartedly. This episode caught me off guard. Especially the Shirley portions. It was almost upsetting, right? And I don't expect or want that from "Community". I did like seeing another side of Troy, and the moment between Annie and him was very sweet. Also Chevy Chase with the cake and then trying to get in the bar and just going around in circles made me giggle uncontrollably. P.S. As soon as Troy said the line about Fuddruckers, I knew without a doubt it would be a prominent part of this post. Donald Glover has the best delivery ever.
Interesting point about "past-her-prime" Britta (of course, she is hot, but the big 3-oh is approaching), in as much as she rapidly approaching the age where her hipster-ism moves to the point of being just sad. I'd like to see them explore that in the future.
Right!
Me too! Especially since Jacobs is such a good actress that she could probably kill with meaty material like that. Here's a question for a bland Friday: Would Community work better with fewer cast members? In the case of Britta -- as in, I'd like to see more there there -- I think yes.
I've gone back and forth about whether or not I'm a "real" fan of Community this season. I feel like the show largely defines itself by what it's not, rather than what it is. Even some of the funnier episodes this season haven't really worked - they've just been funny enough to get by for a half hour - a lot Community feels less like a series and more like sketch comedy. Last night's episode was a welcome change to me, even if it wasn't laugh-out-loud funny.
It's pretty obvious by now, though, that the writers hate Shirley and Pierce though - cut them loose, already!
Shirley's lovely, no messing with Shirley.
The 'biggest show in the world' - Top Gear, took like 10 Seasons before it got really good. Sometimes things have gotta have time to grow. Sadly Community might be cancelled because it's intelligent, tech-savvy audience knows how to watch it online for free.
The Joel McHale interview on Kevin Pollac's Chatshow suggested that Chevy doesn't want much to do and that he loves just getting paid, which is a shame because he is a slap-stick genius!
I couldn't disagree more with the negative critiques of this season and the dismissive attitudes toward Shirley and Pierce. I don't think the problem for those characters is a lack of development or a lack of purpose. I just think the writers are (thankfully) choosing to be a little more subtle about both rather than painting in broad strokes.
Pierce is a great counterweight to the rest of the group. His generally negative selfish energy not only provides some balance to the group, but it also creates some of the show's best moments. Go back and watch the scene (from this season no less) on the trampoline when Pierce is shouting, "Double bounce me!" while a crushed Troy cries, "Why are you doing this??" That moment is as much a credit to Glover, but it only works because of who Pierce is. Also, he's a worst-case-scenario portrait of Jeff in 30 years. He's someone with an inflated sense of vanity who spent his entire life unwilling to humble himself and form meaningful relationships with others. They're not hitting you over the head with it, but it's there and it's valuable.
As for Shirley, yeah, she might not stick out as much as Abed but there's a lot there. She's a committed Christian woman who stands firm in her convictions yet falls short of them and fails from time to time. She's not a hypocrite, she's just human. But she feels such a sense of shame at her own failings that she seems incapable of willfully admitting them to herself much less other people, even if they're close friends, as we saw illustrated in the bar this week. She has way more depth than most sitcom characters. She isn't a cardboard cutout, she isn't "crazy Christian lady," she's a person.
And I think they've had a really strong sophomore season, especially considering the bar they set for themselves with their first. Community has consistently been the best of NBC's Thursday night lineup this season. The Mean Girls/Secret Garden episode was really strong, and the bottle episode with the missing pen was one of their best from either season. Am I crazy or something?