There’s an old saying—be careful what you wish for. I broke that bromide out several years ago
when fans of the TV show Angel (of which I was one) were gnashing their teeth
and filling the internet with invective because the show had been cancelled. I pointed out that if we learned one thing
from the TV show Angel, it’s that living forever isn’t what it’s cracked up to
be.
Fans of the TV show Community had a dream; six seasons and a
movie. The first part of that scenario seemed
doubtful as the show’s ratings were in the tank. But, thanks to corporate sponsorship from
Subway (who also sustained another “little engine that could” show called
Chuck), the show managed to make it to five seasons (I suppose now 13 episodes
constitutes a “seasons” even on network TV).
But then the well ran dry and the show was cancelled by NBC. Let me repeat something I mentioned in my
review of Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt: NBC turned down that sitcom because they
didn’t have any sitcom good enough to pair it with. RIP Must See TV; RIP Community.
But wait! Yahoo came
to the rescue and resurrected the show for streaming. By now the show had lost half of its original
study group; Chevy Chase left in a dispute that is still confusing, Donald
Glover left to pursue other projects (and get nominated for two Grammy awards),
and Yvette Nicole Brown left to take care of a relative and also pursue the
ubiquitous other projects. Heck, even
Fat Neil left to do CSI Cyber. Would the
reduced cast be enough to keep the magic alive?
There are two answers to that question. Answer one is yes, of course they can. Community was always nimble about its cast,
elevating Academy Award winner Jim Rash to regular status and keeping Ken Jeong
around long after Senor Chang and any real reason to stick around, plus the
addition of Jonathan Banks last season.
With new cast members like Paget Brewster, there will be a new dynamic,
but it will seem familiar.
The second answer is, there wasn’t that much magic to begin
with. I recently watched every episode
of Community on DVDs from Netflix, and while seasons 1 and 3 were awesome,
season 2 was a major disappointment, the Dan Harmon-less season 4 was erratic,
and the re-Dan Harmonized season 5 was a disaster. So there’s nowhere to go in season 6 but up,
right?
Mostly right, if the first two episodes released by Yahoo
are any indication. The show has some
pacing problems that probably stem from the fact that, now divorced from network
conventions of length (the show can run longer than 22 ½ minutes per episode)
there is less incentive to trim the marginal stuff and just leave the
grain. In the first episode there is a
bit in the closing tag that starts out amusing, but then just keeps going, and
going, and then bends into absurd, and not in a good way. There are other draggy spots that probably
would have been tighter in a 22 minute format.
The closing tag for episode 2 goes on for too long as well.
These closers were originally designed to give the audience something to watch
while the closing credits rolled, but in the new streaming format, that’s no
longer a consideration. It’s another example of the new expanded format
creating more problems than it solves.
There is
still humor to be mined in the Greendale Community College mine, although how much remains can be a matter for debate. The first episode starts off harkening back to
season 5’s thread about the group fixing everything wrong Greendale, with
Frisbees turning out to be an overlooked hazard of epic proportions. The second
episode, co-directed by Jim Rash, gives Mr. Rash an opportunity at displaying
the kind of physical comedy he is so adept at (and displayed at the Academy
Awards when he thrust his leg out Angelina-style) but in the end is just a little
silly.
The new
cast members have potential only hinted at in the first two episodes (give them
a chance to settle in). Reliability isn’t an adjective often associated
with comedy, but Paget Brewster has proven herself to be a reliable comedic
actor and possibly could distract Jeff (Joel McHale) from resuming his past
Britta (Gillian Jacobs) and/or Annie (Allison Brie) flirtations. Keith
David, as an aging computer whiz, presumably steps into the departed Chevy
Chase’s role as older curmudgeon. David did great work doing the voice
over for Community’s classic season 3 Ken Burns parody episode, “Pillows and
Blankets,” and, as that episode pointed out, he was also on The Cape (so watch
for Abed to make a meta comment on THAT)(note-after writing that I read an interview with Dan Harmon who says that connection never occurred to him; more's the pity).
Community
has an erratic history, but that only proves that the show lives on the edge,
willing to take risks that don’t pay off. It has produced classic
episodes such as Modern Warfare (the paintball episodes), Remedial Chaos Theory
(the alternate realities episode), and Lupine Urology (the Law & Order
parody). Season 5 was mostly a misfire but they still managed to produce
the animated episode that parodied G.I. Joe. These are characters I care
about, and if I stayed with them through what they themselves refer to as “the
gas leak season” (the Harmon-less season four), then I’ll stick with them even
though they are streaming rather than being broadcast.
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