On the Return of Dan Harmon and the Greendale Six: Necessarily Morose Exposition
The return of Dan Harmon to the helm of Community has been hyped by TV critics from the AV Club to Complex as something akin to the return of the prodigal son. Exiled for bad behavior, Harmon returns to his eccentric brainchild after a lackluster fourth season that was shunned by fans and critics alike. Community’s numbers were never strong, but as of the season four finale Community was no longer a low-rated, critically-acclaimed comedy with a devoted fan base—it was a low-rated comedy that was taking critical punches and alienating its small audience.
Still, Community was renewed for a fifth season. Arguably with the end of 30 Rock and the failure of most of NBC’s new comedies in the 2012-2013 lineup, the network had little choice but to concede another inch to the much lauded “six seasons and a movie”. Like the renewal itself, the move to bring Dan Harmon back on board was surprisingly at the time, but makes sense given the situation NBC found itself in last May.
So, how did the first two episodes of season five’s thirteen episode run measure up? Well, it’s complicated.
The cold open to “Repiloting” gave me Saul Goodman flashbacks (probably less because of direct parallels and more because I caught the recent AMC marathon and was already anticipating Jonathan Banks’s guest appearance) and found a disgraced Jeff Winger practicing law and struggling to be a good man with a legacy for being bad working in a morally grey field. Somehow, Dan Harmon and company had to do the improbable, they had to get Jeff to return to Greendale.
The episode’s plot line involves the collapse of a bridge engineered by a Greendale grad who threatens to sue the school for giving him a degree that he was clearly unqualified for, which gives Jeff and subsequently the remaining members of the Greendale 7 an idea. The group oscillates between fond nostalgia for Greendale and anguish for their current circumstances. They’re each struggling with more or less the same issues they came into the original pilot with, even if their presentation has changed. Shirley’s husband has left her again after her career ambitions took precedence over her family life, Britta is a bartender, Annie sells pharmaceutical promotional products, and Troy and Abed are both respectively unemployed. The message is clear: they’ve gone through a lot over the past five years, but they’re still struggling with the same fundamental demons. This is not just Harmon’s way of reassuring his audience about these characters, or even a commentary on the static nature of television, but maybe a little hint of the sort of human truisms that drew us into Community in the first place.
Still, the aforementioned differences in presentation are addressed, if in classic Winger style: “Britta, when we met you were an eclectic anarchist, how did you become the group’s airhead? Shirley, you’ve gone from an independent divorcee striking out on her own to a bankrupt fry cook hoping for a call from her husband. Troy, your entire identity has been consumed by your relationship with another man. And what happened to Annie, the unstoppable go-getter? We went in one end as real people and out the other end as mixed up cartoons.”
This is an astute observation about what is perhaps one of the most alienating aspects of Community, which was once described to me as “undeveloping” its characters. Every sitcom hurtles towards caricatures, if at different speeds, because ultimately that’s where the easiest laughs (and perhaps the most complicit audiences) can be found. Of course, Community can and has done caricature well, as long as there is an underlying shred of humanity. But there was no truth to Britta’s overblown airheadedness or Annie’s boy craze, just easy overplayed stereotypes. (The true tragedy of Shirley is that perhaps because she’s never been positioned as a love interest to Jeff she hasn’t been given as many story lines or opportunities for character development as either Britta or Annie.) It’s important to note that Jeff urges both his audience and “the” audience not to “blame it all on a gas leak year”, which sounds like an admission from Harmon that he had a hand in creating some of these caricatures. (Thankfully, if Harmon’s EW interview is to be believed, we’ll be seeing less caricature in season five.)
Community’s meta commentary and intertextual references are as sharp as ever (callbacks “I see your value now” and the beloved “Intro to Calligraphy”, Abed’s mention of the ninth season of Scrubs and the departure of Zach Braff hints at Donald Glover’s upcoming exit) and “Repiloting” neatly shoves season four under the rug by dubbing it “the gas leak year” (thankfully, they also dropped Changnesia, designating it as Chang’s own invention). As for Pierce? There’s at least one good crack at his absence (“Do you guys feel weird doing this without Magnitude?”), and another surprise I won’t spoil for you. The jokes are there if you’re looking for them, but I would by no means describe them as “punchy” (that’s a word used to describe jokes, right?). “Repiloting” is necessarily morose; it has work to do and ground to cover.
“Repiloting” gets the gang back at Greendale not through a nutty credits mix up (perhaps the predictable “zany” sitcom route) or the pursuit of advanced degrees (you know, what normal people might do), but through the acknowledgement that each of them needs to work on themselves, and Greendale is a place that they can do that. Jeff Winger steps up to save Greendale, and Dean Pelton (who is perhaps the shining beacon of comedic consistency in “Repiloting”) offers him a teaching position because “there’s nothing in the budget for school saver”. Fair enough, I’ll take it if it means I have my show back. (Additionally, for the first time in a long time Ben Chang doesn’t feel like an out of place visitor from a CBS comedy! Let’s hope this sticks.)
“Introduction to Teaching” is where Harmon and company begin to flex some muscle, including the first in their impressive lineup of guest stars. The incomparable Jonathan Banks is a criminology professor who will share an office with Jeff. Banks as Buzz Hickey guides Jeff and the audience into the realm of teaching, which is an arbitrary, laissez-faire world with a teacher’s lounge that clearly emulates the atmosphere of Mad Men. Most importantly, Hickey reveals that Greendale’s teaching staff is a dark mirror to its student body. They share much in common with the students (as Jeff says, they all suck), but there is no graduation light at the end of the tunnel for the Greendale faculty. This might be a commentary on the Greendale 6 themselves, who the audience knows (or thinks they know) will be involved with Greendale for as long as their stories continue, despite whatever plans they may make.
At the ending of “Introduction to Teaching” we see Hickey assume Pierce’s former place at the study table, which is now the meeting place of the Save Greendale Committee. It’s clear that his role in the group will mirror Pierce’s in many ways, and Harmon’s take on the parallels between the two characters are enticing. (Additionally, Banks effortlessly provides glimpses of beloved Mike Ehrmantraut in each embedded reference to his Breaking Bad character, much like Michael K. Williams in season three.)
Harmon really shows his cards where Annie Edison is concerned. Annie signs up for Jeff’s “Fundamentals of Law” not to flirt, but to challenge his apathetic teaching methods. She’s determined, not only to be the best, but to demand the best from other people. This is the Annie Edison who was driven not just to earn an A but to get to the bottom of the mystery in “Basic Lupine Urology”, who set in motion the events of “Intro to Calligraphy”. Though some of Community’s most revealing episodes have taken place off-campus (“Mixology Certification” and “Remedial Chaos Theory” come to mind), Harmon’s return to the basics allows us to rediscover the Greendale student body as individuals rather than representations of people or types of people.
Abed was notably absent from Repiloting’s mid-episode Winger monologue, perhaps because Abed is the most static character of the group. But, he has a hefty b-plot in "Introduction to Teaching" that may foreshadow change to come. Previously, Abed was able to provide a definite answer to “Who’s the Boss?”, but the relative quality of Nicholas Cage eludes him, resulting in Cage style meltdown in front of his entire class (it truly disappoints me that Danny Pudi has not gotten more accolades for this role).
Post-meltdown, Abed even begins to throw away his movie collection, commenting that he thought he “could find the meaning of people in them” but Cage proved that “people are random and pointless”. With Shirley’s help, however, Abed is able to find peace with Nicholas Cage. His conclusion is not the acknowledgement of shades of grey between black and white, but the acceptance of things that are strange and undefinable, unique and intrinsically human. “Introduction to Teaching” juxtaposes this with Jeff’s ongoing struggles with his own moral compass and the relative value of Greendale, perhaps a subtle indication that no one or place can be defined as “good” or “bad”, but can be contradictory in nature. (Would it be too much to say that this could also be a comment on Dan Harmon, who though notorious for his insensitive speech and difficulty to work with continues to produce a sitcom with a strong moral compass?)
Looming over Abed’s storyline this season is the departure of Troy. Their friendship is a fan favorite that has fueled much of the humor, and some of the most heart wrenching conflict, of Community. Thus far, Troy has been an underutilized resource. His quips have been clever, and we’ve already seen him in tears, but we have yet to access Troy beyond the surface level. With three episodes left before Troy leaves us, I will say I’m a little nervous for what’s to come.
Overall, neither “Repiloting” or “Introduction to Teaching” shine. But, exposition isn’t necessarily shiny. For now, let’s just celebrate the return of Dan Harmon, the return of our favorite characters, and the return of substance to Community.
