Community Shows How Political Correctness And Diversity Can Be Turned Into Great TV

As a consequence of the Black Lives Matter protests, the discussion over representation and diversity in pop culture has become especially heated in recent months. Episodes of beloved television shows, sometimes shows in their entirety, are being removed from streaming platforms for perceived infractions of the current code of heightened racial sensitivity. Characters in cartoons are being recast because the skin colour of the voice actor does not match that of the person they were portraying.

The invasiveness of these actions has been criticised, even from some who align themselves with Black Lives Matter, as another example of politically correct overreach. The result of this has been a poisoning of the well for any productive discussion of the issues involved. Instead of arguing over whether political correctness is a good or bad thing, perhaps a better question is whether it has ever been achieved in art in a widely accepted way, embodying the positive intentions from which the concept sprung rather than the authoritarian culture with which it has become interlinked. To that end, I present a show which is a prime example of how to turn a political correct ethos into great TV, albeit one which has regrettably had one of its most celebrated episodes scrubbed: Community.

Television - Community 'Digital Estate Planning / The First Chang Dynasty / Introduction To Finality' season finale reviews

Despite Dan Harmon and his team expressing their confidence at Community being renewed for a fourth season following its return from hiatus, 'Introduction To Finality' ended in a manner more appropriate to a series, rather than season, finale. NBC burning off the last three episodes in one night didn't inspire much hope prior to last week's confirmation of the series getting an order for thirteen more episodes, and had that announcement been delayed a week, fans would surely have been up in arms at Introduction To Finality's conclusive montage to the Community theme song, 'At Least It Was Here', showing each of the characters preparing to take the next step in their lives.

The subject Jeff was revising for his biology finals was cellular mitosis, the process by which cells divide and allow organisms to grow. The final episodes of this season were all about that mitosis, separating from the group to grow as individuals: Pierce discovered he had a brother who could understand the years of suffering he endured at the hands of his deranged, ivory-wigged father, and became an equal partner in his business with Shirley. Britta finally found something she wasn't the worst at, in the process helping Abed  break out of the fantasy life he has used as a comfort blanket since arriving at Greendale. Troy separated from the Troy-Abed cell with a step towards a future making the most of his talent. It felt like a new beginning for the characters, and an end to the series.

 

Television - Community 'Curriculum Unavailable' review / Parks And Recreation 'Win, Lose Or Draw' review

COMMUNITY

If you've somehow missed the loud, mostly typed cheer that went up over the internet last night, Community has been renewed for a thirteen-episode fourth season, so the programme's many fans can put their fears to rest in time to enjoy the season finale next week, as part of of a three-episode burn-off that NBC has inexplicably lined up next Thursday. Over an hour of Community is no bad thing, but it's no surprise fans were concerned: such scheduling quirks usually occur only for programmes the network is preparing to axe, and given how jittery fans are about Greendale's survival in general, it seemed to be sending out all the wrong messages - although, given some of NBC's marketing decisions in the past few years, that can't have come as much of a surprise.

Although he's been fairly positive when questioned about the odds on Community's survival, episodes like 'Curriculum Unavailable' seem to have the show reflecting on fears over a falling axe. In episodes like Virtual Systems Analysis, the series has been deeply self-reflexive this year, concerning itself with the cost of artistic integrity against always living on the outside, or last week's disappointing outing, in which a death led to anarchy, and the entire study group being expelled.

  

Television - Community 'Course Listing Unavailable' review / Parks And Recreation 'Bus Tour' review

COMMUNITY

Community has been on a good run of form for the past two weeks, but 'Course Listing Unavailable' unfortunately proved the weakest episode of the season so far. There are still four episodes to go - with three of them weirdly airing on the same night, May 17th - and everything here seemed to be laying groundwork for the finale without having much substance to call its own. The subplot about Chang developing an army of children has been building for a while, but his move to take over the school felt like it came out of nowhere, a move to force through a plot development rather than an organic transition from one state of affairs to another.

The same is true of the riots which gave Chang his opportunity. Starburns' death in the previous episode turns out not to have been a throwaway joke as first assumed, and with Michael K. Williams' contract up, Professor Kane has resigned at the news of the student's death. Kane never really seemed the type to bail because of a tragedy - what happened to that code of honour he was talking about last week? - and little else in the plot succeeded in being any more plausible. Would a school really force students, who had just lost a 'friend', to complete their course over the summer because of a teacher's resignation? Would Jeff really turn against Greendale, the school he has been busy calling his home pretty much since arriving, because of a lost summer, with no attempt to rectify the situation with his usual lawyerly cool, or ability to manipulate Dean Pelton? This version of Greendale seemed even less real than the one dreamed up by Abed in Virtual Systems Analysis.

  

Television - Community 'Basic Lupine Urology' review / Parks And Recreation 'The Debate' review

COMMUNITY

I'm not particularly familiar with Law And Order, but 'Basic Lupine Urology' was by some distance the funniest episode since Community returned from hiatus, and possibly the season. Whilst it's likely that there were many jokes specifically related to the series that passed over my head, the formula and visual aesthetics are sufficiently well embedded into pop culture for it to be easy to catch onto what the episode was doing, and enjoy the comic gusto with which it went about it.

Like the best Community parodies, there wasn't really any need to know the exact details, any more than 'Contemporary American Poultry' required a previous viewing of Goodfellas. Scenes like Neill searching for the key logs in a chaotic office, piled high with files and bustling workers, is so recognisable as to possibly be a cliché, although the episode had already built up such strong goodwill through the ridiculously low stakes - Annie's need to get an 'A' rather than merely a passing 'C' - and completely straight-faced delivery of very silly material.

 

Television - Community 'Virtual Systems Analysis' review / Parks And Recreation 'Live Ammo' review

COMMUNITY

It's difficult to know whether to commend or condemn Community for sometimes putting comedy to one side and focusing almost entirely on drama and character. 'Virtual Systems Analysis' in that respect had a great deal in common with last season's 'Critical Film Studies', with both episodes unsurprisingly centred around Abed. The character has always been the programme's presence within itself, in how he's the one capable of seeing this deranged world for what it is and unpicking and commenting on it.

Despite what Shirley might say, he's the closest thing the Greendale has to God, able to create and see things others cannot, to view the world from afar whilst at the centre of everything going on inside it. Other characters are acting out roles within a television programme: Abed is too, but also the only one aware of it. Where 'Critical Film Studies' examined the difficulties of Abed's life as a man, 'Virtual Systems Analysis' looked at Abed's challenges as representative of Community as a whole.

 

Television - Community 'Origins Of Vampire Mythology' review

In the Community-verse, Britta Perry may be the worst, but as a television viewer, everything she touches turns to greatness. Though they haven't been particularly consistent, the episodes since Community's hiatus have been especially Britta-licious, Brittastic, Brittacular, and many other portmanteaus I could devise as an excuse for using the word 'portmanteau'. Whatever those episodes' other shortcomings, Gillian Jacobs has delivered greatness time and time again.

'Origins Of Vampire Mythology' was another memorable showcase for Britta. It's the second time in three episodes the character has been thrown into an unwanted romantic entanglement, with her anti-establishment credentials previously conflicted over a blossoming love for the human embodiment of the Subway corporation, and it's to Jacobs' credit that her turmoil this week felt as fresh as it was funny. The other plots didn't hit the same standards, but it's difficult to moan when comedy's best character is at the top of her game.

 

Television - Community 'Pillows And Blankets' review

At this year's highly entertaining Community PaleyFest panel, Dan Harmon briefly touched on the challenge of creating episodes in the hiatus vacuum, with no fan feedback to inform where they were going right or wrong. What was widely taken as a throwaway remark now seems uncomfortably conscious of the difficulty these early episodes have had in re-establishing the show's natural flow since its return last month. It's still Community and still funny, but the balance seems ever so slightly thrown. This manifested itself a few episodes back in the shape of CG thought bubbles and apples, visual flourishes ill-fitting for the show's essentially reality-based absurdism.

Those gimmicks seem to have been exorcised, let's hope forever, but 'Pillows And Blankets' (a weirdly blunt title) took the problem to the opposite extreme. Instead of introducing something new which didn't work, this episode fell back hard on some of the programme's most overused storytelling beats, prefigured in 'Digital Exploration Of Interior Design' last week. It wasn't a bad episode overall, but one which shows the series struggling to find the right line between pushing its own boundaries and over-reliance on past successes.

 

Television - Community 'Digital Exploration Of Interior Design' review

'Digital Exploration Of Interior Design' mercifully abandons the thought bubbles and CGI apples which blighted last week's 'Contemporary Impressionists', instead focusing on the strongest part of that episode: the heightening tension between Troy and Abed. It was a story I was expecting to arc across the entire season, but now looks like it will come to a head next week, in the conclusion of what could loosely be termed a two-parter.

Even though it had surprisingly few jokes, beyond the always-welcome reappearance of John Goodman's Vice-Dean Laybourne as a conniving mastermind 'going through some stuff', the plot worked because Troy and Abed are at this point virtually the only pairing in the group who have not only avoided any kind of conflict, having shared an almost telepathically tight friendship. Abed, previously fêted as the wisest, most generous member of the group, is revealing the dark side to his obsessive behaviour. Does it fit flawless with how he's previously been portrayed? Not quite, but the drama is effective enough for it not to matter.

 

Television - Archer 'Space Race Part II' review / Community 'Contemporary Impressionists' review

ARCHER

'Space Race Part II' ends Archer's strongest season to date with one of its weaker episodes, twice as big a shame since 'Part I' was so much fun. There was plenty to appreciate, but the episode's attempt to draw laughs from a succession of anti-climaxes, building towards an epic (using Archer's word) final battle before backing down in the face of something approaching realist logic, was more subversive than effective. This is a series whose best episodes often operate around the principle of orchestrating single comedic notes into grand crescendos of weirdness and perversity. Though the build-up was in place, the pay-offs shied away from every opportunity. Interesting idea, disappointing in practice.

The plot was a good example. Archer narratives usually only serve as an excuse to put the characters in situations where they can rub each other up the wrong way in different locations, without going deeper than the basic outline of a story. It's a great fit for a programme with such well-defined characters, whose interaction is always going to be what viewers come back for. Unfortunately 'Space Race Part II' didn't have much of a plot at all, meandering through several different scenarios without making much effort to paste them together, apart from them all taking place on a space station heading for Mars.

 

Television - Archer 'Space Race Part I' review / Community 'Urban Matrimony And The Sandwich Arts' review

ARCHER

Archer's third season has overall proved more consistent and more confident than its second, with few episodes more representative of that than 'Space Race Part I'. Season Two was about consolidating the best recurring gags, perfecting the funniest personality traits for each character and getting the rhythms right between the already outstanding cast members. The second half of that season brought many of the best episodes the series has ever done, including my personal favourite, 'El Secuestro' (although Movie Star is a gem too, although now is not the best time to try and formulate a list).

Despite a few early blips, the third season has raised the level of ambition whilst consistently delivering excellent episodes. In fact, if I have any criticism, it's that some of the in-jokes were fallen back on a little too heavily at first, with fresh material harder to come by than it needed to be. Nevertheless, even for a series that has been brilliant since its pilot, the first of this two-part season finale shows how far Archer has come in every aspect of its production.

 

Television - Community 'Regional Holiday Music' review / Parks & Recreation 'Citizen Knope' review

COMMUNITY

Now that we're entering the Dark Timeline, when Community goes off-air for an unspecified amount of time, it's a relief that the series managed to go out living up to high expectations that its previous Christmas episodes have set. 'Regional Holiday Music', a Glee-savaging musical, might even have won the series a few more fans for one of its more accessible, but no less incisive, parodies of recent weeks.

Last week's episode stuck fairly closely to sitcom convention, earning a huge number of laughs along the way but sacrificing some of the unpredictability that makes Community at once so much fun but also so alienating to the masses. This episode found a solid middle ground between the two, softening its more subversive traits by picking on a target that most audiences will be familiar with and probably enjoy seeing skewered.

 

Television - Community 'Foosball And Nocturnal Vigilantism' review / Parks & Recreation 'The Trial Of Leslie Knope' review

COMMUNITY

One of Community's biggest strengths is its ability to utilise sitcom conventions against the audience, setting something up one way and then pulling out the rug by going in another direction entirely. That subversiveness is a vital part of the programme's appeal, yet also something which has led to its fanbase being more limited than the likes of The Big Bang Theory or 2 Broke Girls, which offer the comforts of predictability that Community actively tries to avoid.

'Foosball And Nocturnal Vigilantism' was a rare occasion of Community playing a sitcom trope fairly straight - even if it was commented upon - and while many fans will have been disappointed by that, maybe it is what the programme needs right now, at a time when widening its audience is more important than ever. The episode was still a fantastic introduction to the Community combination of a geekily absurdist sense of humour with elegant character writing (plus a sumptuously full serving of Alison Brie, even if Gillian Jacobs was kept on the side this time around), even if the anarchic spirit was more subdued than usual.

 

Television - Community 'Documentary Filmmaking: Redux' review / Parks & Recreation 'Smallest Park' review

COMMUNITY

Anyone hoping to convince new viewers to stick around for the remaining few episodes of Community before it goes on its enforced hiatus will not have been happy at 'Documentary Filmmaking: Redux' making their case for this cult delight even more difficult than usual. For longtime viewers, the episode was a delight, packed from start to finish with wonderful character work and nods to the past, emphasizing everything that makes the programme so special. For newcomers, unaware of who these people are, a more likely feeling is complete bafflement.

A sequel of sorts to last season's 'Intermediate Documentary Filmmaking', with Abed returning behind the camera to film a character's descent into madness - last year it was Pierce trying to get revenge on the group for sidelining him; this time it was the Dean, never the most stable of people, trying to direct an advert for the college - the pseudo-documentary format was used to brilliantly subversive effect, making for a hugely fulfilling thirty minutes, even if it almost certainly was the wrong episode to have on air at this precarious point in the programme's lifespan.

 

Television - Community 'Studies In Modern Movement' review / Parks & Recreation 'The Treaty' review

COMMUNITY

Like Wednesday's South Park, last night's Community didn't have a great deal going on beneath the surface, but was so uproariously funny that it didn't matter one iota. There were some things I could criticise, such as at least two of the storylines not reaching any real conclusion, but they were only noticeable in retrospect. At the time, the onslaught of brilliant physical comedy, plots deepening in ridiculousness with every fresh turn, plus a whole lot of Alison Brie at her most snugglably adorable, had laughs coming too quickly for any minor quibbles to matter. And yes, snugglably is a word. If I had time to do Word Of The Week this week, that would be it. Snugglably, see: Alison Brie.

Given the ensemble nature of the cast, most episodes tend to centre around three or four characters while leaving the others to pipe in occasionally with a quick gag before ducking back into the background. 'Studies In Modern Movement' gave everyone something to do and played to each of their strengths. No-one will come away from the episode feeling like they know anything new about any of them, but will have been reminded of why they like them so much. Community is at its best when deriving its comedy from the quirks of its cast and this was the best episode of the season so far for my money, and possibly one of my favourites of the series.

 

Television - Community 'Advanced Gay' review / Parks & Recreation 'End Of The World' review

COMMUNITY

After two experimental episodes, Community returned to campus for a more traditional outing that favoured character over concept. It was delightful to see the gang bouncing off each other in the cold open, throwing around some obvious but very funny jokes at Pierce's expense and featuring an inspired music video that was making Hawthorne Wipes a gay sensation.

There's something especially wonderful about the moments when the programme sits its lead characters around a small table and watches them let rip, teasing each other in the way that close friends do. It is these moments which affirm how close they are to each other far more than any number of Jeff Winger wrap-up speeches, even though 'Advanced Gay' - what a title - ended with a particularly moving example of those, too.

 

Television - Community 'Horror Fiction In Seven Spooky Steps' review / Parks & Recreation 'Meet 'N' Greet' review

COMMUNITY

'Horror Fiction In Seven Spooky Steps' was by and large a Halloween-themed rewrite of Remedial Chaos Theory from two weeks ago, playing many of the same riffs - the same story told by each of the main cast members, all bringing their own personalities to how it unfolded - and consequently suffering by comparison. It was a poor decision to schedule two episodes so similar in content and theme to air in succession, albeit with two weeks' interval in between rather than one, because 'Horror Fiction' on its own terms had a lot of great ideas and jokes, but constantly strained to not feel repetitive.

The big difference, I suppose, is that every story in 'Chaos Theory' looked at how the group dynamics changed when one member was extracted, whereas 'Horror Fiction' focused on what happens when one member of the group defines the narrative. There were as many fun touches as ever, such as how Shirley now sees Britta as a weed fiend after catching her smoking pot last week, or Annie portrays Britta as being 'totally fine' as vampire Jeff's personal blood bank. (And we all know what a vampire bite stands in for). Alison Brie was also firing on all her sexy/adorable cylinders, which makes me inclined to give 'Horror Fiction' a free pass immediately, but it never felt as clever or insightful as the episode which preceded it.

 

Whole New Level Of Nerd: Community, Parks & Recreation reviews

TELEVISION REVIEWS

COMMUNITY: 'Remedial Chaos Theory'

By their nature, a lot of sitcoms concern themselves with group dynamics. When you put a set of characters together on a regular basis, it is only a matter of time before questions start coming up about what happens if this character disappears, or what effect two others getting together will have on the ensemble as a whole. The difference with Community is that its characters have always had a certain level of awareness of the nature of their group, in no small part thanks to Abed's meta-commentary on how they constantly find themselves in strangely sit-commy situations.

Last night's episode was a terrific example of how Community sees its characters first and foremost as a group made up of individuals, rather than the usual viewpoint of individuals making up a group. Apologies if that reads as pretentiously as it writes, but I couldn't come up with any better way of expressing it in short form. It's not so much the personalities and traits of each individual that are of primary importance, but what role they play in making the group what it is. 'Remedial Chaos Theory' played out seven scenarios (in twenty-one minutes!) looking at the effects of removing one piece each time from the group dynamic.

 

Weird Sexual Tension: Community, Parks & Recreation, Archer reviews

COMMUNITY: 'Geography Of Global Conflict'

Last night's episode of Community seems to be drawing some fire for not being as ambitious in plot or structure as many of the second season episodes, like 'A Fistful Of Paintballs' or 'Critical Film Studies', which pushed the limit of what the programme could do with its twenty minutes. Personally, that's an argument which doesn't sit all that comfortably, not only because I was laughing very hard all the way through 'Geography Of Global Conflict', but because it's nice to know that Community can do the simple, grounded episodes as well as it can do ones where the ensemble get stuck inside a space shuttle or zombie attack.

One of the reasons South Park went downhill for a while for me was because it stopped doing the small episodes based around the dynamics of the school, thus breaking the characters' (admittedly tenuous) link to an identifiable reality. If Community did so-called 'high concept' episodes every week, Greendale would cease to become the living, breathing campus which makes it so much fun when playing host to the more outlandish events, and instead become an empty stage to fill each week, with characters playing different roles rather than themselves. Also, did I mention that 'Geography of Global Conflict' was, by any measure, very funny indeed?

 

The Table Is Magic: Community, Parks & Recreation, Archer reviews

TELEVISION REVIEWS

Having three programmes to review in one day isn't ideal, no matter how much I love all of them, so rather than doing a full article for each (which, given how slowly I usually write, could end up taking four hours or more), they will all be put under a single banner for the time being, at least until a better solution can be worked out. Archer's three-episode mini-series ends next week, which will be sad but helpful.

As a viewer, these two Thursday nights are something akin to comedy nirvana: not only has television rarely seen three better examples of the genre (in very different forms) than Community, Parks & Recreation and Archer, but all on the same night? That's just madness. I'm becoming increasingly convinced that, assuming all three series maintain their ridiculously high standards, these are the most 'golden' creative years the television format has ever seen. I'm certainly considering writing something up about that theory in the near future. For now, read on for reviews of three of the programmes making these years so amazing.