Session #1 – Community
By
nature, TV 101 Articles will contain small spoilers about each episode, if you
wish to not be spoiled, only read episode names.
Meanwhile in the Nerd Cave….
Josh: I want to talk
about TV
Jeff: …
Josh: I think they’re a
ton of great shows on TV right now.
Jeff: …
Josh: You are right
Jeff; we are in a new golden age of television. If you discount reality TV, but
in reality there are so many really
good shows on TV and the production value is really high.
Jeff: It’s kind of
like…
Josh: They’re just
short really well made movies. Yes. You are right Jeff. How can I make this
into a new feature for the website?
Jeff: Well we could…
Josh: I remember when a
friend of mine showed me Buffy the
Vampire Slayer for the first time, he just showed a 5 episode highlight of
the first season and I was hooked. He showed me that the show was good, and
then when I went back to watch the entire first season I knew the good stuff
was still to come, and it hooked me into the show. It was a really great way to
introduce someone to a show, and it’s worked on several of my friends to get
them hooked on TV shows. 5 episodes, to like or dislike a show. A solid idea.
Jeff:…
Josh: Now how to frame
it? I got it! I’ll call it TV 101 and it’ll be like a class, and each episode
is a new lesson.
Jeff: I don’t know
Josh; it’s kind of weak…
Josh: I agree! Best
idea I’ve ever had. Good conversation, Jeff. I’m off!
*This may or may not have been a real conversation,
that Jeff Carpenter may or may not have been a part of. Just know that in my
head it was very real*
The
Guidelines: For this article I will
be looking at the top 5 episodes to show someone to get them addicted to the TV
show Community. Community is one of the best and most underrated shows on TV (my
personal favorite show on TV, that’s why I started with it) and is returning to
NBC this fall Friday’s at 8:30 (I’m plugging in hopes that it won’t get
canceled, as most shows I love do.) I enjoy watching TV shows in chronological
order, for this reason I will give you the season and episode number for
episode. Even though I am ranking them from 5 to 1, I would always highly
suggest that you watch each series chronologically (especially in the case of Community. Watch the show from front to back,
as the comedy really builds upon itself and the show is very self-referential).
***Small spoilers to follow.
Cast
Credits –
Joel McHale as Jeff
Winger, Gillian Jacobs as Britta Perry, Danny Pudi as Abed Nadir, Yvette Nicole
Brown as Shirley Bennett, Alison Brie as Annie Edison, Donald Glover as Troy
Barnes, Chevy Chase as Pierce Hawthorne, Ken Jeong as Ben Chang, Jim Rash as
Dean Pelton
Honorable
Mention –
Contemporary American Poultry – S1
Ep21 – A great episode to show
what Community does best, and a great
parody of mafia films but especially of Casino,
Goodfellas, and The Godfather.
Cooperative Calligraphy – S2 Ep8 – A new twist on a classic bottle episode, and a
great character study for our seven main characters
Abed’s Uncontrollable Christmas –
S2 & Ep8 AND Virtual Systems Analysis – S3 Ep16 – These two episodes delve deep in to the mind and
psyche of my absolute favorite character in TV history, Abed. They work
perfectly together to understand Abed.
The
List:
5.
Environmental Science – S1 Ep1
Season
1, and the series in general, kicks into high gear with this episode. This
episode has Chang at his craziest, The Dean’s shell starting to crack, and all
of our characters finally taking shape. Here is where we start to see the
characters that the show will become famous for. I’ve said that Community rolls into becoming great and
here is where the snowball picks up speed. The episode is about is framed
around The Study Group needing to get out of a 20 page Spanish paper assigned
by Chang; meanwhile Shirley and Pierce are working on a speech for their public
speaking class, Troy and Abed are training a mouse named Fievel (yes there are
plenty of An American Tail references
along the way) and The Dean tires to help Greendale “go green.”
What pushes this episode over the
top is the ending sequence that is funny, heartfelt, and clever blend of
storytelling that mixes all of the characters and stories together. The episode
also cements together the two things of the show that grounds it into reality.
In this episode we see Tory and Abed truly come together as friends and for the
first time Jeff shows that The Study Group can change him for the better. Community is nothing without its heart
and in this episode we start see where that heart comes from.
4.
Remedial Chaos Theory – S3 Ep3
Community hits
a new gear with this episode while trying to avoid the darkest timeline. The
simple plot of this episode is The Study Group is attending a house warming
party for Tory and Abed’s new apartment. REMEDIAL CHAOS THEORY all takes place
within the first 10 min of the party. How so? Because we see the same scene
played 7 different ways. When the pizza arrives for the party Jeff has the idea
to toss a dice, assigning each person a number and whichever side it lands on
is the person that has to get the pizza. In Abed’s mind this creates 6
alternate timelines. That’s the jumping off point for the number 4 episode of
the list.
I’m not going to go into too much detail here because the
great thing about his episode is not known how each timeline will work out. But
I’ll simply say that the episode works because it is silly, moving and
revelatory all at the same time. We really get to know our characters and what
makes them tick within this episode, as well as examining what their
relationship is to the other around them.
3.
Digital Estate Planning – S3 Ep20
One of the best things about Community is its ability to totally engulf you into a world.
DIGITAL ESTATE PLANNING is a tribute to all things 8-bit and a love story to
classic video games. 90% of this episode is animated in the style of a
traditional 2D scroller.
What Community does
well taking its characters to a brand new location, setting, or in this case
world and still making the show feel consistent with other episodes, it’s
characters feel natural in any setting, and it’s beyond clever at all times.
Not wanting to give too much away this episode speaks for itself, just sit back
and enjoy.
2.
Modern Warfare – S1 Ep23
The second best episode on my list is probably the most
well-known episode, here Community tackles
post-apocalyptic action films, with references to The Warriors, Mad Max¸ Die
Hard, 28 Days Later and many others all wrapped up in a paint-ball game
gone way to far; MODERN WARFARE is not just one of the best episodes of Community but of television history.
So many classic Community
lines, moments and events happen with in the episode that it would be far
too long (and too cruel) too spoil them here. The episode is very cleverly
written, and it uses it’s gimmick to move forward it’s characters. Instead of
stopping the story they are telling to do a themed episode they use the theme
to push everything forward, a feat that is very rare to television. However,
where it really shines is in its direction. Justin Lin, a veteran action
director, comes on the set and takes charge. Giving Community a whole new look and feel while driving the production
level to an extreme; MODERN WARFARE looks like movie. The cinematography, visual
design, and visual storytelling are so far above other TV shows it’s hard to
believe that Lin was not even nominated for an Emmy for this episode. I’ll stop
gushing about this episode, but needless to say I’ll continue gushing about the
next one cause as great as this is, there’s still one better.
1.
Advanced Dungeons and Dragons S2 Ep14
“Gather
close that you might harken the story of Fat Neil” These are the words that
being this episode of Community. Fat
Neil is a blink and you’ll miss him recurring character that takes focus for
this fantastic episode. ADVANCED DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS is a send up of The Lord of Rings based around Dungeons
and Dragons. If you are not familiar with the game don’t worry the episode will
tell you everything that you need to know.
This
episode does shows off everything Community
does right, using a theme to move the characters forward, emerging an audience
within a world, and showing the heart and soul of the series. Placing Pierce in
the roll of the villain the others must overcome all odds, and crazy D&D
stories, to “save” Fat Neil.
ADVANCED
DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS is 21 min long epic, which plays on many different levels.
A new fan to the show can enjoy on one level, a hardcore fan on another, and a
fan of D&D could enjoy it on a whole other level. But though all of that
what make this episode stand out is this simple fact. The episode is nothing
except people talking to each other; nothing explodes, no CGI, just 8 fully
formed characters talking to each other and moving the story forward. The
simple brilliance of Community is
that it’s characters are so strong, so well formed that the best and funniest
moments come from the simplest of conversations.
Well if these 5 episodes
can’t convince you to watch all of Commuinty
from front to back then I’m not sure what can. Hopefully you’ve enjoy the
article and soon enough you too will just another student of Greendale.
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