"Community Season 1" Shaping Up into Form

 

    Look, I know what they say about Community. Dan Harmon is an asshole and he's really weird. Ok, valid. Chevy Chase is a terrible person and he was a cancer on set. Ok, also true. Season 2 and 3 are their best seasons. Also true, but still, there's value to be had in this yet to be realized beautiful cocoon of TV show that is the first season of Community. In fact, I'd argue it has some of the best idea's of the show, and no I don't mean just in terms of it's most iconic episodes.

    What I mean is that, the issue that plague later seasons, which is weak character development in a lot of the characters doesn't exist yet. Take Pierce for example, while yes I know part of the reason he became the villain in later season was because of the way he treated everyone on set, but at the same time, he really was just better in the first one. I mean it's kind of fun when he's the villain, but eventually you do have to ask yourself "why do they keep letting him back in?". But enough about seasons that don't matter, this season has hands down the best Pierce. Yeah he's still heavily bigoted, but he manages to shine through with some self-awareness and nuggets of wisdom that prove important learning lessons, especially for characters like Jeff.

    In the same vein, I feel like this season is also the best Chang. Look, him being the villain is nice and all, but frankly after that he really didn't need to be at the school. Him still being there after everything was annoying, and it just felt like they were trying to keep as many characters as possible, especially since by the end of the show they were losing characters left and right. I mean he isn't nearly as weird in the first season, and it works. He's a funny, antagonistic teacher but he doesn't really interfere with them too much, and I like it like that.

    Of course, I can't talk about characters that were shafted and not talk about Britta, what did Harmon think he was going to do with her? She progressively just becomes dumber and dumber, because they don't know what else to do with a jaded character. This is definitely peak Britta, and by the end you just sometimes look at the screen and ask yourself what they're doing with her? I do think that ultimately they should have had her stay the love interest for Jeff, because while I enjoyed Jeff and Annie when I first watched the show, in retrospect it's a lot creepier than I remember.

    I mean that's not to say that all of the characters best showings are this season, I think Troy was definitely the weak spot, and while he's still a himbo in later seasons, his relationship with Pierce just doesn't quite land and it feels pretty forced most of the time. Same thing with Dean, I mean the whole subplot of him developing an animal fetish is kind of funny, but him and his weird costumes was funnier than him becoming a furry in my eyes.

    You'll notice I haven't spoken much about the plot of the episodes themselves, and the reason for that is I think it just ruins the hilarity if I speak about it. I mean Community is about people in a community college that just kind of fuck around, and eventually it just became a launching pad for some of the most ridiculous stuff you've ever seen. I mean it's fine the first couple episodes, it's still trying to find it's footing, but after the Halloween Episode, Modern American Poultry, and Modern Warfare, you start to get a taste of what really made the show tick for some people.

Final Score: 80/100

    I'd give it a higher score, but I feel like I sat through a lot of the first season because of how much I loved the show later on. Like this is very much my comfort show, I could watch this show over and over again. Like this is one of those shows where if you played the theme song for me I'd start smiling because I know what's about to come next. Also the soundtrack in this show is kind of fire, and it's kind of sad that they really didn't have the budget for anything better later on, but it's still fantastic.