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| This is the Community study group - Abed, Britta, Jeff, Shirley, Annie, Troy, Pierce (and senor Chang) |
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| They sometimes study and often get into weird/awkward situations together |
In order to tackle this problem I always try to find somebody to do a rewatch with whilst simultaneously also starting a new show - you get the best of both worlds! (Montana, H., 2006-2011).
For those of you out there trying to find a new show to watch I want to propose Community as your next Netflix binge with a list of the leading 6 reasons to justify this choice. Firstly let me clarify a few points before I begin my list.
- Community is a sitcom and so if you absolutely hate sitcoms then maybe you should skip this post.
- This show is great for both getting super invested in but also for being an easy watch and so regardless of if you want to pay a lot of attention or not its a fun watch.
- It's available to watch seasons 1-5 on Netflix UK and season 6 on Yahoo.
- If I go into any more detail about the show then I would be just as well to start my top 6 list
- and so without any further ado
- here we go
- Mario
1. (As stated above) Community Is An Extremely Watchable
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| Troy and Abed in the morning. Troy and Abed are in mourning, Troy and Abed in the morning, nights. |
Community started off just okay for me, my sister was on board from the get go and knew she was going to love it but it took me some time to realise that I actually really loved this show. As with every TV show I watch there comes a moment when I realise I'm no longer just watching the show because it's easy to watch but rather something has happened and I am suddenly invested and my interest is gained. In Gossip Girl it was the episode where Chuck and Blair first hook up; How I Met Your Mother kind of had me from the get go tbh because I just loved Ted and Robin (a sin in the eyes of most apparently); Grey's Anatomy was probably when Mer and Der started seeing eachother... there is a bit of a theme going on here apparently. Well I'm a creature of habit and I would say I found myself rewinding Community in order to actually pay proper attention to what was happening during episode 9 of Season 1, this is an episode I have enjoyed watching back after finishing the show. The show fluctuated from very watchable to contender for my fave throughout season 1. Basically even before I found myself getting invested I still found it an enjoyable watch and so it really doesn't matter to what level you want to become invested in your next TV binge, you can love this show regardless.
2. The Characters
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| When Abed imagined himself and his friends in a TV show. |
The characters in Community are so interesting because they are all so different, the youngest member of the study group being 18 years old and fresh from high school to the oldest member being in his 70s and coming from a fairly well off and judgmental background. Each character is dealing with different issues and has ended up at community college for a different reason. They all have different beliefs and ideals which allows the sitcom to address some pretty complex issues, such as religion and feminism, but in a fun way.
There are 7 members of the 'study group' and then as the show progresses the college dean also becomes a main character. Generally Troy, Abed and Annie (the youngest members of the study group are considered the firm faves of the show, if tumblr and buzzfeed are anything to go by) Personally I'd have to agree with Tumblr and I'd rate the characters in order of my favourite to least favourite as:
- Annie
- Troy, Abed and (sheerly for comedic purposes) Dean Pelton
- Jeff
- Britta
- Pierce
- Shirley
As the show develops they all become a family of sorts, some characters being noticeably closer to one another than others (Troy and Abed and Jeff and Annie probably spend the most scenes together #BFFGOALS #MILADYMILORD).
Shout out to Garrett, one of the supporting characters, for giving us classic moments to quote back such as "Crisis alert!" and "It's a bear dance!". And shout out to Leonard for giving us his food review youtube videos and for being a badass OAP.
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| Our Annie vs other Annie at the model UN. Garrett stole the show, |
3. Shaking It Up (Non-Live Action Episodes and Innovative Episodes)
Okay so this is where, for me, Community gets interesting and is probably one of the reasons I love it so much! Community is the only live action sitcom I know to feature non-live action episodes and whole episodes which completely change the usual dynamics of the show
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| Ballerannie. Christmas wizard. Baby doll Shirley. Brittabot. Troy Soldier. Jeff in the box. Teddy Pierce and Abed |
The Animation
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| The Community cast with their puppets. Yes, now that's an adventure. |
Season 2's Christmas episode was done entirely in claymation which allowed it to be really original and have a super classic Christmassy feel to it. Season 3 featured an episode where the characters play a video game and part of the episode features the characters avatars as they make their way through the game. Season 4 featured an episode done with puppets and Season 5 featured an animated 'G.I Jeff' episode. I found the show's creativity so impressive and this helped set it apart from other sitcoms I have watched.
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| Video game study group. Fucking shit up in the virtual world. |
For instance there were several documentary style episodes changing from the usual camera layout to more of a 'The Office' feel (or you know just an actual documentary feel). There are many episodes which focus specific events happening at the school but addressing them in a different way, less gripped to reality with more of an exaggerated way of telling the story for instance:
- 'The Floor Is Lava' episode
- MeowMeowBeenz episode where a new app takes over the school.
- Dungeons and Dragons episode
- Musical Episode
- An episode which takes part within the imaginations of Annie and Abed
- 'Classic Sitcom' style episode with a laugh track.
- Musical Epiosde
Another pivotal and unique episode of Community are the paintball episodes which are discussed below.
4. Paintball Episodes
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| One of many times the school became a warzone. |
Arguably the most famous Community episodes. Throughout the show there are a few paintball episodes and they are so original and amazing and just really good fun tbh. In season 1 Modern Warfare the dean announces that there will be a campus wide paintball game and the winner gets an amazing prize. This leads to total carnage and a full on paintball war breaks out on campus. This episode does something that most episodes of Community does as it pays homage to many famous films, however this episode does so on a much larger scale than some of the more normal or tame episodes. This episode also birthed 3 sequel episodes, the season 2 two parter was, in my humble opinion the best one! These
episodes definitely feature Community at its best.
episodes definitely feature Community at its best.
5. The Homage Factor/Meta Humour/Genre Spoofs
So Community has a tendency, often through Abed, to make reference to other films and TV shows. Sometimes full episodes are homage episodes such as
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| That time they were in an asylum. |
- The Law and Order episodes
- The gangster film themed chicken wing fiasco episode in season 1
- The previously mentioned glee Christmas episode
- Season 2 paintball part 1 being a spaghetti western and part 2 being Star Wars.
- Pulp Fiction episode
- Die Hard episode
Then there were the genre spoofs such as:
- (Again) the glee Christmas episode making fun of the musical genre
- Season 2 Halloween taking on the zombie apocalypse genre
- The multiple documentary themed episodes
- The action film genre was taken on during Modern Warfare;
- The classic romance scene of leading guy running through the rain to get the girl starred in a season 2 episode...
- there were so many more
- I love lists btw, in case you couldn't tell yet
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| Annie being Abed before actually being Abed that time they spent an episode being everyone in their imaginations... |
Then there were the times the show was so aware that it was a show. There were countless times when Abed would point out how much their lives were like a sitcom. In season 2 and entire episode takes place in the study room and Abed states there are doing a 'bottle episode'. In the shows finale Abed suggests that the study group come up with potential pitches for their ideal season 7. Season 2 also features a clip episode and throughout the show there is a lot of breaking the fourth wall basically.
6. Just So You Know, Jeff, You Are Now Creating 6 Different Timelines
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| One of the most famous gif in the history of time. |
Ahhh Remedial Chaos Theory. An episode from season 3 which produced one of the best GIFs of all time... you know the one, Troy walking into a room to find total and utter havoc. Fire. Blood. Chaos. Confusion. Magic. Madness. Heaven. Sin.
Basically this is such a great episode I wanted to give it its on section. Also it kind of creates this alternative timeline which pops up every now and then. Basically while playing a game of Yahtzee Jeff decides to role a dice to determine who is going downstairs to get the pizza from the delivery man but Abed warns him that by letting a dice decide their fate he is unintentionally creating 6 different possible timelines. The episode focuses on each timeline showing what happens depending on who leaves to get the pizza. The episode features guns, weed, kissing, fire, injury, hurt feelings, death, institutionalization and the evil study group from the darkest timeline (who do turn up once or twice later on in the show).
The Summary
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| The Evil study group. Minus Evil Pierce and Evil Abed. |
Okay so Community is a very bizarre TV show which I have discovered to be very hard to separate into 10 specific categories. I also feel like this may not sell the show as well as I had hoped because honestly I have come to the conclusion writing this that it's really just a show you have to watch to get.
The key message
- You have to binge it because the show is so out there and tries so many crazy things that not everything is going to please everyone. The majority of the show I found to be a hit but there were the occasional episodes I felt were a bit of a miss, just for me.
- By binging the show you can get past the episode that might not work for you, or even the story lines which sometimes do take things a little too far. In these moments the show always bounces back stronger than ever.
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| An episode I wish they would have shown in full. What happened to you guys |
By the time I finished Community I was very sad that it was all over, the show had a strong final season and the finale was perfect, however it left me wanting more. The show's tag line has been #SixSeasonsAndAMovie since season 2 and the show's creator has clarified that after the cast have had some time to do other things and when they are all free he still intends to make the movie. I know what I want the movie to focus on... #USTbetweenacertain2characters
I'm almost done with my rewatch with my sister: her thoughts are that the show is amazing, Abed is the best, she fell out of love with it briefly during a few episodes in the middle of season 5 but thinks that it got back on track and loves it again now. I'm also at the start of a rewatch with my friend Beth now too.
So go fourth and view away fellow bloggers.
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| We've had six season... now we wait. |
xoxo
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