Community i fell in love with the day it began, but the show i fell in love with, become something entirely different by the end of the season.....and in seasons after it took on a new life as the most absurd, meta, geek cool, and innovative sitcoms on television. We are introduced to a group of characters, the conniving lawyer Jeff, the cool chick Britta, the overachiever Annie, the jock Troy, the nerd(Abed), the Christian single mother Shirley, and the old entrepreneur Pierce. Supporting players included the odd dean, Dean Pelton(or just Dean), and the dickish spanish teacher Chang. It dealt with various college themes such as odd classes, life on campus and even 80's inspired tropes like jocks & bullies, however it was aware of it self....and the 80's inspired tropes became the shows bread & butter....well until they decided to make some episodes that paid tribute to Beastmaster & Goodfellas, they knew their audience and then they gave us it's great running gag....paintball.
This show has paid tribute to the Hunger Games, My Dinner With Andre, Aliens, zombie films, John Woo Films, Die Hard, Escape From NY, Pitch Black, The Human Centipede, The Shawshank Redemption, Apocalypse Now, stop motion animation, Predator, The Breakfast Club(many times), spaghetti westerns, Good Will Hunting, Pulp Ficton, Law & Order, The Warriors, The Karate Kid, Gi Joe, video games, among others
Paintball episodes featured many of these, paintball launched this show into a new realm, it was a high concept, it referenced cool flicks and the characters became a tad more rounded, the following year the show knew what it was, embraced it and made episodes focused on Dungeons & Dragons, when the time came to do the next paintball episode it felt like an event. The following season had episodes built as pbs documentaries, anthology horror episodes that put modern Treehouse of Horror to shame, an 8 bit episode, and an episode full of flashbacks.
The show had alot of heat between Dan Harmon(the creator) and Chevy Chase(Pierce) Harmon was even fired after season 3, many loathe the fourth season but it gave us some decent episodes taking place in haunted mansions, comic conventions, and featuring an episode of puppets. Luckily Harmon returned on the fifth season and it went bonkers, robots, Nicholas Cage, Lava Games, canisters of semen, old west vhs games with Vince Gilligan, a GI JOE cartoon, and a pretty decent finale had the show not been renewed. By time season six started some characters such as Troy & Shirley were gone, new characters such as Frankie a consultant and Elroy(an old and semi out of touch it guy) yet the show went for broke when it came to the episodes, giant virtual simulations, fake spin offs, possible season seven ideas, more paintball, incest, filmmaking, terrorist threats, gay issues, and moving on in life.
The show is absurd but it has heart, it knows when to be funny(95% of the time on the show) and when to be serious, it has legit emotion and you care about the characters, they don't exist on any form of reality but they are more realistic than characters found on the Big Bang Theory or Two & a Half Men. The characters evolved, Jeff became a super narcissist yet knew how to lead, Britta became the ultra liberal but fucked shit up, Annie became pushy, Troy & Abed In the Morning(best friendship on tv), Shirley became a relatable character for people with a religious yet caring mother, Pierce became a villain(as did Chang) and the Dean became the most over the top character one could find. Yet their flaws made them, Jeff realizes he loves the group, Britta hold her self back and mellows out, Annie becmae the beta but kept everyone together, Troy & Abed became geek gods, Shirley was love, Change was acceptance, Dean above all was possibly the shows heart. Heart was all over this show, and if you watched it you laughed, you cried, you gained memories, being a Community fan is a special handshake, the fans molded the show, the fans kept the show going, we revived the show a few times, we brought back the creator we helped streaming a cult show a possibility, this show loved the fans and the fans loved it. #sixseasonsandamovie and if i never get a movie, i am happy with six seasons, hell i was happy with five seasons, hell i was just happy with the show but if we ever get the movie, it will make me giddy and i will laugh & cry all over again. If you haven;t watched the show, do it, it might be my favorite sitcom ever(only behind Spaced). Thank you Dan Harmon, thanks to the cast & writers/directors, thanks to everyone involved. This show is my show and I will always love it!
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