First, let's cover a show that is sadly confined to 2013 - Enlightened.
Man, you guys, did I love this show. I hadn't watched it until I saw it popping up all over year-end lists, most notably topping The AV Club's (beating out Breaking Bad, which hardly anyone had an opinion about), and I'm incredibly glad I did, because I don't know of too many shows that spoke to my soul quite as closely as this one did. Something about this show is just so intensely relatable, even as I don't find myself sharing all that many characteristics with Amy Jellicoe (aside from being a general mess of a human being). I think it's because Mike White was able to really tap into human emotion with this show. Everyone in this show was just fleshed out in ways that felt so real and that had so much attention to detail that most shows miss. The way the show could take a character like Dougie, seemingly an unlikable douche, and turn him into a sympathic character who's tired of being a pog in the system, was remarkable. Just like the way the show could make you feel everything that Amy was going through, even if you would never put yourself into the situations you did - or the way the show could depict the complex relationships between Amy and her mother or her ex-husband in ways that allowed you to clearly see both sides of the spectrum. On top of that, Enlightened was also a poignant takedown of not just corporate America, but of...life, in general. It really made its viewers think about a lot of things we normally take for granted - from the companies we work for, to the power we truly have to make a difference, to just how we feel and how we interact with others on an everyday basis. Enlightened had its thumb on the human condition in such a beautiful way, and while I'm sad that we're not getting anymore of it, I'm incredibly happy that the show got to express that in a complete, ultra-satisfying way.
Next, a show that also begins with an E and ends with a D! Fox's new comedy, Enlisted.
Despite the fact that Ryan Shay is a national treasure, I was not really expecting to care all that much about Enlisted, which looked pretty funny but kind of inconsequential, and was also being thrown to the wolves on Friday nights. But I watched the first two episodes for a review on SitcomsOnline.com, and I was floored by how much I enjoyed it. This (along with Brooklyn Nine-Nine which I've talked about pretty extensively here) is one of the most fully-formed network sitcom in ages, with characters that I already care about and jokes that I'm already laughing at consistently. It's really hard to get a military comedy right, but this show has managed to do it - it has the perfect blend of goofiness and heart that neither becomes overwhelming, and the whole show is just brimming with a strong sense of purpose that gives it a momentum that most comedies simply don't have this early in their runs. It's a shame that Fox seems to have no faith in it, because it's an incredibly enjoyable show, and I hope it somehow makes the best of its comically awful timeslot.
But now we have to move on to Community. Oh boy, you guys. Community.
I love Community. It is a strong contender for "favorite show of all-time" title for me, and it speaks to me in a way very, very few shows do. I could write a horrifyingly long essay about why I love Community (and hopefully I will this semester in my TV Criticism class!). But Season 4 of Community was simply not good. I tried to like it. I tried to convince myself that it was mostly the same show as before, and that the show didn't even need Dan Harmon. I really did try. I even praised the first few episodes! A lot! But as the season went on, the truth became harder to deny. And then we got to Advanced Introduction to Finality, a horrific episode of television that still keeps me up at night sometimes, and I knew that Community would never be the show I loved again. I hoped it got a 5th season, just so that it didn't go out with one of the worst episodes of an otherwise good show I've ever seen, but I knew that the Community I had such a passion for was gone for good, living on only in DVD sets and syndicated re-runs.
Until it wasn't.
I don't need to go into the specifics of what happened. You all know. Dan Harmon was re-hired, Chris McKenna came back from The Mindy Project, blah blah blah. All I need to go into is that Season 5 of Community is an amazingly exciting rebound season, managing to rebuild the show from the ground up in ways that I didn't think were possible even with Harmon at the helm. Sure, the basics of the show are restored - it's funny again. It doesn't look dirt cheap anymore. The plots don't feel like bad fan fiction. The characters feel like themselves. But what I'm more interested in is how this season of Community has managed to feel completely fresh in a way a sitcom hardly ever does in its 5th season. It's not content to just coast along, even though it probably could with Harmon back at the reigns. No - Community has to keep pushing itself forward as it continues to tests its characters by dropping them to their all-time low points. Jeff Winger is now a teacher at Greendale! You know his life is in shamles if that's happened. And things aren't much better for everyone else - Annie's selling pills (and possibly using them again?), Shirley's split with Andre again (this time, she's the one at fault, although I really don't think investing too much money in a sandwich shop is nearly as incriminating as having sex with a stripper), Britta's a bartender, Abed's flat broke. Just as it did in its peak, Community is discovering its momentum in its shattered characters, and it's once again using their scars to come together and create something meaningful. And, of course, it's doing this whole continuing to experiment the hell out of its form and by delivering the beautifully off-beat humor it's always given us. In short, Community is Community again, and it's really, really wonderful.
I think that's all I've got for now! Next week, we have the premiere of Archer, which has undergone an even more intense relaunch after a fourth season that wasn't nearly as disappointing as Community's but felt a bit like a retread. I'm incredibly excited to see what that show is up to, and I will try to post my thought on it here. There's also the return of Parks and Rec (which is having a pretty good season while also providing an example of what happens when you don't change anything at all in your later seasons) and new episodes of Bob's Burgers (still the most consistently great comedy on TV), New Girl (which is having an up-and-down year, but with more ups than downs) and Brooklyn Nine-Nine (the best new sitcom on network TV in several years). I will try to share my thoughts on all of these with you. If not, well, sorry. I'M ONLY HUMAN.
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