I HAVEN'T POSTED IN MONTHS

I haven't posted in a months so why not start with this long rambling post about Community?!

I started a Community rewatch today, for the first time in a while. Some things I've noticed!

1) The version of Social Psychology on Hulu is slightly different than the version on the S1 DVD (which was the first time I watched it.) What the hell! The DVD has some cut scenes (like the Chang scene in the cold open). Is the Hulu version the producers' cut or something?

2) I don't think this show gets enough credit for how diverse its characters are, not just in ethnicity but even in just their backgrounds and personalities. Like, it's interesting to see a show where people like Britta and Shirley or Troy and Pierce can talk and generally get along despite being polar opposites. A lot of shows, comedies in particular, focus on a particular subset of people that are all pretty similar in class/age/race/ect, usually the subset that the creator or audience is in....especially in this new niche programming world we're living in. I love a lot of those shows so I'm not knocking it or anything, but I had forgotten how rare Community is in that regard.

3) Speaking of which, these early episodes got me thinking about where S1 of Community would fit in today's TV landscape. I was thinking it would probably end up on cable or streaming, but honestly, I think it would just be a flat out different show. Ambitious shows masquerading as mainstream fare don't really exist anymore, because cable and streaming allows those kinds of shows to be profitable on their own.Community kind of came at a perfect time, then, didn't it?

4) "Introduction to Film" is always a lot more emotional than I remember it being. And it fucks me up every time!

5) It's weird to see Gillian playing the straight woman in the episodes. I keep expecting Britta lines to end with a joke, and then they just...don't.

6) Community S1 also feels like a show people would be writing a zillion thinkpieces about, if that was more of a thing in 2009. It dealt with some of Tumblr's favorite issues before Tumblr even existed. (Race! class! sexism! activism!) Maybe Community and shows like it even influenced the Tumblr generation that followed shortly after?

That's all for now. Hopefully more to come!

A guide to the best Christmas TV episodes

The Christmas season is here, and you know what that means: TELEVISION. Because that's what everything means!

Seriously, Christmas specials are one of the key components of the Christmas season for me. There's something about the characters from my favorite shows indulging in yuletide cheer and getting festive that just...gets to me. So I've compiled a list of some of my favorite TV Christmas episodes. These are the episodes I typically have on repeat this time of year, so please enjoy them and do not shatter my soul by saying they suck.

Community - "Abed's Uncontrollable Christmas"

Community might be the show with the best track record for Christmas episodes - gas leak year aside, every Christmas episode the show produced was a classic, from Season 1's heartfelt and down-to-earth "Comparative Religion" to Season 3's nightmare-inducing Glee parody "Regional Holiday Music". But I have a special place in my heart for "Abed's Uncontrollable Christmas", which is not only my favorite Community Christmas episode but one of my favorite pieces of Christmas pop culture in general. "Abed's Uncontrollable Christmas" is simultaneously exploding with cheer and deeply depressing - which, to my mind, are the only two emotions that should ever be used when depicting the Christmas season. It follows Abed as he has a serious psychological breakdown after his mother tells him she won't be visiting him for Christmas anymore - he begins seeing his entire life as if it's a stop motion Christmas special where his only task is to find the true meaning of Christmas. The way his perplexed and worried friends put aside their hesitations and join him in his Christmas wonderland of delusion is completely heartwarming in a way that makes me tear up every time I watch this episode, and it also delivers perhaps the best "meaning of Christmas" I've ever been given: "the meaning of Christmas is the idea that Christmas has meaning." "Abed's Uncontrollable Christmas" is basically all of my tender, cynical, and painfully nostalgic about Christmas all wrapped up into a funny, heartwarming, slightly devastating and just all around beautiful half-hour of television. 

30 Rock - "Christmas Special"

30 Rock's approach to holiday cheer is to cynically expose some of the darker aspects of the holiday while mixing in few doses of the genuine pathos and comfort that the season can bring, which is exemplified well in plotlines like Colleen ruining Liz's Christmas to prove to Jack that she's not so screwed up after all, or a montage of Jenna and Paul dressed up as 2 "black Swans" singing O Holy Night. But the episode that nails this balance best is Season 3's "Christmas Special", which finds Jack accidentally running over his mother with his car and having to care for her through the holiday season. The entire episode is about people whose Christmases aren't lining up how they wanted them to and the ways they deal with it - Liz being left in the dust by her family this year results in her overcompensating with a Letters to Santa program, and Jack's unexpected holiday with his mother leads to him forcing the TGS crew to put together a live Christmas Eve special where he can make up for all of the Christmas Eves spent playing piano as his mother went to town on a random dude in their living room. But it's this haphazard special that leads to Liz helping Jack realize that the reason her mother spent Christmas Eve putting out was so that him and his siblings could afford presents that year. It's the mix of sick, sweet, disturbing and heartwarming that 30 Rock portrayed so well in its Christmas episodes.

Parks & Recreation - "Citizen Knope"

"Citizen Knope" is more of a Christmas-adjacent episode than a full out Christmas episode, centering around Leslie's adventures as she deals with her suspension from city hall after the fallout of her relationship with Ben. But it still uses the season of giving to build a seriously heartwarming plotline in which the entire Parks departments gets together to show their support for Leslie and offer to take over her terminated City Council campaign, doing so in the form of an elaborate Gingerbread house. That's the entire spirit of Christmas distilled in one plotline right there, and it's also the spirit of Parks & Rec, whose shiny optimism that comes out of even the most unfortunate circumstances is a perfect fit for the Christmas season.

Bob's Burgers - "Christmas in the Car"

Bob's Burgers is a show that often puts our beloved Belcher clan in dire circumstances and than uses off-beat humor and surprising acceptance to get them out of it, and "Christmas in the Car" does that with a little Christmas sprinkle. The Belchers set out on Christmas Eve to find a new tree after their old one dies and wind up on a seemingly life-threatening chase by a giant Candy Cane truck. Of course, in typical Bob's fashion, everything gets a warm and mushy ending when Bob and the truck driver come to an understand and exchange dutch babies. Don't worry, it'll all make sense if you're a Bob's Burgers fan.

American Dad - "Rapture's Delight"

American Dad is sometimes unfairly accused of being a rip-off of Family Guy, which is totally unfair because it's way better than Family Guy has ever been. While Family Guy has devolved into a lazy conveyor belt of shock humor, American Dad at its best is a completely surreal, absurdist animated comedy that goes to weirder depths than nearly any non-Adult Swim show I've ever seen. "Rapture's Delight" is the perfect example of that, as it takes what seems like a normal Christmas episode and turns it into a story about the rapture, the antichrist, and Armaggedon. The extent the show commits to this is impressive enough, but the way they managed to interject the typical Christmas show sentiment without losing a touch of the extreme absurdity and darkness of the rapture is what makes this a true Christmas classic to be enjoyed through the ages.

Doctor Who - "A Christmas Carol"

Doctor Who airs a Christmas special on Christmas Day every year, but none of them are really true Christmas classics - if they're not dealing with a regeneration (as many of them do) then they're typically bland and watered down byproducts of the show itself, often placing easily marketable concepts and guest stars over anything resembling actual quality. (Remember the one where Kylie Minogue rode the Titanic?) But the one exception to this is 2010's "A Christmas Carol", the best Christmas special the show has ever produced by a long shot, and an episode that truly does feel like the holiday classic a Doctor Who Christmas special should aspire to be. The episode is a takeoff of, yes, A Christmas Carol, centering around the Doctor trying to change the childhood Christmases of an evil and powerful man named Kazran Sardick who is tasked with saving Amy and Rory's lives by releasing them from the cloud they're trapped on but refuse to do it. Doctor Who is at its best when it's able to mix its ambitious sci-fi concepts with deep-rooted human emotion, and this special truly shines in that regard, as the Doctor's travels through Sardick's past tap into some really heartbreaking and heavily nostalgic Christmas feelings for pretty much anyone who's ever been a child on Christmas before. Not every Doctor Who Christmas special meets the mark, but this one is so good it makes up for all of the other ones.

South Park - "Woodland Critter Christmas"

You know what this is. It is the most beautiful, fucked up, disturbing, horrifying Christmas special to ever air. Yes, I love Mr. Hanky too, but this is a work of dark art and it needs to be seen by all. 

The weirdest, most wonderful TV moments of 2014

In our viral, millennial culture (ugh, someone punch me for that please), it's more important than ever to create individual scenes and moments that stick out and stay in our brains. 2014 saw so many oddly creative, completely weird, and totally surreal moments that have stuck with me, in some cases, for months and months, so I thought I'd make a quick list compiling the best, weirdest, most memorable TV moments of 2014 in no particular order.

Orange is the New Black - Morello's Backstory

(From Season 2, Episode 4: "A Whole Other Hole")

Through out all of the first season, we heard tales of Morello's fiance on the outside, sort of wondering why he never visited but nevertheless generally accepting her tales of a happy future outside of Litchfield. All of that was devastatingly destroyed in a single montage, which revealed that Morello's fiance is an ex that she spent years stalking and is continuing to do so, using the prison van to find his house, put on his real fiance's wedding dress, and live out the fantasy that she's convincing everyone is real. I couldn't find a clip of the actual scene, so just use this YouTube clip of "Almost Paradise", a cheesy love ballad that the show scored the scene with, turning it into a terrifying and heartbreaking cry for help.

Mad Men - Bert Cooper Serenades Don Draper

(From Season 7, Episode 7: "Waterloo") 

Some fairly major spoilers for Mad Men Season 7 follow, so if you haven't caught up, don't read. If you do read, then it's your own goddamn fault.  Some shows might put a tense cliffhanger as the close to the first half of their final season, but Mad Men, instead, decided to have a recently deceased character come back from the dead and serenade its protagonist about the soul-sucking contract he has just signed. And we wouldn't have it any other way.

Too Many Cooks

Too Many Cooks is an 11-minute short that premiered on Adult Swim's "Infomercial" block at 4 AM, got uploaded to YouTube by a bunch of stoners, and completely captivated the country for a few weeks. I don't need to explain why. I can't do it justice. I just need you to watch it. 

Community - Dean Pelton's Peanut Rap

(From Season 5, Episode 9: "VCR Maintenance and Educational Publishing") 

The Dean has had many different costumes over the years, but the best of them all came this season, when he dressed up as a peanut and offers an apology rap that quickly turns racial and disturbing. This is perhaps Jim Rash's best work ever, including that movie he won an Oscar for.

Rick and Morty - "Saturday Night Live of the Future" 

(From Season 1, Episode 8: "Rixty Minutes")

The "Rixty Minutes" episode of Rick and Morty is probably my favorite TV episode of the year, and part of that is due to the completely improvised intergalactic TV show ads. One of the best was what Rick and Morty imagines a futuristic SNL would look like, starring a bunch of inanimate objects and Bobby Moynihan. 

Bob's Burgers - "Work Hard or Die Tryin', Girl"

(From Season 5, Episode 1: "Work Hard or Die Tryin', Girl") 

Bob's Burgers produces some of the best music around, and that all came to a head when the show had Gene produce a musical that puts together Die Hard and Working Girl, creating the beautiful speicman known as..."Work Hard or Die Tryin', Girl."

Broad City - "Eight Fucking Thousand Dollars"

(From Season 1, Episode 9: "Apartment Hunters")

When Broad City opened its ninth episode with an elaborate music video parody, I was confused and thought I had changed the channel or something. Then I realized: nope. This is a music video, that they created, to showcase Abbi's $8,000 check from a dating service that used one of her drawings. It's wonderful, as is the snap back to reality after the fact.

In honor of NBC Thursdays

 

Earlier today, NBC announced that it would be burning off the final 13 episodes of Parks and Recreation over the course of two weeks this winter, essentially dumping it off as fast as it possibly could so it could move onto something else. This is not particularly surprising. Parks and Rec has always been a low-rated show, and the fact that it made it to seven seasons is something of a miracle in and of itself.  But it's still not hard to feel a twinge of sadness at this news. Parks and Rec is the last of a very particular brand of comedy on NBC (or at least, the last left on NBC: Community now lives on the internet, where it has always truly belonged), and its unceremonious dumping signals a hard end to an era that sparked some of the greatest, most original comedies to ever air on television. Of course, it's an end that's been in the works for some time: since 2012, to be exact, when network head Bob Greenblatt announced that it would be phasing out its "narrow, sophisticated comedies" in favor of more "broad, wide audience" shows. That move hasn't really worked out: since then, only one NBC freshman comedy has made it to a second season (About a Boy), and that show looks likely to be cancelled before it sees a third. But the networks' direction is clear. Between the cancellation of Community in the spring, the punt of Tina Fey and Robert Carlock's Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt to Netflix, and the race through the final season of Parks & Rec, NBC is obviously ready to close the chapter on that era in their history. It's cool - all eras have to come to an end, right? But it still seems take a moment to reflect back on just what a truly strange, unique, and all-around fantastic era this was for the network. It was an era that arguably shifted the direction of TV comedy in subtle but major ways, and most importantly, it was an era that gave us some truly fantastic comedy.

It all started in the mid-00s, when NBC was still recovering from losing Friends, Fraiser and Will & Grace, therefore sacrificing most of its cultural identity. TV comedy in general was going through a transitional period - this was the era of Arrested Development, the era where TV comedy was ready to go in strange new directions but the public wasn't yet willing to follow it. But in 2006, The Office started to experience a surprising sophomore surge (it had barely made it past its first season), as both critics and viewers became attached to the shows' mix of conventional and unconventional humor twisted with a fairly sizable helping of pathos. In many ways, The Office seems like the first show that used the off-beat, single-cam vibe and actually saw success with it, paving the way for nearly every beloved comedy that followed it. The success of The Office led to NBC picking up 30 Rock in the spring of 2006, hailed by SNL scribe Tina Fey and boasting a similarly "off-beat workplace sitcom" vibe. 30 Rock wound up pushing the format even further as it totally abandoned any idea of reality, constantly digging up the most bizarre, surreal, and outrageously hilarious jokes it could, pushing past traditional sitcom boundaries to become something that felt different. Then in 2009,
the line-up completed itself with the addition of Parks and Recreation and Community. As Parks and Rec settled into a bravely optimistic show that rejected cynicism and instead looked to build up its characters rather than tear them down, Community experimented with the very idea of what it meant to be a sitcom, constantly questioning itself and everything else on television as it told a strong emotional story about a bunch of unlikely friends sharing a bond. These four shows represented a mindset that both stuck to the tried and true sitcom formula while simultaneously tearing it down, analyzing what it was, and rejected the artificiality of it all. It was perhaps the most experimental night of comedy to ever air on network television, and it was exciting.

There was just one problem: other than The Office, none of these shows ever managed to become actual ratings hits. 30 Rock barely made it past its initial 13-episode order and continued to be low-rated through-out its run. Community and Parks and Recreation were nearly cancelled so many times that each show had at least four different episodes meant to serve as series finales. In any other era, none of these shows likely would've even seen a second season, nevermind a sixth or seventh season. But they were lucky enough to be on NBC in the late '00s/early '10s, a network in such disarray that a bunch of low-rated comedies seemed like a win compared to fiascos like The Jay Leno Show and The Cape and fuckin' Smash. So because of NBC's total failure, we got an era of network comedies that got to push the boundaries of what a network comedy could be - and we got shows that were able to do that for seasons and seasons.

So yes, that era is now over. But is it, really? The sensibilities of those NBC Thursday shows can be found today in cable comedies like Broad City, Review, Rick and Morty, and You're the Worst  - shows that continue to push the boundaries of where a television comedy can go. Who knows if these shows would've happened without the influence of 30 Rock and The Office and Community and Parks and Rec? These shows might not be on NBC anymore, but they live on. They live on in other shows, as well as on Netflix and Hulu and Yahoo and what have you. So we shouldn't cry when this era officially ends in February - instead, we should celebrate what it's accomplished. That's what Leslie Knope, Liz Lemon, Michael Scott, and Abed Nadir would want us to do, right?

Long live Community (or, why it's okay to be angry about Community)

Technically, we should not be angry about Community. It got five seasons, a run no one would've thought it could dream of having back in its earlier seasons. Five seasons is a good run. It's a great run. It's five years! 97 episodes! Plenty of beloved and respected shows, from Newsradio to the fucking Brady Bunch, ran for five years and continue to be beloved and cherished to this day. Considering what a marginal cult hit it was, considering how far from the normal it was, considering how low-rated it was, the fact that this show stuck around for five years is damn respectable. Besides, while Season 5 of Community was good, it was the kind of season where you know there isn't all that much left in the tank. Community's best days were behind it, and even #SixSeasonsAndAMovie wouldn't change that. We don't have to cry for Community. It lived a wonderful life, it gave us some amazing memories, and its impact will certainly be felt on television for years to come.

But despite all of that...I am fucking livid about Community's cancellation. 

Really, it's hard not to look at this cancellation as anything but a sign of how cold and unforgiving television could be. Being a television fan is a strange thing sometimes. Because of the way television is told, it's so easy to get attached to a television series - moreso, in my opinion, than any of the other arts. We fall in love with these characters like we know them personally, because we go through life together. We watch them grow and they grow alongside us. Don't ever let anyone make fun of you for getting too invested in a fictional television character, because that's what they're designed for. It's a natural reaction, to feel a connection with characters you spend so much time with. And yet, because of its continuing nature, television is also a business that breaks hearts far more easily than any of the other entertainment sectors. A movie can fail at the box office, but they're not going to rip you out of the theater halfway through it. An album can totally flop, but you still get to listen to the whole thing. A book gives you a very clear start and end point. It's not quite like that with a television series. We fall in love with these shows knowing they can be ripped away from us before their time is up - hell, knowing that even if they're the most popular show on television, one day they are going to go away. I talked a bit in my New Girl review about how a relationship with a television show really does mirror a real relationship in so many ways, and that includes the loss of one. It's a part of your life, and then it's not. It's something we have to accept. And yet, it's so much easier to accept if that show gets to tell a complete and whole story. Unlike with a film or an album or a book, a television show doesn't always get to tell the story it wants. Its fate is so closely tied to the business side of the art. Recently, though, TV has been allowed to distance itself from that reality just a little bit, with things like Netflix and HBO and even basic cable. Sure, there's a business to all of these models, and HBO and cable have broken many hearts (miss you, Enlightened), but those businesses are a little more friendly with the art of television. Community being unceremonously thrown into the trash as if it was never worth a damn at all is a painful reminder that this art we all love is not an art, it's a business. And that business just doesn't care about legions of fans if they're not translating into dollars. We like to believe that passion matters in this business, that it makes a different. Sometimes, we get reason to believe that it does. Without it, Community likely wouldn't have gotten even five seasons. Hannibal wouldn't have just gotten a third season. Parks & Rec and 30 Rock wouldn't have made it to seven years each. But at the end of the day, this is still a business. A cold business that doesn't care about love or originality or dedication. It just cares about numbers.

But we still love television, even knowing this, and if you need a reason why, all you need to look at is Community itself. Yes, television can be cold and cynical, but the passion and love it inspires is anything but. As I've watched plenty of great shows slaughtered this week, despite quality and potential and devotion, I've wondered if this is really a business I want to get involved with. But then I think about all of the things I've gotten from television. I think about episodes like "Mixology Certification", or "Remedial Chaos Theory"...or, "Tracy Does Conan" or "Flu Season" or "The Suitcase" or "Lisa's Substitute" or "Daddy's Girlfriend" or "Fly" or any given episode that inspires passion in anyone. I think about the study group, or the Parks department, or the TGS staff, or the workers at Sterling Cooper, and I realize that even through all of the bullshit, television introduced me to these characters that I loved, that shaped who I am, that get me through even my worst days. And ultimately, it doesn't matter how these shows ended or where they wound up. It doesn't matter how cold-hearted the suits who greenlit them are. What matters is what these shows and characters have done for me. That's something a cancellation can't take away. And that's why I love television. And it's also why it's okay to be angry when it disappoints you. It's okay to be angry about Community - because it's also okay to love Community. The love and the anger validate the fact that these shows are something meant to care about. Without them, television would be a soulless cash grab of an industry. With them, that's just what's in the background. The more important aspect is the shows themselves and the love and frustrating and passion they inspire. So yeah, I'm pissed about Community, but the fact that I'm pissed is what makes all of this worth it in the end.

Season Review: Community Season 5

Every season of Community recently seems like it has some unfortunate circumstances that it has to overcome to prove itself. The third season had to somehow match the amazing and genre-defining second season (which it mostly managed to do, despite inevitably dropping slightly from that seasons' earth-shattering heights). The fourth season had to prove that, without the careful hand of creator Dan Harmon, the show was still Community (which it wasn't, really). And the fifth season had perhaps the hardest task yet. With Harmon back at the helm, Season 5 had to save the show. After the rightly-maligned fourth season, Community was no longer TV's best, most thoughtful, and most unpredictable sitcom like it was during the original Harmon years. Could Season 5 change that? Could it restore the show to being one of the most exciting things in the world of comedy, like it had been before?

Basically, it did as well as it could. While Harmon's return added a jolt of energy to the aging Community, it was still very much a show in its fifth season. A show in its fifth season can't be as surprising and exciting as a show in its first or second season, simply because by this point, we know the show's game. We know what to expect. This is true especially of sitcoms, which can only go so far to change their own status quo out of fear of messing with the formula that makes the show what it is. Even a show as unique as Community relies on some form of formula to keep the engine running, and this was strangely most true in the shows' concept episodes, which felt a bit more rudimentary than they did in the shows' early days. While concept episodes once allowed the show to experiment with new storytelling methods to gain new insight on its characters, the fifth seasons' concept episodes felt like episodes the show was doing because everyone expects them to. There was some gold within them - "Basic Intergluteal Numismatics" was a messy but fascinating endeavor, and "Geothermal Escapism" was a fitting combination of insanity and emotion to send off one the shows' most integral characters, but there were also episodes like "Advanced Advanced Dungeons & Dragons" (which felt like a reheated version of Season 2's Dungeons & Dragons episode, one of the shows' very best) and "G.I. Jeff" (which managed to be a funny send-up that said some interesting things about Jeff but sort of abandoned them by the end of the episode).

Still, it's hard not to call Season 5 an incredibly comeback when it produced episodes like "Cooperative Polygraphy" and "Bondage and Beta Male Sexuality". These two episodes found the characters at the most grounded they've been since arguably the second season, and it managed to dig into the core sadness and longing that drives Community at its best. Both episodes used tactics that worked in the past - getting all of the characters around the study table for the former (used most memorably in the hysterical and weirdly moving "Cooperative Calligraphy"), and taking the characters out of Greendale to analyze who they really are for the latter (used in my personal favorite episode "Mixology Certification" as well as in the gently heartbreaking "Critical Film Studies"). It was in these episodes that Community showcased best how far it had come from the doldrums of the "gas leak year" - while that season only seemed concerned with the characters on a surface level, this season returned to trying to figure out who these people are beneath the surface. I argued in my last Community piece that this side of the show is what makes the show able to pull off its conceptual side, and that was never more true this season. Had this season been an endless march of "G.I. Jeff"s, things would've felt pretty hollow. But episodes like "Polygraphy" and "Bondage" were able to bring a level of insight that both kept the season afloat and gave the concept episodes a much stronger leg to stand on.

So if this season of Community occasionally felt a little tired, it was only because this is a sitcom in its fifth season, and that's natural. For the most part, this was still a show that used some amazing, deeper-rooted character work to pull off some of the more interesting structural experiments you'll ever find in a television comedy. At this point last season, I was desperately hoping Community would get a fifth season not necessarily because I was looking forward to watching it (since I figured it'd be another Harmon-less year) but because I couldn't stand the thought of one of my favorite shows of all-time ending on a season (and an episode) that mostly made me sad and angry. This year, I'm desperately hoping for a sixth season because I genuinely want more of this show that I love again. (And because, you know, #sixseasonsandamovie and all). That alone speaks for how far Community has come back this year, doesn't it?

Now bring on that sixth season. And the movie.

Final Grade: B+
(or, four MeowMeowBeenz)

Things I Feel Like Writing About: Community - "Mixology Certification"

I always feel like I should be writing on this blog, but often times I don't really know what to write about. I love television, but I don't always feel like writing about every episode of television that I watch. (For example, I've been really into Rick and Morty lately, but I'm struggling to find a way to write about it, because it's one of those shows where I just like to turn off my brain and get sucked into the experience). So I decided, hey, why not just choose things I feel like I want to write about and write about them?

The first thing I have decided to write about is "Mixology Certification", the tenth episode of Community's wonderful second season (which is a season of television that I love so much I could probably write eighteen of these posts talking about why it's so incredible). It's not really a secret that Community is a show I've developed a personal connection with over the years, and "Mixology Certification" is one of those rare pieces of art where I watch it and I sort of see my own experiences reflected back at me. There's really not a lot of things out there that do this for me, and for a while, I didn't really know why I had such a connection to this specific episode, I just knew I did. So here we are, my journey into discovering why I love "Mixology Certification" (assisted by some Fishsticks screencaps!).

"Mixology Certification" is an episode centered around Troy's 21st birthday (which he only just realizes is his 21st, due to a lie his mom has been telling him for years). It's probably not the episode that most people think of when they think about Community, in that it's completely grounded - taking place entirely in reality and even being mostly devoid of pop culture references. Community has more of these kinds of episodes than you might expect given its reputation as a highly experimental, genre-defying show, and I've always felt that they were essential to making the higher-concept stuff work. What makes Community more than just a collection of pop culture gags and middle fingers to the fourth wall is the fact that it's rooted in characters we can easily relate to and that we quickly grow to care about, and it's episodes like "Mixology Certification" that cement all of that.

Anyway, the plot of "Mixology" is exceedingly simple. In fact, it's so simple that it's basically an American tradition - the study group learns that it's Troy's 21st birthday, and they decide to celebrate at a nearby bar. Jeff and Britta get into a huge argument over which bar they should go to - Jeff's "douchey" L Street and Britta's "hipster-y" Red Door. But as hilarious as their banter is, this isn't a Jeff and Britta episode. This is an episode about the entire study group, in a way, as it shows them all in their most vulnerable and honest states. But it's mostly an episode that focuses on the two youngest members of the study group - Troy and Annie. I have never really thought of Community as a traditional "college" show since it's mostly not about college-aged people, but "Mixology" and several of the shows' other Troy/Annie plotlines prove that the show could be a great show about college-aged people if it wanted to be.

The central heart of "Mixology" is based on the fact that Troy believes his 21st birthday signifies his becoming a man. Troy's central arc has always been around his maturation, and his maturation has always been largely influenced by the people around him. Yes, much of it is from Abed, who helped Troy crawl out of his "cool guy" high school shell and into the person he really wanted to be, but much of that also comes from the rest of his elders in the study group, who have served as his glimpse into the adult world for the past two years. To Troy, the rest of the study group are the people that he can hopes he can become one day. They hold the keys to the future. They know stuff. When you're young, you assume that there's some point, probably around the time you're 21 or something, where you just start to get it, and you look at people who are older than you and you look forward to the day you can get it like them. Troy certainly believes that the time has finally come for him to get it. "I can't wait to understand these arguments!" he excitedly gloats as Jeff and Britta continue to argue about their favorite bars. Jeff and Britta, of course, gladly take the role as Troy's mentor as they shame him out of buying a 7&7 because they are the ones who know about alcohol and they know it's a lame drink. Jeff and Britta have incredibly bruised egos, and they latch right onto Troy's trust in them and act as the almighty masters of adulthood who know everything there is to know about alcohol and, you know, life. 

But as the night wears on, the people that Troy has looked up to for the past two years begin to slowly melt into embarrassing piles of insecurity. Jeff and Britta's bickering gets increasingly ridiculous to the point of childish, far from the connoisseurs of maturity they were presenting themselves as. Abed is picked up by a young gay man in search of a companion for the night (played by Paul F. Tompkins!) that Abed misinterprets as a guy who wants to talk about Farscape, leaving Abed feeling ashamed and with a bunch of beer in his face. Pierce spends the entire night attempting to maneuver his wheelchair into the bar, only to learn that he's really not doing as well as he thinks he is. And in the episodes' most heartbreaking sequence, the group finds out that Shirley was once a pretty heavy alcoholic after they discover some unflattering pictures from her past in the bar, leaving her storming out angry and ashamed. All of these situations could've easily been played for laughs, but Community digs into the surface of them and exposes the sadness underneath the surface. When Troy looks around and realizes the state of the people he once respected, he begins to realize that a) alcohol makes people sad (because it's the Lifetime Movies of beverages) and b) he's suddenly being left to care for his woefully inebriated friends.

It's here where the Annie storyline makes its impact, which is perhaps the most painfully relatable storyline of the episode for me. Being 19, Annie is the only study group member that can't legally get into the bar and has to use a fake ID (courtesy of Britta). The ID is of Caroline Decker from Corpus Christie, Texas (78418), and Annie insists that she takes on the persona in full, just in case (which, according to Annie, is "someone who has really bad credit and an unfinished Mermaid tattoo"). She takes on a Southern accent at the door to lessen the bouncers' suspicions, and continues to do so in the bar - you know, just in case, because Annie's so uptight and paranoid, right? That's what we think, and it's probably true at first, but it soon becomes clear that Annie has adapted the Caroline Decker persona just for fun. Or at least, it looks like it's just for fun, until Annie begins having a full-on conversation with the bartender where she plays up the Caroline persona by inventing elaborate stories about punching her probation officer and traveling with the band Phish. At some point, Annie becomes Caroline Decker. She begins talking about her uptight friend Annie who has her entire life planned out and isn't like her because she's a floater and doesn't even know what she's going to do next. It's all a little bit silly, but it's rooted in a kind of existential despair, and that all comes to the surface when Annie goes from ordering root beers to ordering screwdrivers. "I ain't got no place to be", she says. "What am I, Annie?". Something about that line just gets me. This storyline - and this episode overall - captures the feeling of being in your early 20s so well. It understands the emotional confusion of the feeling where the person you've always expected yourself to become and the person you're becoming aren't quite lining up, and you're not exactly sure what to do with that. There's a pressure around people my age to live up to expectations, and when you don't, you just want to slip away and be someone else. And maybe sometimes you do. Maybe you don't take on the persona of a fake ID, but maybe you try to look like someone you're not or do things you don't really want to do or tell people you're something you're not. The way the show embraces this emotional truth - something I've never seen portrayed well anywhere else - is what makes it so poignant to me. I guess that's part of why I have such a personal connection to this episode. There's moments where I would love to slip away and be my own Caroline Decker, because sometimes pretending to be someone else is easier than being yourself. 

Troy is facing a similar existential crisis, as a night that was supposed to see him getting legally wasted for the first time ends up with him serving as the designated driver. Pretty much everything that Troy has believed all of his life has just turned out to be a lie, and it all comes to a screeching moment of realization when Jeff and Britta realize that the two bars they've been arguing about all night are the same bar. In a dramatic moment that can rival anything on Mad Men, Troy stops the car in a halt and belts, "THEY'RE THE SAME BAR?!?!". But it's more than just that, as he continues on. "I spent the last two years thinking you guys knew more than me about life, and I just found out that you're just as dumb as me". So what is being a man, then? It's not drinking, because that just makes people sad and childish. It's not being like Jeff and Britta, because they're idiots. The episodes' stance is that adulthood is basically the realization that adults are just as confused about everything as you are, and knowing that no one is ever going to figure any of this out.

It's a damn melancholy message for a network sitcom, but it all ends in an earned moment of sweetness, when both Troy and Annie's insecurities nicely dovetail into each other. Troy drops Annie off at her apartment door, and the two sit and have a conversation about the strange path that the night went down. "I pretended to be a different person tonight", Annie admits. "Because I didn't want to be me. Because I'm not sure who I am". Troy then stops for a moment and re-affirms Annie that she's Annie and she likes puzzles and little monsters on her pencil and some guy named Mark Ruffalo, and that she's a fierce competitor, a sore loser, and always expects everyone to be better than who they are and herself to be better than everyone. Sometimes, you need someone else to remind you that being you isn't so bad. And sometimes you need to make someone else realize that to make yourself realize it. That's what being an adult is. Not drinking alcohol, not having the knowledge of the world at your fingers, not Jeff and Britta. It's not knowing what the hell you're doing, realizing that no one else does either, and trying to get through it together.

Episode Reviews: Broad City - "Destination Wedding", Community - "VCR Maintenance and Educational Publishing", Parks & Recreation - "New Slogan"

Whoa! Three episode reviews in one! I really am trying to take this thing seriously, aren't I?!


Broad City - "Destination Wedding"

Due to its beginnings as a web series, Broad City came out more fully formed than most shows do. Right from the first episode, it had an incredibly clear sense of what it wanted to be, and its characters were fully realized people pretty much from the first time they appeared on screen. And yet, Broad City continues to impress me more and more each week. The past few episodes, in particular, have seen the show starting to make a lot of interesting experiments with its direction and editing. Add that to the experimentally hilarious humor that solidified the shows' status in the first place, and you have one of the freshest and most unique shows on television. All of that coalesced incredibly well in "Destination Wedding" - the shows' strongest episode yet, and one of my favorite episodes of television so far this year.

"Destination Wedding" was great for many reasons, but what made it such a stand-out was that it hit so well on all of the aspects that Broad City is best at. The show works so well as a twisted love letter to New York City, lovingly exploiting everything that makes the city such a unique place to live - both the good and the bad. "Destination Wedding" got much of its best material from doing just that, whether it be the dignified rush of Grand Central Station, or the deeply unpleasant establishment that is Penn Station, or the unique traveling method that is Citibiking, or the horror of a Chinatown bus...whatever it is, Broad City knows exactly how to take it and turn it into something unique to its own comic voice, whether it be by having Abbi's boyfriend break up with her when she tries to take him to Penn Station, or having Abbi get drenched in a bunch of rancid fish on the Chinatown bus, or whatever twisted and beautiful comic scenario Broad City comes up with that manages to sum up city life in the most weirdly perfect way possible. But the best part of the show - and what elevates the show to "truly great" status, I think - is the bond it forms between Ilana and Abbi. Broad City is full of so much purely comic material that the show could work just fine without it, but the genuine friendship that its leads share adds a layer of vulnerability to the shows' zany humor, and those two aspects conjoining makes for some really compelling television. I don't know if any moment highlights this better than when Ilana finds out about Abbi and Darcy made out. It's funny, sure, but the sound dropping out managed to add to the humor and make us feel Ilana's hurt in the situation. That the show then led that into a scene that made the dumping of rancid fish both funny and emotionally upsetting is a testament to the unique, hilarious and weird that makes watching Broad City such a special experience.

* * * * * (5 stars out of 5)

Community - "VCR Maintenance and Educational Publishing" 

The scene pictured here is one of the funniest scenes Community has ever done, and one of the hardest I've laughed all year. Seriously. Any doubts that Community is still funny should be eliminated by that scene. I could not stop laughing. If you haven't seen it, do it. You owe it to yourself. YouTube "Dean rap" or something. It was so funny that the rest of the episode could've been...I don't know, the puppet episode, and I could've still liked it a little bit.

Luckily, the rest of the episode was pretty good, too! I especially liked the Abed/Rachel material - Rachel is such a perfect match for Abed and Brie Larson is such a great match for Community that it bums me out that she has to go film movies and can't just be a permanent member of the study group (or you know, Save Greendale committee, or whatever). Ever since "Herstory of Dance" (pretty much the only S4 episode I can integrate with the rest of the show), I've been impressed with how the show uses Rachel to challenge Abed and force him to more carefully consider the feelings of others. That worked incredibly well here and also tied into how Abed is being forced to confront himself now that Troy is gone. Troy connected with him despite his difficulties connecting back, but he can't get as lucky with Rachel, and the results are proving to be interesting. I'm hoping we can get Rachel back for at least a few more episodes next season (assuming/hoping there is one), because it's a really fascinating dynamic.

I was slightly less sure of the rest of the episode. I liked Annie attempting to reconcile with her brother, but I wanted more of it. That's a plot that deserves its own episode - Annie being separated from her family is quite a sad story, and I've always wanted to hear more about it. I wasn't really a huge fan of the textbook plot, although it had plenty of funny moments and lots of great Shirley lines. It just never quite made an impact the way I like my Community plots to. It didn't have enough time to get to the bottom of the character work it was trying to, and the result was a fitfully funny plot that seemingly existed just to full some time and so we didn't spend the entire thing in Annie and Abed's apartment. Still, the Annie/Abed material - and the Dean in the cold open! - were more than enough to make this another solid addition to a very enjoyable season.

* * * * (4 stars out of 5)

Parks and Recreation - "New Slogan"

"New Slogan" had a lot of little moments that I really enjoyed - from the pictured cold open where the Parks department discovered the joys of Ben's new site for the city, to Andy's discovery of Duke Silver, to some sweet material with April, Donna, and Tom, but it felt like yet another episode of Parks that was just biding time. It regretfully followed the "Leslie faces a silly problem that she has to try to make right" formula that has been repeated ad nauseam on this show lately, and this time it seemed to realize that it was treading no new ground here, treating the entire "oh no, the slogan everyone's voting for is a joke written in by a radio show!" crisis as more of a ridiculous joke than a serious plot (and not a particularly funny ridiculous joke). The show tried to tie it into the overarching plot of Leslie considering leaving Pawnee for the National Parks Department, but it didn't really feel natural, and the episode itself didn't do much to advance that plot forward at all.

I still get some joy from watching these characters, and I'm genuinely interested to see where Leslie goes next, so I'm not going to stop watching this show or anything. But the more time goes on, the more it becomes obvious that Parks is just waiting around until it can start setting up its endgame here. Honestly, I wish the show would just start it already. I would love to have Leslie decide to take the job and have the next (and likely last) season follow her to Chicago (perhaps taking the Parks department with her). It would give the show a much needed refreshment.

Still, an episode like this does prove that there's fun left to be had with these characters. The cold open and Andy's rant were the hardest I've laughed at this show in quite a long time, and a visit from Duke Silver is never a bad thing. I wish there was a little more to Parks than light fun right now, but light fun isn't always the worst thing in the world.

* * * 1/2 (3 1/2 stars out of 5)

This blog gets two MeowMeowBeanz

Hi! What's up? Cool! Awesome! Here's some NBC Thursday night thoughts:



Community

For the most part, Community is not a show that's all that interested in making overt social statements. Sure, you could argue that its whole thesis statement is about the importance of community and it frequently touches on ideas about leadership and group mentality and what have you, but generally, it's a very character-based show that gets most of its plot materials from digging into and exploring the dynamics between its characters, not any grand political statements. I don't think it's a stretch to say that App Development and Condiments is the most the show has ever delved into social satire, and it delves into it with incredible skill. Sure, a lot of the satire in this episode was through a pop-culture-referencing lense, but underneath it all, this was an episode that dealt with how we present ourselves in the digital age and how we'll change ourselves for approval. And I was really, really impressed with how the show put a spin on this that felt both original and unique to itself, while still being an incredibly fun time. What I liked the most was how the show actually appointed Britta to show just how ridiculous everyone was being, giving her the most power she has in ages. This has been a great season for Britta, to the point where I very well might call her the MVP of the season (though we still have five episodes to go).

The show did attempt to give this episode a more typically Community story about character growth, with Jeff and Shirley learning how both of them have a similar thirst for power. Jeff and Shirley is perhaps the shows' most quietly great character pairing - they're similar in so many ways they don't realize. The show doesn't go to them for stories as much as it should, but the few times they've done so have generally been incredibly rewarding. The gold standard for Jeff/Shirley episodes remains Season 3's "Foosball and Nocturnal Vigilantism", which revealed that both of them have a dark past with the game of foosball. It's hard not to compare any Jeff/Shirley story to that episode, and honestly, this one wasn't quite up to snuff. It very much felt like the show putting together a character story for this episode simply because it felt like it had to, and it all felt rushed. "Foosball" and even Season 1's "Social Psychology" dealt with this concept much better. So in a rare instance, tonight's Community worked for me very well on a more general, social commentary level and less well on a character level. But after last week's stand-out and completely character-focused episode, I didn't mind the lessened character work too much, especially when it leads to material that's as great as the rest of this episode was. I give it four MeowMeowBeanz.

Parks and Recreation

Tonight's Parks & Rec did a respectable job of explaining the completely inexplicable idea that Leslie Knope, after spending the better part of the past year being tormented and disrespected by the town of Pawnee, would actually continue to work in Pawnee. The best parts of this fairly unspectacular season have been the ones that legitimately question Leslie's career choices, from the great season premiere to the effectively surprising recall vote to Jen Barkley's advice to her in the 100th episode. Leslie is clearly on the cusp of moving on from the small town she started in, and that's confirmed when two members from the National Parks Department offer her a position in Chicago during this episode. She temporarily turns them down, saying that she can't leave her town until she knows that it's in good hands.

Honestly, I don't really buy it. Even someone as passionate and dedicated as Leslie would seize the opportunity at getting actual recognition somewhere. The reason that Leslie doesn't take the job yet is because the show is not over yet, and this is a show about Leslie and Pawnee. This has been a big part of what's holding both the show and the character back recently - we're simply at a point where most of these characters are going to be past the Parks department and even past Pawnee, but because the show keeps marching on, they have to unrealistically stay where they are. All of that said, I like that we seem to be building towards career movement for Leslie (and I do expect her to take the new job by seasons' end). It gives the season a clearer sense of focus, particularly for the Leslie Knope character. The reason why I do think this season has been slightly better than last for the show (although it still is kind of just 'there' too much of the time) is because there's an underlying momentum of Leslie realizing she deserves better than what she has. The show has been making Pawnee far too comically awful to show us that, but it's interesting character movement, and it gives a show that's clearly showing its age some forward momentum.

The rest of the episode was basically your typical Parks Season 6 fare. Ron continues to be Flanderized, and I'm not entirely sure what the point of giving him a wife and kid was when he mostly just does the same stuff anyway only now with a wife and kid. Tom's storyline was marginally better, but this is Tom's third business now, right? It's hard to get too excited at this point. The characters of Parks continue to run around the same circles, waiting for the clock to tick out. Hopefully the show starts pushing them towards and endgame soon.

THINGS ARE HAPPENING

It has been a very busy week for television. This was originally going to be a post about Community and Parks and Recreation's most recent episodes. But then I put it off and like, eight more things happened. So let's get to it. We'll start with Community and Parks:

Community - "Basic Integluetal Numistatics"



I had no idea what to make of this episode at first. I wasn't thrilled that the show was already doing a genre parody only two weeks into the new season. I wanted to re-establish the characters! And the setting! But the episode slowly won me over by committing so damn well to its concept (which seemed to be a parody of David Fincher movies mixed with some crime procedural spoofing) that I ultimately didn't mind. The visuals were excellent, and the music was even better - Ass Crack Bandit is totally my new jam. I also thought the episode was quite funny, with a rapid-fire joke setting reminiscent of Community's early seasons. Community occasionally forgets to be funny with its concept episodes, and while it really doesn't matter because the show is capable of being excellent without being hilarious, it certainly made this episode much more enjoyable (and helped to bounce off the darkness of the source material). Where the episode didn't land for me initially was character-wise. I'm just really tired of the Jeff/Annie pairing - at least romantically (last week's Introduction to Teaching managed to rediscover how fun the pairing can be without the weird love story angle) and I didn't feel this episode added anything new to it. I also was not a big fan of how Pierce's death was handled. It was...sudden, and I got that it was kind of the point, but the death of a major character should really have more importance than it did in this episode. But after re-watching it about 4 times, and after seeing next weeks' episode (LET ME HAVE THIS) which deals with Pierce's demise in a really excellent way, I'm more convinced that...well, that was the point. The sudden, ambiguous nature of the ending was meant to point out how in real life, death isn't just another thing that happens. It has real life consequences. And although I didn't think the episode landed this concept as well as it could have (it probably shouldn't take 4 watches to get it, you know?) I applaud what they were going for, and it gave me a lot to think about it. So overall, this was another promising step for Community's fifth season, which has been seriously impressive so far.

Parks and Recreation - "Second Chunce"

Parks celebrated its 100th episode this week, but it didn't really make a big deal about it, choosing instead to have a quieter episode that analyzed the fate of its characters going forward. This was probably its greatest strength. I liked Leslie realizing that she's destined for more than Pawnee - it wasn't exactly new, because it's been a running thread of the season, but it was sort of nice to see it solidified, and it pushes the show in a new direction it desperately needs. I'm hoping that this allows the show to try some new things with its protagonist rather than just giving her the "Leslie has obstacles, but she's so great so she manages to get through them!" cycle that she's spent the last two seasons running around in. I especially liked the return of Jen Barkley, giving Leslie the push in the right direction that she needed, because a) she's an interesting foil for Leslie and b) she delivered the best joke of the night, discussing her mothers' 19 year old boyfriend. The rest of the episode was...fine, I guess. It sort of demonstrated why my love for Parks has dwindled over the past year, though - it just felt like a retread. We've seen Tom question his direction in life before. Then he started Rent-A-Swag. Then the show took it away for him, because they always have to return everything to the status quo eventually. Oh, and there was a boring plot with Ann and Chris, and yet another nauseatingly cheesy Ben/Leslie end scene (yay they go to Paris they're so perfect yay). Just...do something different, Parks! Take Community and Archer's lead. You have the potential to with this Leslie story. Now let's see it out.

That seems like a good segway to Archer, but I would be remissed if I didn't at least touch on my best show of 2013 (full list coming soon, btw!)...

Bob's Burgers - "Presta Tina-o"

This was Bob's Burgers at its weirdest, and therefore, its finest. Of course, that sort of goes without saying with a Tina episode. Tina is just such a fan-fucking-tastic character. She's a confused teenage girl, sure. There's lots of those on TV. But there's no confused teenage girls who are as proud of being a confused teenage girl, and that's what makes her unique. And let's be honest. There's a little bit of a confused teenage girl inside all of us, isn't there? Tina Belcher shows us that it's okay to be insecure and weird and unsure of yourself. In fact, it's that insecurity that might lead you to sabotage a magician competition, only to un-sabotage it and earn yourself an honorable mention for on-stage chemistry, which isn't really real but makes your family proud anyway. The fact that I could just type all of that and have it make sense to at least 4 million people out there is a rock solid example of why I love Bob's Burgers as much as I do.

Alright. Let's get to....

Archer - "White Elephant"

Holy crap, you guys.

I liked Archer's fourth season, but I didn't love it. It was still hilarious, sure, but it just felt like a lot of plots that were rehashes of things the show had done in the past. The show probably could've comfortably carried itself to 7 or 8 seasons off of that, although it likely would've sacrificed its place as a boundary-pushing critical darling in the process. But nope. Adam Reed didn't want to do that. He got bored, and he didn't want to see his show circling the drain. So this season of Archer is no longer about ISIS and is now about the gang selling cocaine.

What's amazing about this episode is that it makes all of this feel totally organic. To be fair, Archer is always a show that has played fast and loose with its foundation, having no qualms about giving its protagonist cancer, or a baby, or turning major characters into cyborgs. So it's more likely to pull off such a massive change than a lot of other shows are - and in a way, the giant revelation that ISIS was never actually a government agency and that all of its work was completely illegal actually makes sense. Since Archer is a show where we have to suspend most of our ideas of what's "normal" on a television show anyway, it's able to pull off a trick like this pretty easily. I guess that's what Season 4 missed for me. It just didn't have that "I legitimately have no idea what the fuck is going to happen" feel that the show did at its best. So to see that return in such a huge way is a big relief.

Of course, part of what makes it work, too, is that the cast and characters are still the same cast and characters. And, really, that's always what made Archer what it was. Or at least, I assumed it was. This season will be ultimate test of that - but if that kick-ass preview of the upcoming season is to be believed, we have nothing to worry about.
------

Aaaaand I just wanted to take a minute to talk about the Golden Globes. I generally have very little use for awards shows, but the Golden Globes are kind of a boozy trainwreck, so they're a little more fun than say...the Oscars. And with Tina & Amy hosting, there was no I wasn't watching at least a little bit - and I'm glad I did, because I was really happy with how things turned out. No, I'm not talking about Jacqueline Bisset's acceptance speech, although that was definitely a highlight! I'm talking about the awards themselves. Well, mainly just the TV comedy awards. Amy Poehler FINALLY winning for Leslie Knope is about three years too late but made me incredibly happy. And Brooklyn Nine-Nine winning Best Comedy was a huge shock, and while I wouldn't give it that distinction yet, I'm incredibly happy that the show will now likely have a chance to get there. We all like to say awards shows are useless. And they mostly are! Tastes are subjective, and who cares what a bunch of old rich Hollywood dumbasses and whoever the Hollywood Foreign Press have to say? But awards can be beneficial for a show like Brooklyn Nine-Nine. They certainly helped 30 Rock and Arrested Development earn recognition, and all of the "WHAT IS BROOKLYN NINE NINE SHOULD WE BE WATCHING IT" type of responses that circulated the internet today prove that it just may give that show the boost it needs right now.

New year television catch-up

Hello, everyone! It is a new year, and I am going to try to keep this thing consistently updated in 2014. REALLY. Also, I'm going to be posting a Best of 2013 list as soon as I'm done binging through Breaking Bad (or by the end of January, whatever comes first).

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.