Jeff (Joel McHale, right) sweeps the ecstatic Dean (Jim Rash) off his feet. The episode didn’t have quite the same effect on fans.
When discussing last night’s season premiere of Community, there’s a big pink elephant in the room. So let’s boil this down to brass tacks.
Is Community without showrunner Dan Harmon still funny? Yes.
Is Community as good as it used to be? No.
I’m sad to report that new showrunners David Guarascio and Moses Port disappoint in a largely lackluster season opener.
The episode opens promisingly enough with another trek into Abed’s psyche. This time, as per a coping mechanism endorsed by Britta, Abed has forged an alternate sitcom version of reality to deal with the study group’s impending graduation and departure from Greendale Community College. ABED TV, complete with ridiculous show adverts, phony laugh track and a made-over Pierce, is good for a few laughs.
The study group returns to Greendale to find their shared elective — “History of Ice Cream” — has been massively overbooked. Unfortunately for Jeff, “History of Ice Cream” is the only history credit offered this semester, the last credit Jeff needs for his diploma.
Dean Pelton, taking all of this in magnificently foreboding stride, concocts a series of endurance tests to determine who earns a seat in the class, dubbed…sigh…The Hunger Deans. Jeff, after revealing to the group his intentions to graduate early, leaps into the games wholeheartedly in order to secure seats for the entire study group.
Meanwhile, Annie and Shirley spin off to pull an inspired prank on Dean Pelton’s car — he’s going to end up smelling like the floor of a movie theater but not for the usual reasons — Troy and Britta bicker over proper wishing-well etiquette, Abed disappears completely into his fantasy world to cope with Jeff’s revelation and Pierce tries to figure out a joke involving balls.
Inevitably (but oddly in Abed’s fictitious world, which now mirrors Abed’s actual reality), the group comes to terms with its impending graduation. Annie tells Jeff he can go get that last seat in “History of Ice Cream” with the group’s blessing. Jeff, of course, decides to blow off the final competition in order to make a Winger speech (kind of) that pulls Abed out of his psychosis.
At the end of the day, Jeff goes back home only to reveal, surprise, that Dean Pelton has purchased the condo next door. Cue laugh track.
Perhaps the biggest problem with last night’s show is a lack of narrative cohesion. There are four full plot strands going on at the same time — Jeff’s quest to get into “History of Ice Cream,” Annie and Shirley’s prank escapades, ABED TV and Britta and Troy making wishes — but none of them get enough screen time to make much of an impression.
It makes for a show that feels rudderless, glued barely together by a weird and late-to-the-party spoof of The Hunger Games. By the cute ending tag, I already began forgetting the episode.
If anything, “History 101” makes you appreciate Harmon’s Community more. A lot of the scenes in the episode feel like something out of earlier seasons, but the episode as a whole ends up coming off strangely hollow.
The old Community pulled off a tricky balancing act — meta but not twee; ironic yet also deeply earnest. On the evidence of last night’s premiere, the new Community leans far too heavily on the meta shtick. Many of its Harmon-esque gags land with embarrassing thuds; I’m looking at you, Greendale Babies.
I’ve spent most of this recap comparing “History 101” to Harmon’s Community because the episode invites, nay, demands these comparisons. “History 101” is an unapologetic imitation of Harmon’s creative tendencies and running gags without anything fresh to add to the show’s formula.
All of this comes down to the most essential question plaguing Community fans: Is the show still worth watching? The answer is a qualified yes. To call “History 101” the worst episode of Community would be to forget how rocky the first half of season one was and to forget that even Harmon has goofed several times (“Competitive Wine Tasting,” anyone?). I also like the graduation angle as a means for encouraging growth in the show’s characters.
Season four feels different, but not different enough. I have hope that Guarascio and Port, along with the talented writers and cast, will find the courage to take Community in new directions, instead of just remixing old glories unconvincingly.
Until then, I’ll still tune in to watch Troy and Abed back from summer.
