Changnesia

A digression: my other idea for a blog, if I hadn’t done this one, would have consisted of my making fun of negative reviews of The Tree of Life.  So it pained me to find in this episode of Community a lazy and negative reference to Tree of Life.  Oy.  (and please, go out right now and watch the film, if you haven’t already.  Or even if you have).

But I’m back—cause aside from that, this last week’s episode was a return to form.  Not up with the best half-hours, certainly, but solid—clever, funny, relatively sustained.  A bit too much learning and emotion for me at the end, but largely well-done.

Please, Todd, you’ve been learning so much recently.  My fingers are crossed.  Half of me thinks you’re like “Kevin” on Community—that you’ve been reborn, forgetting that terrible critic “Chang” who you used to be in the past, who liked “character beats” and “emotional journeys.”  I like this new Kevin guy better—he seems to appreciate humor.  You know, in a sitcom. 

So, what did you think?

In story terms, “Advanced Documentary Filmmaking” is likely the best episode of the season.

Ok—this bodes well.

In fact, I quite liked the last act of this episode, which was less laugh-filled

Of course you did.  The fewer laughs the better!

—but had some nice dramatic reversals and some good moments in it.

Dramatic reversals.  What I’m looking for in a comedy.  Plot twists.  My favorite comedy: The Usual Suspects. 

Oh, God.  Chang Werff is back!  Hide the women and children!

Community has always been a show whose greatest theme might be forgiveness,

The clichés have returned!  Yup, it’s the old Werff, no doubt. 

the ability to find a place where people won’t judge you for who you were but who you are.

Groan.

(Maybe Abed wasn’t so far off when he pulled that copy of Lost out of the box in “Abed’s Uncontrollable Christmas.”)

Why do you like Lost so much?  You’re like the last remaining apologist for that show.

In that sense, the idea that “Kevin” Chang might have a literal condition that erases his past and makes him a better person in the present is the ultimate manifestation of that theme.

Yup—a better person.  That’s all that matters.  Though, I hate to tell you, becoming a better person isn’t fucking funny, so the show wisely revealed that Chang’s redemption was all a ruse.  Cause, you know, they want to be funny and all. 

Acceptance is currency at Greendale Community College

Beware financial metaphors.  Always beware financial metaphors. 

The bigger issue, as always this season, is that the jokes just aren’t as good as they were. Not to turn this into my own weekly laugh tally (okay, completely to turn it into that), but I laughed aloud once, and I smiled a handful of other times.

I’m torn, Todd.  On one hand, I’m encouraged that you’re judging the show on its comedy.  This seems like progress.  On the other hand, I found the episode funnier than you’re giving it credit for. 

When it’s not leaning on jokes that were funny in the past, it’s hitting the whimsy button hard, then hoping that our affection for the characters is enough to carry the day. What I’m finding as we get deeper into the season is that this is definitely true for the storytelling in the better episodes, which is a bit softer than it was in the first three seasons of the show and doesn’t go to as many unexpected places, but definitely has the ability to produce moments that play off our affection for the characters and show them as the human beings they are beneath all the sitcom artifice.

I know I’ve said this a lot.  But they are not “human beings.”  There is no “beneath.”  They are, in fact, all “sitcom artifice.”  Because they don’t exist. 

Also, you like to fancy yourself an analyst of television.  Eschewing the supposedly easy road of pointing out when things on the show are funny, and really delving into the “affection for the characters” or whatever you want to call it.  But holy shit, are you imprecise.  “Softer”?  “Unexpected places”?  What the fuck  are you talking about?  Be specific.  In what ways are the jokes more expected? 

You provide only one example in the whole recap:

Was there a real reason for yet more cop show stuff in the middle of a documentary story, other than the fact that we all enjoyed the Law & Order episode and/or enjoy hearing Troy call Annie Houlihan?

Well, it was funny.  So there’s that.  But yeah, sure that was a little repetitive.  But that’s your only example.  And it’s not like the show didn’t repeat the documentary premise already in its first three seasons that you now claim you liked so much.  So if you say this episode wasn’t good, don’t resort to comments about how it lacked “soul”—show me how it was worse!  Oh, right.  That would require actual analysis.  Why would I need that in a review? 

You mentioned in an earlier recap that you wanted to do a comparison of the camera techniques and sets between seasons three and four.  That’s analysis.  That would be illuminating.  Maybe if you weren’t writing these recaps, you could actually be saying something insightful. 

But the jokes are less interested in trying to be off-the-wall or original or daring. They’ve very much settled into a place where the show goes to its most reliable comedic wells and counts on whatever residual affection you have for those wells carrying you through.

Are they less “off-the-wall”?  I think jokes about a naked Asian man escaping from a trout farm are pretty off-the-wall.  Gonna provide any evidence? 

Also, speaking of going to “reliable comedic wells” too often, here’s a quote from last week’s recap:

Other than that, though, the “Jeff meets his dad” storyline was a potent reminder of why the show has borne such fruit from going to this well so many times.

Hm.  Wells.  You seem to mention them a lot.  Do you know have plumbing where you live?  I’m concerned. 

But I can’t say that the jokes are really all that funny, and that can be a problem in a more traditional sitcom like Community, where there need to be at least a few laughs

So, in nontraditional sitcoms, apparently you don’t need any laughs.  Like The Wire, or CSI:NY, or The Good Wife.  Those are fabulous sitcoms! 

I do wonder whether you’re watching the same show as me when you refer to Community as a traditional sitcom.  By golly, it’s just like The Honeymooners!

Comparing the show to its own past is going to continually be disappointing at this point, I suppose, not just because of the vital creative personnel who have left but also because the show is just getting older, and it’s lost a step. This happens. Shows get old, and at a certain point, a switch flips where the drama is almost more successful than the comedy (see also: the final season of The Office, which I haven’t laughed at once but have found compelling as stories about characters I used to care about confronting their worst fears).

I give up, Todd.  I’ve been having the creeping suspicion for a while now that, buried beneath your newfound attention to the actual jokes in Community and your sometimes legitimate critiques of this season, you simply have lost interest in the show for reasons totally unrelated to its actual quality.  Because, let’s face it, you never really liked it.  You always wanted to it be a “larger, warmer whole” with more journeys and beats and magical elves.  The show is not going to “continually be disappointing” now.  Not if you actually pay attention.  Yes, it’s absolutely worse without Dan Harmon, whose name you can’t seem to bring yourself to mention.  But it’s still capable of some good laughs.  It’s not just that its “getting older, and it’s lost a step.”  It’s gotten worse because of changes made by NBC.  But even if the show was still brilliant, you’d be harping on the problems of fourth seasons or some-such bullshit. 

And finally, if you find the final season of The Office compelling for any reason—but particularly because of the “stories about characters I used to care about confronting their worst fears” then you should never be reviewing comedy ever again.  Period.  They’re called scripted dramas.  Watch them; write about them.  But for the sake of the rest of us, stay away from comedy. 

Ladies and gentlemen, Todd Chang is back!