Via: Tuned In
Would that I had a magic die. Before I watched the new episodes of Community, I could have tossed it into the air and created two separate timelines. In one timeline, I would have watched the new episodes knowing that they were made after the show’s creator, Dan Harmon, was forced out of the unique comedy he crafted like an obsessive jeweler. I would have known that the comedy was turned over to David Guarascio and Moses Port–experienced sitcom producers, but not the creators of what was a very personal, idiosyncratic vision–and that they were tasked with imitating the tone and style of what was as close to a piece of auteur art as broadcast TV allows. In the other timeline, I would not have known any of this. I would just have known I was watching two new episodes of Community. I have no magic die. I watched the episodes knowing about Harmon’s ouster, and I cannot un-know that. Which means I can’t know the extent to which I was influenced by that knowledge. Had I not known, maybe I would have simply thought that I watched, respectively, a disappointing episode of Community (tonight’s) and an OK episode of Community (airing in two weeks). Instead, I saw… well, a disappointing and an OK episode of Community. On the surface, anyway. The new episodes pick up where you’d have expected last year: the study group is in their fourth year at Greendale and starting to anticipate graduating, which is already starting to produce separation anxiety. They’re considering the future and life apart, which is making making for self-doubt and friction: all of which would be fertile ground for the weird but heartfelt series that Harmon had made the show into over three years. The new episodes, though, play like they were created by very talented writers who prepared by reading Community’s IMDB description. Community made some famous paintball episodes–so the return installment features a similar campus-wide competition to get into a coveted class. Community does a lot of parodies–so the
Read full story at: Tuned In
Posted: February 7th, 2013
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