Community, Season Three

Community, sit-com extraordinaire, has returned to grace network TV with madcap hijinks and rapid-fire reference jokes. It's like a gorgeous hipster chick with severe personality disorders, and also she is kind of a pariah. Excuse that sentence... it doesn't seem right somehow.

But a third season was unthinkable two years ago. In fact, a third season was unthinkable a year ago. Truthfully it's still kind of unthinkable, so when I watched the premiere I watched carefully, as if holding a priceless, ornate, fragile thing with my eyes.

The season opened with a completely ridiculous musical piece which promised a very normal, happy, and good year that would be different from the other two years. This is because lots of people complained about the show being wacky. Some people don't like crazy shit on TV. Community courts this disaster of cognitive dissonance because some episodes are serious while others include scheming, simulated warfare, imagination, or madcap hijinks. I'll explain quickly - some episodes do not have zombie invasions and some episodes do not have characters confronting inner demons and other problems d'esprit.

The show's approach has meant that certain characters have changed from being near-sympathetic to unthinkable jackasses. The show has toyed with characters who are annoying catchphrase shouters. The show plays with identity because life plays with identity. If the game becomes a neon-lit nightmare where raw humor is overtaken by spectacle then it attracts some viewers and disappoints others. So, in essence, the show is probably the most challenging show out there. Even if you want to try to catch more than half of the references in an episode, for the watching to be worthwhile you need a belly laugh at least once.

For me, the show has delivered. It has had low points, certain characters been uncomfortably weak, and some situations and premises did not interest me. I watched regardless. I kept my distance from the hype/anti-hype machine of fans on the internet. In a way I treat Community as I treat Minecraft, except that Community has no risk of overdose. The once-a-week model fits it perfectly. There is suspense, there are character arcs, there are laughs and even though the first season will always be assessed as superior: it's only because it came out of the blue, because it was new at the time, and because of nostalgia.

I haven't said much about the show's third season. There's only been one episode. It reminded me a lot of the previous seasons' first episodes. Lots of promise, no way to know what's going on, and mild disappointment. But the first season took a few episodes to start rolling, and it rolled like a beautiful bastard all the way to its finale. Season two managed to function under the sophomore curse. Season three has looked back and laughed about the past, which implies self-consciousness and purview. This could mean anything.