How does Greendale fare after Community’s online move?

[dropcap]S[/dropcap]o Community has been rescued from the jowls of cancellation for the third time: great! Only this time it’s different, in that the show has finally left the feathers of its peacock parent (known to some as simply ‘NBC’) for the open arms of Yahoo!, a website that I’m sure many of us thought was as relevant as AOL. But a good thing is a good thing, and from early reports it seems that Community has found a happier home in the online domain.

In a recent interview, Joel McHale (who plays Jeff Winger in the show) explained that the key difference between NBC and Yahoo! is that the latter is actually excited to produce, promote, and generally participate in the making of the show. It shouldn’t come as a surprise: while Community has always had an astonishingly loyal fan base, it never even cracked the ratings list of TV’s Top 100; which, for cable executives, makes it a worthless pile of crap. Without the support of fans of both the show and Dan Harmon (its show-runner, who has a uniquely appealing public persona), it’s hard to imagine that Community would have been more than a one-season wonder to be found in the bargain bin of ASDA, among shows like Flashforward and Firefly (sorry). However, the fans have spoken; Community’s back; but how has the transition actually affected the show?

Photo: Flickr/Gage Skidmore

For a start, it’s longer, at 29 minutes per episode as opposed to 25. The cast has also had another re-shuffle, with Yvette Nicole Brown (who played Shirley Bennet) departing to take care of her ill father. With only four of the original seven study group members remaining (along with Dean Pelton (Jim Rash) and Chang (Ken Jeong), obviously), can the dynamic of the show survive? Well, of course it can: it’s Community! Two new cast members have been drafted in to fill the void: Paget Brewster as Francesca Dart, a member of administrative staff; and Keith David as Elroy Patashnik, an eccentric inventor who enrolls at the college.

From the first episode, the show is clearly trying to find its feet in new territory. It’s a new year at Greendale, and while the ‘Save Greendale Committee’ has been successful in refurbishing the college, it still hasn’t done enough — as is demonstrated when the roof collapses from too many lost Frisbees. Enter Francesca ‘Frankie’ Dart, who threatens to upset the wacky shenanigans of the study group by being, you know, a sensible, rational person who doesn’t belong in a sitcom. The group resists, setting up an underground speakeasy from the 50s to drink and live out a fantasy, and through the power of montage succeed in turning the campus into a zone of wild merriment.

Of course, it doesn’t take a genius to see that living this lifestyle is dangerous, so when a Ladders seminar goes wrong the group realise that Frankie might have a place among them after all.

While Community is often a show about weird people doing weird things, I’ve actually liked it best when it’s been grounded in reality. As much as I enjoyed the previous season, I really wanted to see more story lines about, say, Jeff being a teacher, rather than the (admittedly excellent) homages to Zodiac and G.I. Joe. With the announcement that a concept episode won’t crop up until episode eight, this season looks to be more grounded, which I think is rather wonderful. Part of this may come from the fact that Community doesn’t need to do novel things any more to attract viewership. At NBC the feeling was “Look, we’re doing Apollo 13! Now we’re doing Pulp Fiction! Please watch us!”, but now the series can breathe and — most importantly — be itself.

Episode one is a good set-up, but episode two is where things really come to life

The two story lines — one where Dean Pelton buys a virtual reality machine, and one where Britta (Gillian Jacobs) discovers that her parents have been trying to contact her again through her friends — both generate big laughs, particularly in the former’s send up of 90s-era computer graphics. Yet the episode’s conclusion is rather sweet as well, and drives home the message that while change can be scary it can also be superficial; that everything we value can, essentially, stay the same: a message which really does apply to the show.

Harmon has stated that Community can go on for at least three more seasons, and I think that’s true; it’s certainly outgrown its promise of #sixseasonsandamovie. And while I think that some fans might be dissatisfied by everything ‘new’ about the show, for me, it’s still the same old Community.