Community – Nothing left unsaid (and that’s a good thing)

by Kona Gallagher

COMMUNITY-Introduction-to-Film

I pointed out in my review of Community‘s premiere, that one of the things I liked was how they didn’t use standard sitcom conventions, such as using meaningful looks to convey a conversation and come to a decision between characters. Community is continuing to not leave anything unsaid, and instead of it seeming like they think the audience is stupid, it’s working to make it stand out from the rest of the single-camera sitcoms on air.

I’ve made no bones about my love for Abed, and how it looked as though the show — instead of making him the one-dimensional “weird one” — was going to actually make him into a real human being. This episode lives up to that promise. They take his love of movies, which is evident in every episode we’ve seen, and make it into more than just a quirk in an already quirky personality. It’s a way — as his father says — to help him be understood.

Abed is weird, and he knows it. And rather than having his personality just be a joke, the writers took it further and made him aware of it. Not only that, but they allowed this joke that they’ve been heavily using to actually have some tragedy associated with that. Abed feels as though he is the reason his mother left his father. I’ll fully admit that I’m a huge sap, but I’ll be damned if that thing didn’t make me teary when I watched it. It must have been the situation or something, because as I watch it again, it’s not having the same affect on me, but I still find it very impressive.

Abed isn’t the only character, though, who is being questioned. Jeff (Joel McHale) is challenged as well. Ordinarily, his character would just be a self-conscious slacker with no further questions asked, but as part of his “Carpe Diem” class, his affectations are totally pointed out.

I appreciate how Jeff’s meticulous bed head and his sweatpant/blazer combos aren’t only meant to tell the viewer a little bit about the character, but are also supposed to let the people around him know who Jeff is. He does work really hard at appearing cool and above it all. And it’s not the first time they’ve said it on the show, but for all of the ridicule Joel McHale heaps upon Ryan Seacrest on The Soup, he sincerely does resemble an overgrown version of the diminutive uber-host. That’s just science — and is definitely worth pointing out.

Here’s an embedded version of Abed’s student film, Six Candles.