Hey everyone, it's Farrah! Welcome to First Episode / Last Episode, where I watch only the pilot and finale of a show and give you my thoughts. Today, I'm going to be talking about Community.
I don't know much about Community, but I do know that this meme came from the show:
I also know Joel McHale because I used to watch The Soup a lot, so I thought it was really weird when he became the star of a TV show considering he liked making fun of TV so much. To my knowledge, the show is about people in community college. So...let's jump right into the pilot!
We start by setting the scene at community college, where all the stereotypes are pointed out by the dean. Here, Joel McHale meets a student named Abed.
Then they start awkwardly staring at a girl from Spanish class after Joel calls her "hot." Clearly, they are not going to leave her alone. Let this poor woman study!
Meanwhile, the blonde is sitting there trying to mind her own business.
Joel plays a guy named Jeff who was a lawyer but, like, not really. He lied about his degree and now he has to actually get one, which is why he's here at community college. He also demands the test answers to every single test in every class he's in this semester from a professor friend.
Instead of acting like a normal guy and starting a normal conversation, Jeff decides he — a white guy — will pretend he's an ~expert~ in the Spanish language to try and get with this girl.
Jeff's plan blows up in his face when Abed invites more people from their Spanish class to his study session.
Then, without trying to get to know any of them, he finds an excuse to leave and tells Britta (aka the blonde) this:
Then everyone starts fighting for some reason and Jeff decides to attempt to diffuse the situation, which leads to Troy explaining the definition of sexual harassment.
Annie apparently knows Troy from high school, and they have some beef. She seems like she'll be the go-getter of the group, but who knows?
Jeff gets a call from his professor friend and is like "BRB work out your issues" and everyone's just kind of like:
The professor friend gives him what he wants in exchange for his luxury car for a year. Because he is the scam king, he accepts.
When Jeff gets back, Britta is like, "This is the actual worst."
So then Jeff gives this speech which is a combination of weird and overly dramatic...
...and I imagine everyone is like, "We just came here to learn Spanish, my man." But whatever, because I guess it works in the theme of the show.
Jeff comes clean about who he is and why he started a "study group," and Britta's like, "boy bye."
When he leaves, he opens the "test answers" only to discover *gasp* he's actually going to have to put in the work.
When he confronts his professor friend, he discovers he can't cheat his way through a degree like he did when he scammed the system to be a lawyer.
Then all the study group people come outside and give Jeff sympathy he really doesn't deserve and invite him back? Imagine a guy catfishing your group of friends and then you guys saying, "Well that was weird, but guess we're moving past it immediately!!!"
Then Jeff follows them inside. The end.
Let's get to the finale right...NOW.
Wow. Starting off very strong. IDK this guy, but I love his vibe.
Oh boy, there are only a few characters I recognize from the pilot! What happened to Troy? And Pierce? At least we have Jeff, Annie, Abed, and Britta. Apparently, they all just saved the school somehow?
Then it starts to get weird as the characters talk about their "lives" as a "TV show" and it's all very meta. Then the dean comes in and this happens:
Everyone starts talking about what "Season 7" of their "lives" would look like and it starts sounding like a script thrown together in a writer's room of people who didn't have any real ideas of how to end a show?! Or, honestly, this could just be how the show is and I obviously don't get it.
There's a couple different scenarios that happen when they imagine "what happens next," like this:
And...this?
And this:
I feel bad for saying this, but I'm pretty bored at this point. Jeff reigns it in and is like, "We're just sitting here imagining a TV show about our lives!!! How dumb!!"
More Season 7 pitches are thrown out.
We get some fart jokes.
Then Jeff gets ~sad~ and leaves his friends only to go to the library and stare dejectedly at *their table* like Max Ehrich did earlier this week at the beach.
And then Annie comes to cheer him up, but Jeff gets very melodramatic.
It's revealed that Annie and Jeff used to be a thing?! Who would have guessed? Not me.
Then he's like, "gimme one last kiss." It also alludes to the fact that she's in her twenties and he's maybe in his late thirties, so it's clear their life paths are very different at this point. Annie isn't going to stay at community college forever, Jeff!!!!!
We get a little callback to the pilot. Cute.
The ceremonious ~finale group hug~ happens:
The end.
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