yeah it does genuinely make me upset that they kinda just gave up on making her character any deeper than a punching bag, I really like Gillian Jacobs and I really want to like Britta
God Jim Rash was so funny through the entire show. I know his Payday rap is everyone's favorite, but for me it will always be the duality costume. When he realizes hes gone too far and worries about going to the bank? Gets me every single time.
Community is at its best imo when it just becomes a live action cartoon. That's why Season 3 is my absolute fav but I admit that you NEEDED those two prior seasons of things being more grounded for Season 3 to work
Funny, I always saw Biology 101 as more of an episode where Jeff struggles with his self-hatred and his belief deep down that the group doesn't actually LIKE him, they just tolerate him. Pierce is the foil to Jeff in that sense, because he is objectively a horrible person, and yet despite that Jeff truly believes that Pierce gets accepted for who he is, while Jeff himself is only accepted as long as he's useful/conforms/behaves in a certain way, and will be booted out of the group as soon as he commits the smallest mistake.
Season 3 always felt like the season where the writers got to be their most unhinged because they knew the show was not going to get renewed. That freedom of not having to conform to expectations allowed for the series to go full tilt into experimentation. With that bar being set so high, it was no wonder season four was so shaky. The new show runners had a lot to live up to, but none of the freedom to continue the show down the path season three started down.
Licensed material mark-ups. They can charge a hell of a lot more for a Star Wars set, and people will pay it, than an assortment of bricks with nonspecific designation.
While Season 3 isn't my favorite season, it's probably the highest quality season of them all, and this episode is definitely the most high quality of the season premieres
I have to jump in, out of my love for this great show. People complaining about the study group's reaction to Jeff's meltdown, are clearly not picking up on this. So, let's rewind: Pierce has gone from being a pretencious, pompous brat in Season 1 (telling Annie he can write a song he cannot, pretending to be qualified to therapize Britta), to being a truly bad friend in Season 2 (actively sabotaging everyone in D&D, having a bounty for Jeff in paintball), again: especially to Jeff. Pierce has been trying to connect to Jeff since the beginning, and those attempts have turned him bitter towards Jeff, since he is not interested in the kind of person Pierce is, a person who is a bad influence on him actually. So: Pierce comes back, as if nothing happened. Now, to the rest of the Study Group, this is great: Pierce was a part of them, an important part. But while he is just bigoted towards Britta and everyone else, he is an asshole to Jeff, like in Intermediate Documentary Filmmaking, where he exploits Jeff's truly sad past about his father, that has him actually traumatized. Now, realistically, you would hold a true resentment for someone who pulled that kind of stunt. So, it is understandable that Jeff is really angry towards Pierce, and is relieved of him leaving. (So far, everyone seems to be getting it.) Then, due to his insecurities, and a pretty hard hallucination, he has a meltdown. And in this meltdown, he is very dismissive, like calling Annie, the person whom he actually is most considerate towards (for reasons), "Boobs" (therefore, she is the one who reacts worse to the meltdown). And then he tries to break their table, to break their friendship. Now, for all intents and purposes, Pierce has NEVER tried to break the Study Group. Not even in the aforementioned Intermediate Documentary Filmmaking, where he only was trying to make Shirley feel bad. Let's go back to Season 1: Environmental Science and The art of discourse. In the first one, he sits in Jeff's chair to prove it gives him power over the group. In the second one, he pulls down Shirley's pants to fit in. That IS the source of Pierce's evil: his terrible insecurity. An everyone knows this. Even when he is being truly horrible to everyone, like in the D&D episode. Pierce wants to belong, so much that he decides to quit at one point. But Jeff is worse: Jeff tried to break the group for real. And that is a real violation of everyone in the study group, so it is understandable they are all very angry. But Pierce has lived through this, in The art of discourse, so he knows what to do: he has to take the blame for Jeff, as the original aggravated, so they can let him back in. Because the only way he managed to get Shirley to appreciate him again, instead of being falsely sorry, was to address her authentically, to tell her "I am also uncool for the rest like you". And here, he has to say, "yeah, but I am actually as bad as Jeff is, no biggie". All in all, this makes sense. This episode in sensible in exploring how far Jeff still is from being a healthy person.
Right on the money. I always felt it weird when people say that Pierce is bad because he is bad. He's bad because has to take the villain role in order to keep the study group together. He knows that if he wasn't then the study group would fall into infighting.
It also ignores the fear of terror one usually feels when someone runs towards you with an axe & chops up furniture with all the intensity of the Shining. For me, safety & that heightened emotion of terror doesn't just go away, even if a friend was under the influence of a drug. Whatever history happened with Pierce is set aside to deal with scary emotions. Pierce was insightful for how to defuse the situation, but the amount of "whataboutism" in comments pointing out "Pierce was way worse that Jeff!" assumes that emotions are always in equal proportion to the entire history of friendships, ranking each person in a list of badness. You can lose 2 friends at once, or keep both, however given the cell phone app of ranking turned into a dystopian nightmare, we know ranking can have downsides.
@@thedevicebook yes, as well. You have an axe involved. And recency bias, too. How would anyone else react to this kind of violence towards them? If this show was invested in being a drama, this kind of solution would have played out in multiple episodes, if at all. Which is also another sense in which you are right how Pierce manages to diffuse the situation: Pierce lead, by example, of reminding everyone that they also are unhealthy. They all know since Season 1 that Annie had a nervous breakdown, and that Shirley beat up her husband's mistress, they are not that different.
I think that the behind the scenes aspect of this season bleeds through the entire season. Harmon I think saw the writing on the wall, and this episode can reflect that. The whole season is about running with the biggest ideas, because I think there was an understanding this was possibly the last shot to make this show.
I would argue that the group turning on Jeff so hard makes sense. If you compare the crimes committed by Jeff and Pierce, yes, they don’t weigh the same. But that doesn’t take into account the person who did it. Pierce doesn’t foster high expectations. They already excuse a lot of garbage from Pierce because he’s Pierce. But Jeff is supposed to be a better person. The “dad” of the grip. They all look to him as the leader. So the bar of expectation is higher. When he does isn’t bad compared to Pierce, but it’s way below his standard, so the reaction of everybody else makes sense. It’s not the crime. It’s the criminal.
Intentionally or not, season 3 is the “pay a heavy price” portion of Dan Harmon’s own story circle - the characters and their needs are established, they’ve entered and adapted to an unfamiliar world, got what they desired (a literal sense of Community), but the show is, by that time, an esoteric one with an esoteric audience that duly loves it for that strangeness/otherness but who aren’t enough in number to make the studio happy. That heavy price is therefore losing Dan for season 4, who then returns (having changed) for seasons 5 and 6.
I started watching Community specifically for the promise of wacky cartoon-y adventures, so I didn't miss the grounded slice of life aspects at all. That wackiness was the pitch that drew me in. But I guess that would be different depending on your expectations of the show coming in.
I find Kane kicking Jeff out of the class because of his ringtone one of the most realistic moments in the whole show, lol. About season 3, my standing is that it has some of the most memorable episodes/concepts in the entire show's run... but that's it, concepts. For me season 2 is when the show was at it's best, with coherent arcs and ability to play the wackiness within the bounds of natural character developments and dynamics. Character building was also the strongest in season 2 (Pierce's gradual villain arc is my all-time favorite), and the caricatures of Britta and Chang in season 3 for me were just hard to watch.
Season 2 and 3 I'd say are my favourite seasons. But I loved the series as a whole, though with the loss of Chevy, Donald and Yvette later on hurt the series.
Season 3 is literally about the show. The Air Conditioner School is General-Electric, which owned NBC, and they want Donald Glover/Troy because he's a breakout character with a huge audience with his music career. (Childish Gambino is signed to a label owned by Universal and GE) Greendale/Community is not important to them. The school board guys is NBC executives. They want Chang/Ken Yeong, the other breakout star, and they don't care if he takes over the school/show the same way the execs of Family Matters handed over the show to Urkel. Harmon has said he saw himself as Jeff, so his battle with Pierce just mirrors Chevy and Dan's on set antagony.
When I got into the show, it seemed the first three seasons were universally beloved. But the more time I spent among fans, I noticed more people finding the cracks in Season 3.
I watch downloaded community episodes when I’m in a plain or road trips, a season at a time. Season 3 is always my favourite one to revisit tbh because of how it’s so much more entertaining than the rest for me
Just watched your two community videos back to back. God I love this show. I can rewatch any episode and will still get a laugh out of me and it won't bore me, no matter how many times I watch it. I really hope you'll make videos on season 4-6, there aren't a lot of videos on them! Just rewatched 5-6 and I really really enjoyed it despite the "drop in quality" (according to naysayers)
Season five has Intergluteal Numismatics which any fan should have in their top 5 episode list at least. Even if it didn't also have multiple other bangers, having the ACB is enough. One of my favorite episodes of any sitcom ever.
In defense of Annie & the group, Jeff running towards me with an axe & chopping up a table might be a dealbreaker too. I love Jeff but don't want to be axe-murdered. The "what about Pierce" & comparing Pierce historically to what Jeff did recently seems to miss that Jeff behaved in a scary manner, and while it was due to a mind-altering gas, in the moment that is still scary.
IMO season 2 and 3 might be tied for best season. Season 1 was on unsure footing and relied super heavily on standard sitcom tropes despite being a sitcom parody/satire. It's weird watching back through it and hearing the sheer quantity of licensed music and how each episode almost always wraps up in some Full-House kind of way. Season two started down the path of true wackiness and season 3 fully embraced it.
Great video brother! Please keep em coming. There aren't many Community related videos on RU-vid especially where people dive into the writing and creativity of it all. You're doing god's work!
I never liked the overall season three plot, but it also has my five favorite episodes of the entire show, the Ken Burns, parody pillows and blankets, the law and order parody, basic lupine urology, the documentary filmmaking Apocalypse now commercial, the deconstruction of negative thinking in basic systems analysis, and of course, remedial chaos theory.
I lean a little more towards season 2 being my favorite one, but season 3 is a very very close second. They're both Community working at its absolute best in my mind.
Pretty much, they realized she wasn't going to end up with JEff so din;t need to be as "smart" all the time and once they started pairing her with Troy, it was better to have her and troy be the paralel to Jeff/Annie.
I love the "We're gonna live forever" in the opening number because at first it's just a throwaway line you'd find in this sort of song, but in hindsight it's also indicative of Jeff's fear of aging.
"but it slaps" YES, there is such ridiculousness in this season but I was along for the ride the whole time, I was never taken out of it for one moment.
I like that each season premiere reflects the state of the show at that time. I like to think season 3's absurdity is attributed to Dan's reaction to the decline in ratings then telling the network something like: So you don't like the weird stuff huh? Well I'm gonna be so fuckin weird whether you like it or not!
Since I didn't know about the behind the scenes firing of Dan Harmon I was confused by fans saying "gas leak" year because I have enjoyed every single season of Community, without ranking them too heavily. I was pleasantly surprised by the 6th season as reboots tend to be horrible yet it blew me away in some important ways. I am jazzed for the movie.
Another great video 👍 if you ever have the time, I'd like to hear your thoughts on the Pierce-Jeff relationship in the episode, "Economics of Marine Biology"
I am the Truest Repair Fan! I love the series in it's entirety so much, and through all of the several reinventions and evolutions, and am a card carrying member of Season Six Defense Force. Three is definitely fascinating when considered as the nexus point of change for the show.
Season 3 had the highest highs, but it cost the balance the show had in season 2. I'm very thankful for both seasons, but then again I am for the whole show! :D
It was definitely my favorite season, it stood out from other similar shows because it was willing to just be absurdist. Also, the best class is Ladders. (I graduated with an Associates in Werner Extension Ladders)
Britta's main problem isn't just mischaracterization and flanderization. People seem to think that she could only either be the smart S1 version, or the absurd character of the later seasons. it's not a dichotomy. All the characters in this show can be absurd. Almost all of the characters are also intelligent in some unique capacity. Jeff is a perfect example of a character that can be both intelligent and yet stupid -- mainly because his intellect is often superseded when he is provoked. In fact, all the main characters in the series have that distinct characterization of a competent, sane exterior hiding an absurd, emotional internal self that expressed when tension rises. Britta falls flat later on because she loses that competent exterior completely. She immediately dives into the stupid antics, and they come off as one dimensional. Yet, the idea of secretly being zany while trying their hardest to appear cool is already a role taken by Jeff. Even early on, Troy was characterized in a similar way -- a cool jock whose secretly uncool. This dynamic is played out on the entire spectrum of the show. Between these options, most of the unique value of britta's character can be drained. If troy could be seen as the shallower Jeff, than it might have been effective to have Britta take the opposite dynamic with Annie as the shallower interpretation. Annie is a intelligent competent character who easily reveals a silly side to her. In contrast to both jeff and to be distinct from annie, Britta could have been the intelligent character, and the comedy in her character would be her struggle to reveal a wacky, illogical but sincere self to her friends. Instead, she becomes the 'worst,' a stupid character who can't get a good social read like pierce, but is kept around for her looks effectively. Jeff struggles to appear intelligent and cool and collected, and is provoked to stoop to a lower level. Britta should be an intelligent character who sincerely struggles to match the wackiness of her friends despite her best efforts -- with her always either over or under doing it. it wouldn't be the hardest expectation to establish as a writer, and she could remain nearly identical to her later depiction because of it.
Your point on change to restore the status quo is a pithy descriptor of the show as a whole. Which is in itself the show's own meta commentary on the "status quo" present in the sitcom.
I would say season 3 kinda backed ppl into a corner on narratives going into season 4. A. Troy and Britta were on track to hookup B. Abed was becoming more of this case study than the Aspy (non derogatory useage) glue of the group. C. Britta degeneration into nonsense was pretty much set in stone to virtually unredeemable. D. Even with Dan back season 5 and 6 had a decent amount of season 4 vibes. E. A bunch of other shit I need to rewatch and make MT own youtube video
To me there is a progression to the tone of Community and as you mention it, season 3 is the defining one, and I love it, very much so, Even if season 2 is better, season 3 really made "6 seasons and a movie" a thing to be hungry for.
The opening number and manifesto beginning Season 3 may be the best fuck you to a television network ever conceived. The end credits of the last Season 5 episode is a pretty great fuck you to the network as well.
season three is my favorite season. It felt like the show finally found their footing and all the development came to pass in this season. The characters were at their strongest and the plot was overall the best.
its that thin line between the writers clearly improvising and giving us individual comedy stories with no connection and consequences, and what community did which was the opposite
@11:02 - That's the crux of the season - Pierce's evolution. Episode 69 always struck me as being aired out-of-sequence, I assumed it was supposed to bookend the season - Pierce applying what he learned in episode 71 (which would be the penultimate episode in the running order I assume was intended) to his interpersonal relationship with Gilbert, and getting to reap the rewards of his hard-learned tolerance and personal growth. It starts with Pierce accepting that he could be the bad guy; and ends with him realising that he could be the good guy, the hero - and in doing so he finds himself surrounded by family that won't reject him, unlike his father-cum-nemesis.
I always took it as the group having different expectations of Pierce and Jeff. pierce was insufferable from the jump whereas Jeff was always charming and likable (almost despite himself) so for him to go axe murder mode is such whiplash that it made them too uncomfortable to stomach. All that being said it's more an explanation for me than the show actually commenting on the study groups imbalanced perspective.
Only Troy, Abed, and Britta really had the right to get freaked over that. Annie and Shirley both got violent in the past. They should know one outburst does not a psycho make.
what i took it as was like when a bad student does bad on a test, the teacher doesn't scold them bc they're used to it. But if an avg student does bad, they'll probably give them a talk bc it's out of the norm. The fact that Jeff has never *really* acted like that before makes his actions seem that much worse.
Season 1 was the best season, followed by season 2, then season 3. I can rewatch season 1 all day every day. Just our group going to class, grades, studying, blow off classes, attending dances, hanging out on the campus and interacting with other students. That - was Community. The further they got away from that, the more they relied on parody, bottle, and gimmick episodes, the worse it got.
I like season 1 most because that's when the Greendale Seven's relationship was at its purest and wholesomest form. Yeah, they did have these kinds of moments/episodes in following seasons, but this was the season where it was at the forefront. It's why I don't care about Jeff X Britta, or Jeff x Annie, because I feel this group works best as a platonic unit.
It’s hard for me to even judge the seasons relatively (excepting season 4 being the worst obviously) because I like this show so much more than almost everything else. I mean, there are some great classic sitcoms out there (Seinfeld, Fraser, IT Crowd, Fawlty Towers) but eventually they become simply comfort food and loose any sense of being innovative or risky. Community remains impressive and complicated many years on.
Personally season 3 is the second favourite. For me, it’s whackier nature sacrifices the consistency of quality found in season 2. It definitely reaches slightly higher heights at times, but if season 2 is already giving 10s, going slightly higher a couple of times ain’t worth it. Biology 101 is an ok episode, but there is a major failure of characterisation. Whilst I agree that the flanderisation of the characters in community were to the show’s, and season 3’s, benefit, but biology 101 has the interesting issue that the characters suddenly become realistic in their treatment of Jeff after he took an axe to the table. It stands out as a moment of clarity, which makes me wanna feel really awkward if you think about it. The group is also obedient to Jeff to an extent not seen since season 1, which to me also sticks out, though gets away with itself in a sense, due to it being already odd how eager the group are to allow pierce to return. So good season, middling episode.
That second comment hating on the episode is so funny to me because it completely lacks awareness. The entire season is about how awful the study group is, how toxic towards each other but especially outsiders. The third episode of this same season displays how awful the group is toward everyone. Like... yeah, duh, the group is in fact comprised of mostly not great people.
It's surprising to hear people don't really like this episode. It was the first one I ever saw and I immediately fell in love with it. That doesn't really happen to me and shows like ever, but Bio 101 did it for me.
"We're gonna have more fun and be less weird than the first two years combined." Sneaky brilliant line. If you do the math, this can still be true even though Season 3 was definitely the weirdest season yet.
The secret AC repair society was my favorite plot thread in the whole show. How they have all these ancient rites and rituals, and Troy is like their messiah, but he's deeply disturbed by it. "Take this man to the infinite labrynth of eternal ice..." "YEAH!" "NO! Take him to the police. He murdered someone. Take him to jail... You guys are weird..." 😂😂
I don't get these criticisms of this episode. Kane kicking Jeff out was a little bit of an overreaction but not outside the realm of possibility. Throughout the show, people read Jeff like an open book. He can be disrespectful and Kane could probably tell Jeff might be a troublemaker and wanted him out for being disrespectful. That's how I always read that scene. And Annie wanting to cut contact with Jeff makes total sense. He's always been someone who is petty and selfish but usually keeps his cool. Jeff suddenly attacking the study room with an axe is honestly quite an alarming and sudden turn. The viewers know what led Jeff to that point and can sympathize but the group doesn't. All they saw was Jeff was fine one day and then the next said something racist and then attacked the table with a fire axe. Pierce may have been a villain in season 2 and done some shitty things but he was already regarded by the group as being a racist, sexist ass and never had such a sudden violent outburst. With Jeff, someone they thought they knew suddenly became somebody they didn't know at all and possibly very dangerous. Makes sense to want to stop being friends with him.
With Kane, he's stern, but also principled and fair, so it's out of character for him to kick out a student for such an easy mistake, especially when Jeff was just trying to turn off his phone and pay attention. Even at Greendale, I can't see this even being allowed. There would definitely be a process to kicking out a student out of a class permanently. In terms of teaching Jeff a lesson, we the audience know this will be valuable to Jeff, but Kane literally is just seeing Jeff for the first time, and is basing this on one awkward encounter. With Jeff being kicked out of the group, it's very obvious that Jeff is going through a serious mental health crisis, even without the monkey gas context, and the group, with all of it's flaws, does support each others mental health, such as when Pierce OD'ed or when Abed saw the world in claymation, and are overall, very forgiving. Given Annie's past with pill addiction, it's especially out of character for her to write off Jeff completely.
@@davidmhh9977 This is only the first episode we see Kane so we don't know what's in or out of character for him. If anything, later episodes retcon this characterization rather than this being out of character. But in any case, Kane barely had any classes before he pegged the study group as the mean clique. The seize the day prof also barely knew Jeff but could tell what kind of student he was. And the way Jeff acted in that scene was a little disrespectful; the kind of thing certain kinds of parents would call "talking back." Or at the least he wasn't showing respect in the way he responded. And the things you listed are forgivable things. They're not hurting anybody but themselves. But also the group was aware of the underlying issues in those circumstances. They didn't know what was going on with Jeff in part because Jeff made a big speech about being evolved and gave the impression he was okay with being apart from the group. So to then show up acting deranged, saying racist things and suddenly swinging a fire axe around, nobody else had done anything as extreme as that or had such a heel turn in personality. That's why it's justifiable that the group would want to distance themselves from Jeff. Annie thought an ugly, never before seen side of Jeff was peaking out.
It was the whole "Beat up the biggest guy in the prison yard" mind set. If Kane knocked down the cool slacker right away, the rest of the students would fall in line.
@@davidmhh9977 Yeah. Annie and Shirley should both know a single outburst does not a psycho make. They should have told jeff he can't come to the study room until he gets some help.
Pierce is so important to Community, as well as being one of the funniest parts of the show. I think that's why seasons 5 and 6 don't quite work like the first three seasons do.
One of my favourite seasons in TV history (right next to the best season of BCS,BB,The Wire etc.) It Chang’d my life But I didn’t like the fact that they slowly Britta’d Britta’s character
You could see the actual moment towards the back end of season 3 when Harman was booted and other people were running the show. To me, there's a bell curve to the show that only changes slightly with season 6. The Chang dynasty stuff was the weakest part and really hurt the back half of season 3
The group, excluding Jeff, had forgiven Pierce for being a villain by saving Greendale by donating the $100,000 paintball prize to rebuilding the school over the summer. As for Annie wanting to terminate her friendship with Jeff, well, expectations play a part. Jeff had severely disappointed Annie's expectations of him which are much much much much higher than her expectations from Pierce and is the disappointment that causes is what causes Annie to be so harsh. Pierce just couldnt disappointment Annie because she expects him to be a disappointment. That aspect of Pierce's relationship with the study group mirrors his relationship with his father.
Annie had to be let down several times by Pierce though, so that doesn't really line up. It's more like Any was over reacting due to letting things slide with pierce for so long and her thinking a firm response would make Jeff change so in a couple weeks he could be let back in.
As a pansexual, hearing him say "pansexual" out loud in a show made me happy how weird he was, yet aware of how audiences of shows sometimes bristle at weird characters. Community embraces the weird. By the way, pansexuality (attraction to all genders) doesn't have to result in (Dean-Jeff) obsessive crushes on presumably straight men like Jeff (however some compelling video essays & clip compilations show Jeff might be in denial about some things regarding his orientation, though he can certainly refuse to date the Dean regardless of what orientation either lands on.
