Category Archives: Dan Harmon

Analog This: Community Season 5 Premiere, and the Meaning of Greendale

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“Community” has had such a troubled run. At the same time, it is also more privileged than most shows. Besides multiple hiatuses and threats of cancellation, the show has seen one showrunner get fired and then re-hired. But the loud voices of the Internet spoke, and Dan Harmon’s vision got to beat on.

And to that I say, “amen.”
I would have been okay if “Community” had gotten canned after its third season. However, if it had ended with the bitter taste of season four, that would not have felt right. So, there is a fifth season of “Community.” And once again, I say “amen.”

Analog This: Community, Pillow Fights, and Storytelling Algorithems

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 The Changlourious Basterds.

Earlier this week, while reading a document for my English class, I realized something: studying theory can really suck, especially when words such as “interpellation” are used every other word. So I vow now, when discussing a comedic pop culture artifact* such as “Community,” I will do all I can to stay away from such language.

This seems necessary, especially when the story at hand is about how a pillow fight turns into war.
Last night’s episode of “Community,” entitled “Pillows and Blankets,” is a high note for a series that mainly consists of high notes. It did everything “Community” is known for doing right, and then some. Since its return from hiatus, “Community” has been on my mind lately. While maintaing the funny, the show has also delved into depths darker than any explored in its past. 
Troy and Abed, the inseparable best friends, get into a major fight once they are both faced with the prospect of becoming adults. The conflict escalated last week, as the two of them built separate blanket and pillow forts, and then declared war on one another. Such a silly subject strangely seemed so sad. That’s because they’re Troy and Abed, and they hosted the cheeriest fake talk show to ever exist.
But on to “Pillows and Blankets.” It is one of the series’s so called concept episodes. This episode, which was mainly based off of either either a History Channel special or a Ken Burns documentary, turned the pillow fight that broke out in last week’s episode (which was more a sendoff on “The Lord of the Rings”) into the Civil War. 
A few weeks ago, I discussed how I believed that “Community” was about the characters constantly trying to figure out their assigned roles. Even when out of typical sitcom form, every member of the study room seven acted exactly as they would have in a war. Public health major Annie took on a Clara Barton role, Jeff took on the role as mediator so he wouldn’t have to go to class, Britta acted as war journalist, and Pierce was doing everything he could to stay relevant. The episode, told partly in the slideshow form of the typical PBS documentary, doesn’t even have a single line of dialogue from Britta. However, she stole the show, with her terribly juxtaposed black and white photographs. When “Community” is imitating something, it is best at sticking to the form while throwing in very subtle jabs, such as the one that black and white does not necessarily make a photo good. Pierce’s pillow armor, which made him look like the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man, was also a nice touch.
“Pillows and Blankets” also displayed a few hilarious quotes throughout that could have been real, such as “feathers without birds” and “pajamas without children.” They include maps, with each part being named after a person (even “North” is named after a guy who’s last name is North), and a series of ever ridiculous arrows, obstacles, and retreats. No other network sitcom puts this much devotion into the little details. 
All of the perfection is thanks to wunderkind perfectionist Dan Harmon. Harmon, has been in the headlines a lot lately. Unfortunately, it is for all of the wrong reasons. But after the fallout of his argument with Chevy Chase, Harmon proved himself to be as humble and self-aware as the show he created with the apology he wrote on his blog earlier this week. But more importantly, an excellent profile written on Harmon in Wired reveals perhaps the most important piece of information about the show. Harmon has been pop culture obsessed for pretty much his entire life. With all of the “Die Hard” and “Doctor Who” he has watched, Harmon studied basic story structure, and broke it down into eight easy steps:
This is what Harmon uses as the backbone for every episode of “Community.” When looking over it, I find this structure to be incredibly accurate. The best part about it is how flexible it is. Every form of story, from movies, to television shows, to books, to songs, to documentaries, are all connected by this structure. That is why “Community” can have an episode spoofing Civil War documentaries, another spoofing “Hearts of Darkness,” and another spoofing “Goodfellas,” and have each one come out so perfectly. Dan Harmon, I believe, is one of the seminal storytellers of our time.
*That’s right, “Community” is an artifact.

Analog This: Community, and How Social Media Saved it

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Warning! Some minor spoilers for tonight’s episode. And if you are a community college student then no, you cannot be a pirate as well.

I am not one of the righteous few who has deactivated their Facebook account and returned to reality. Having said that, here are a few reasons why I hate social media: it is addicting, it is causing people to be too concerned about the affairs of others, and it all together makes us more vain and self-concerned.

And here is why I love social media: without it, “Community” might not have been back on the air tonight. I am not in any way taking credit away from the show’s brilliant mastermind Dan Harmon, nor the NBC executives, who are not getting enough credit for continuing to keep this strange little show on the air, despite its low ratings.


However, “Community” was pervasive on Twitter this week. One of the top trending topics the other day was #anniesboobs. The fact that this joke, which only an avid “Community” fan would understand, was that popular, shows its fan base goes beyond what Nielsen can calculate. If they came out today, perhaps the likes of “Freaks and Geeks,” “Undeclared,” and “Firefly” would never have been cancelled.

I have been talking about “Community” a lot the past week, enough so that many people might just want me to stop, as this is supposed to be a site about the movies. To that I counter and say that “Community” is inspired as much by film as it is by television. It puts every pop culture reference that runs through my brain on a daily basis on screen. At times, I have been tempted to compare “Community” to “Arrested Development,” but “Community” truly defies comparison. Every week, it tries to do something that no show on television has done before. It can be hit or miss, but either way, it is the most joyfully ambitious show you will see on television today.

But between intense blanket forts and paintball fights, “Community” is all about its characters. Fittingly, tonight’s episode, entitled “Urban Matrimony and the Sandwich Arts,” was about a grounded return to normalcy. Jeff started the episode complaining, and ended it with a speech. Britta tried to be fiercely independent, Annie was hopelessly romantic, and Pierce was trying to sell something racist. A day in the life at Greendale Community College.

But as always, things were far from normal. Shirley was getting re-married to her husband Andre, and Britta found herself to be a fantastic wedding decorator, despite her hatred of marriage. Meanwhile, Troy and Abed decided to act “normal” for once, only to discover that their weirdness is the only type of normal they could ever be.

In most sitcoms, each character seems to have some assigned role they must fulfill in each episode. “Community” follows that, yet acknowledges it, at the same time. This was proven in “Remedial Chaos Theory” (if you haven’t seen this episode, which has seven separate story lines, watch it immediately). But in tonight’s episode, and I believe it will be a theme for the rest of the season, everyone realized they are not who they thought they were. Pierce is not a businessman, Shirley is not just a mother, and Britta will soon have to say goodbye to her days as “Anarchist Cat Owner.” As Harmon said himself in an article in the New York Times, “Community” is headed into some very dark territory.

Yet, there was still something very right about tonight’s episode. The first half of the season was a mixed bag, with the highlights being the aforementioned “Remedial Chaos Theory” and “Documentary Filmmaking: Redux.” Those are two of the best episodes of “Community” so far. However, the rest of the first half of the season was missing the zany inventiveness and brains of the previous season. It all came back tonight and hopefully, will be here to stay for a while.

I still have no idea how this show will end, but tonight, I got a better idea of where it is headed. I imagine the final shot looking something like that of the series finale of “The Sopranos,” minus “Don’t Stop Believin’.” Hopefully, that finale won’t come for quite a while. I have bright hopes that the six seasons and a movie that Abed once championed will become reality.