Community is one of my favorite shows of all time. Its willingness to experiment is unlike any show I've ever seen, and the meta humor is absolutely godly. Personally, I think the first three seasons are nearly perfect, even if Season 1 is a bit different compared to the rest of the show.
Given how Community is so well known for its pop culture references and experimental nature, you might find it surprised just how low-key and standard its first season is. Not that there aren't any hints of the show it would later become, the entire pilot is basically one long homage to The Breakfast Club after all, but for the most part, Community's first season is a really solid comedy about a community college. The main storyline is that a group of seven students who have to attend community college form a "study group" for their Spanish class, only to become great friends. The characters are all incredibly likable and fun, each with their own dreams, motivations, and moments of character development, but the highlights are easily Danny Pudi's self-aware Abed and Donald Glover's hilarious Troy. Most of this first season revolves around the characters going through their classes, with the only major running storyline being about Jeff's feelings for fellow classmate Britta. Despite the general lack of plot, however, I do like how a lot of this comedy about school actually focuses on schoolwork. It's something that I rarely ever see in a television show and it helps this first season of Community stand out in its own way.
Right from the very first episode, Community is already incredibly funny. Dan Harmon's writing in this series is just perfect, blending incredibly sharp and witty comedy with a surprise amount of heart. The performances are great as well, pretty much everyone involved pulls off the comedic moments really well. However, while I do think the more low-key nature of Community's first season has a lot of merit, you can kind of tell that the writers are just aching to get to the more experimental stuff. Many of the earlier episodes this season seem to lean to the show's iconic meta humor, but never fully commits until the last few episodes of the season. As a result, while there aren't really any bad episodes this season, I also feel like it's not until said last few episodes where we start to get some really great stuff. On the other hand, I also think that the slow build makes the show's eventual descent into chaos all the more hilarious and effective, so while I don't love most of this first season, I'm glad it's there to easy viewers into the show.
Still, there are a bunch of episodes I did really like, even if most of them are near the end of the season:
Spanish 101: Don't get me wrong, this episode wasn't amazing or anything, I'm just putting it here because it had the Spanish Rap, which is not only one of the funniest and most iconic moments of the series, but a great introduction to just how hilarious this show's post-credits scenes can be.
Debate 109: As far as the first batch of episodes go, Debate 109 is easily the highlight of the bunch. It sets up Jeff and Annie's relationship for most of the series, it has some great meta humor with Abed's films, and the ending is incredibly heartwarming. It's not one of Community's best episodes, but it's the first true sign of greatness from the show.
Contemporary American Poultry: This episode feels like the point at which Dan Harmon said "Screw it" and really started leaning into the meta humor, laying the groundwork for some of the show's best episodes. Sure the gangster film parodies and Godfather/Goodfellas references are hilarious and well-executed, I love how the show uses its inspiration to say something about its character. That's what makes Community so great, even with how crazy it gets, it makes sure to have an important emotional hook or instance of character development to ground its plot, and Abed's storyline about struggling to connect with people is a strong example of that.
Modern Warfare: While CAP laid down the structure, Modern Warfare not only showed that these more experimental episodes were here to stay, but demonstrated just how good they can be. As a fan of action movies, the paintball episodes are some of my absolute favorites, but this one is still the finest. They brought in Justin Lin, director of multiple Fast & Furious films, to direct the action and it shows. The set pieces here are a ton of fun. Even more, the references are hilarious, and the character moments scattered throughout do a great job of, once again, grounding the episode. Modern Warfare is easily one of my favorite episodes of all time, and the point at which I realized that Community had the potential to be absolutely amazing.
Pascal's Triangle Revisited: I adore how this episode seems to parody the concept of a super dramatic season finale. Characters leaving, dramatic arguments, shocking love confessions, and a big damn kiss at the end of the episode, it's all here! Even aside from the hilariously heightened melodrama, this is just a genuinely great end to the season. Most of the story threads are tied up, every character gets something to do, and even a bunch of running gags (like Dean's dalmatian gag) are all paid off.
Overall, Community's first season is a funny and solid comedy with some great characters and strong writing, but it doesn't truly become its best self until the final few episodes.
4/5 Stars
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