Episode: “Repilot”
Writers: Dan Harmon & Chris McKenna
Director: Tristram Shapeero
About halfway through “Community” Season 4, I stopped reviewing the series because there were only so many ways to say that it wasn’t working. But more than that, it was too painful to watch. My love for “Community” is a little unreasonable, and I just couldn’t take it anymore.
Despite the best efforts of the remaining “Community” veterans, the cast and even the much maligned David Guarascio and Moses Port, the fourth season was a creative failure. However, “Community” Season 4 did one thing right: it survived long enough to give us a fifth season.
Series creator Dan Harmon was fired from “Community” at the end of the third season, but Harmon is back now. And I’d love to say that the show has been saved and the dream of “Six Seasons and a Movie” is still alive.
It’s too early to be that optimistic. But “Community” was funny again. Really funny. Although this was a much darker “Community” than the earlier incarnation. Following the end of season four, the study group went their separate ways and they collectively failed at life. Even Greendale itself is in danger from the inept stewardship of Dean Pelton (Jim Rash) and an impending lawsuit against it.
To survive, “Community” has essentially become its own spinoff series. Jeff (Joel McHale) returns to Greendale with the intent of aiding the lawsuit against it, but he may end up as Greendale’s savior alongside Britta (Gillian Jacobs), Abed (Danny Pudi), Shirley (Yvette Nicole Brown), Annie (Alison Brie) and Troy (Donald Glover).
Before Jeff reaches an epiphany about his time at Greendale, we see the rebirth of Jeff the horrible human being, thanks in part to his old colleague and nemesis, Alan Connor (Rob Corddry). Facing financial ruin, Jeff agrees to use his access to the Dean to snoop around in Greendale’s files and collect some incriminating evidence. Hilariously, the Dean already managed to destroy the evidence in the records despite welcoming Jeff back with open arms. I loved the collapsing lego bridge that served as the thesis for the man currently suing Greendale for his own incompetence.
Jeff’s friends race to his side when they hear that he’s trying to save Greendale, but it quickly becomes clear that they’ve all suffered some serious setbacks in their own lives. Shirley’s lost her family and her business, Britta and Annie are reduced to dead end jobs, Abed’s career prospects have stalled and Troy has no ambition of his own.
The two sides of Jeff are on full display here. On one hand, Jeff sees the former study group as a perfect replacement for his original client in a class action suit against Greendale. But on the other hand, Jeff describes them as the only five people that he cares about while humiliating Alan and confiscating his clip-on tie.
Jeff’s so good at being a monster that even when Alan exposes his intentions to the group, Jeff still manages to get them to sign on to the class action suit by shattering their illusions about their lives and the impact that Greendale had upon them. The only person who can save the day is… Pierce (Chevy Chase)?!
Talk about an unexpected return. Somehow, Harmon and company got Chase to film a cameo appearance as a holographic Pierce who explains that he’s been legally barred from Greendale (possibly for some kind of harassment) while inspiring Jeff to remember that Greendale actually had a positive impact on his life. Jeff may not have what it takes to be a lawyer anymore, but he has friends and a surrogate family that he loves.
It’s admirable that Harmon didn’t take the easy way out and kill off Pierce to explain away Chase’s absence. Although that doesn’t explain why Pierce can’t interact with the former study group outside of the campus. Maybe I’m being too optimistic, but I hope this means that Chase could eventually return for the series finale of “Community” at some point in the future. And hopefully Glover would be back as well.
The meta joke of Glover trashing Zach Braff for leaving the final season of “Scrubs” after six episodes was ruined by NBC constantly replaying it in the promos. It’s funny the first time, but not after seeing it so many times. Still, it’s a lot harder to picture this show without Glover. Chase was marginalized for the better part of two seasons, but there’s no ‘Troy and Abed” without Troy. That pairing is comedy gold and I’ll miss it when it’s gone.
So far, it seems like Harmon and company still aren’t sure what to do with Chang (Ken Jeong). Chang pops up briefly to firmly bury his ill-conceived “Chang-nesia” plotline from season 4 and announce that he’s been rehired as a teacher at Greendale. That could have potential and it was amusing to see the group openly give the reasons why Chang’s return to Greendale was so preposterous.
This really is the second pilot for “Community” and there’s enough here that the series could go beyond six seasons… provided that it goes beyond five seasons. Britta, Troy, Abed, Annie and Shirley decide to re-enroll in Greendale and Jeff… Jeff becomes a teacher. Years ago, Harmon himself said that bringing Jeff back as a teacher was a bad idea and yet here we are. But it actually does make sense within the story itself and there’s plenty of comedic potential for Jeff’s new life as “Mr. Winger.”
“Repilot” is a pretty solid episode. It doesn’t quite match the classic “Community” episodes during Harmon’s original run, but it’s good. Or as they might at Greendale, “it’s better than good. It’s good enough.”
