Greendale Is Where I Belong

Human beings, this one is going to be a doozy. Lately I've had some really strong, really intense feelings for Community and I just need to get them all out. When the cast posted that October 19th video, everything just became too much. It all exploded out of me like a volcano of tears and expression of love for these seven idiots (nine, if you include Chang and Dean Pelton). So I'm going to use this space to talk about each and every one of these characters (but probably not Chang and Dean Pelton...) and then about the show in itself. I miss it so much and it pisses me the fuck off that we don't have it back already, like NBC promised we would. If you don't like this post... Suck it. It's my blog, GDBs. :)

Also, there will obviously be a very long and weepy ode to Dan Harmon. Because he deserves it. Also, he's a genius and I'll die protecting his vision. Okay? Okay. Here we go.

We'll start with Jeffrey Winger and go around the table, counter-clockwise. How anyone can hate Jeff Winger is beyond me; this cynical, narcissistic ex-lawyer is at Greendale because of his fake bachelor's degree the state bar to suspend his license. A little background info for ya- his father was a drunken abusive bastard-ass who abandoned Jeff and his mom when Jeff was ten. Growing up with that would make anyone a jaded asshole, so you must see where he's coming from, right? I genuinely think Jeff is a decent person underneath all of that hard exterior; along the way, he was bullied (comically by Shirley and most likely by others) and made fun of, abused and abandoned, and I think he just realized that being a nice guy was getting him nowhere. So he became this douche-y type perfect for the job- a defense attorney. He'd never had anyone truly care about him, so he didn't know how to truly care for others.


Enter Greendale Community College. I'm not going to say it's Greendale that changed him, but it at least played a part. Mainly, it's becoming friends with the six outlandish members of his once-Spanish study group. They cared about him instantly and though Jeff tried to push them away, he eventually realized that this is what he'd been looking for his entire life- a family. Similarly, it's also what Pierce has been looking for, but we'll get to that. Jeff had gone his entire life without a father and with a fairly sloppy mother. He'd basically raised himself and hadn't ever had a meaningful relationship with anyone. But at Greendale, his emotional walls are definitely coming down and he's able to accept the six members of his study group as a sort of pseudo-family. He definitely gains something from each of them, too, and as a whole, they've helped him grow as a person.
 
I honestly don't see how anyone can watch the show and not love Jeff. He's a complex character with a hell of a lot of emotional and attachment issues because of his difficult upbringing. He has a hard time accepting the study group, even though it's something he needs and desperately wants, because he assumes, as usual, he'll be abandoned again. So he decides it's best not to get emotionally attached and to distance himself from them. But they assure him they're with him for life and this just warms my heart. Cheesy? Sure. But it makes me grin every time. One of his best lines is when he realizes these relationships are going to stick, in "Early 21st Century Romanticism": "Caring for one person can be scary. Caring for six people can be a horrible embarrassing nightmare. But if I can't say it today, when can I say it? I love you guys." Wanted to cry, not going to lie. If you don't love Jeff Winger, I think you might need to see a therapist. Which, actually, goes hand in hand with our next study group member.

I'm about to get really intense, because I LOVE Britta Perry and 85% of the Community fandom hates her. A warning- if you hate Britta, I probably hate you. :) Britta's at Greendale because she was a 28-year-old rallying anarchist slacker with no job and no direction in life. She had an upbringing in which, I've assumed from throwaway comments the show's made, she was overshadowed by her brothers and at age eleven was molested by a guy wearing a dinosaur costume. Britta has an undying need to help people and wants to do so at any cost. She wants to be progressive and wants be perceived as this cool, smart individual, but occasionally- okay, frequently- she messes things up. That's kind of her gimmick; when she has her mind set to something, she's going to do everything to get it, come hell or high water. And I love her for that- she has good intentions that don't always yield good results, but in the end, she doesn't care, because she'll do it all again in a heartbeat.

Britta's very complicated and the character who, I think, has had the biggest character change. Season 3 Britta is in no way, shape, or form the same person as Season 1 Britta, and I think if the latter saw the former, she'd throw up. Season 3 Britta lost her leather jackets, her snark, her sass, her attitude, her everything and somehow became this dumbed-down version of a remedial schoolgirl. I'm sorry, is that harsh? It is in no way the direction I expected this awesome character to go and I think the writers enjoyed destroying her (remember her in that carnival episode?! I was screaming the whole time, "Who the FUCK are you and where is the real Britta Perry?!?!?!"). Even so, I think Gillian's done a brilliant job keeping up with these psychotic changes and constantly being made out to be the worst. That argument is growing really stale. Pick on someone else, for a change, won't you?

Regardless, I absolutely love Britta. She's awkward and she's funny and she ruins things. She reminds me a lot of myself, actually. I'm just as socially awkward and I ruin things other people love and I know what it's like to do things with good intentions and then have them go completely wrong. Britta is just... She's insanely awesome. If you don't love her, you're watching the show wrong. She represents the side in all of us that we try to repress, except she embraces it. I think she's saying it's okay for us to do the same.

Ahhh Abed Nadir. He is easily the most likeable character on the show. He's everyone's favorite character so there's really nothing that I have to say to convince anyone to like him. But I'm going to anyway. :) Abed is at Greendale for unknown reasons. Assuming it's because he wants to study film to become a filmmaker, it's not surprising that he immediately found the study group as his perfect cast of characters and continuously comments on how their life is like a TV show and references movies like it's his job. And I guess it is. It has always been hinted at that Abed has Asperger's but never explained nor fully told and that's something I think the show has done really well. In my fiction workshop, we call it "sensory detail"- a.k.a, the show vs. tell. They're giving us all the symptoms but never outwardly saying, "Abed has Asperger's." Jeff calls him out on it in the Pilot, sure, but no one ever revisits it.

Abed, though generally comically monotonous, is not a robot. He has feelings just like the rest of the group, but since he's constantly unable to connect with people, everyone overlooks them. This is why the episode "Virtual Systems Analysis" is so genius- we get to see inside Abed's head; how he views the other members of the group, how much he knows about each of them, and, most importantly, how he sees himself. He believes that since he can't connect to people like others can, he'll eventually be filtered out of the group because no one needs him. It's heartbreaking and it's when we learn that even Abed has self-esteem issues, even though he always assures the group he "has self-esteem coming out of his butt." He assumes the group will leave him upon graduation, something others have worried about, too.

Abed is possibly the most complex character on Community. He's difficult to describe, difficult to understand sometimes, and most of all difficult to read. You never know his feelings on a situation because he's frustratingly monotonous and blank. But he always has them; just because he can't show his feelings, doesn't mean he doesn't care. He loves the study group and, like Jeff, they've become his new family, since his parents want nothing to do with him. He's delightfully close to Troy and Annie and with the others, he's always trying to understand them so he can make them happy. Abed may be difficult to understand, but he's very easy to love. :)

Troy Troy the Wonder Boy! Troy Barnes came to Greendale because he lost his football scholarship after he dislocated both his shoulders doing a "keg flip" (they're very hard to pull off) on purpose. We don't know much about his upbringing, but we do know that his parents are divorced, his father is dating a twenty-year-old, and his mother told him that everyone is 10 for two years because "fifth grade is really hard for everyone." Troy is absolutely hilarious and always has the best one-liners, which always leave me playing one of my favorite games- scripted line or Donald Glover adlib? I haven't heard of too many people hating Troy; if Abed's most likeable, I'd say Troy's in second place. He's like Jeff in that he's attractive and funny, but he lacks the cynicism Jeff oozes and therefore is pretty genuine.

However, like Britta, his character has been hugely altered since season one, and not always for the better. Troy's at his best when he has his "grown-up" moments; i.e. the end of "Mixology Certification" or when in "Contemporary Impressionists" when he tells Abed the truth about their friendship. He's a little unbelievable when he makes childlike statements about playing Inspector Spacetime (he's 22, mind you) or scream-crying over Annie telling him he's a child. But he dips into the "Whoaaaa there, who are you?!" territory when he's trying to be- I apologize in advance to those "shippers"- Britta's boyfriend. It's no secret that Troy's had a crush on Britta since the first season. Sure, I can believe that just like I can believe Annie's crush on Jeff. But when he sends that text in the carnival episode (I just really hated this episode, okay?) and explains, "Britta likes guys who are mean to her." I just lost it. First of all, no she doesn't, and second, since when did he become the hero? And we're supposed to be on his side because...? He's not in love with Britta- I don't care what anyone says; no one on this show is in love with anyone. It just... That version of Troy makes me dislike Troy, because he's so contradictory. One minute, he's calling Britta a "pizza burn on the roof of the world's mouth" and the next he's in love with her? I'm sorry. I'm not buying it.

But when Troy's not being like this, I absolutely adore him. He's hilarious and he's genuine and he's completely loveable. My favorite Troy episode- and this was hard to pick, because I also love him in "Football, Feminism, and You" and in "Foosball and Nocturnal Vigilantism"- is "Mixology Certification," because that's where I really felt like he came into his own. He was such a man; he was the strong one, for a change. Not Jeff, not Britta. It was Troy. Troy was the one thinking rationally, the one carrying the others' baggage, etc. He was great. He is great. I love him. :)

Pierce Hawthorne- the most talked-about, most hated, most argued-over member of the study group. He's at Greendale because he's old and feels like he's losing touch with society. He's lonely; he's been married seven times and doesn't have real friends. His mother dies and his father hates him (before he dies too) and he doesn't have siblings or children. He doesn't have a family. So, the six other members of his group become his family and he pushes them and prods them like you would your normal family. Except, unlike a normal family who has to love you no matter what, these people aren't related to him, so they can- and do- decide to cast him aside. And that is why I think he's portrayed as "the villain." Because, honestly, who can blame him? Who likes to be excluded? Well, besides Jeff.

Season 1 Pierce is completely different from Season 2 and 3 Pierce. In the first season, he's a doddering fool. He stumbles around and he has the racist/sexist/homophobic ideals people of his age have. He's funny because he's so outdated; his jokes don't make sense to the others because they're from a different time period and don't understand the context. But these racist/sexist/homophobic jokes were funny when Pierce was younger, because that's how society was, and Pierce doesn't understand that these things are no longer acceptable. So he continues to make these comments and the group is appalled, but they don't understand the time period Pierce grew up in. It's a constant barrier between Pierce and the rest of the group, and that's why it's funny. Except, it's also why they exclude Pierce from the group, and this in turn causes season 2 and 3 Pierce- the villain.

He acts out like a child. He calls people awful names and picks on them because of their physicality. He enacts revenge on the group by playing terrible mind games on them. But in a weird way, he has to; they're not paying any attention to him and he has to get their attention somehow. It's the same as being a neglected child or pet; they'll scream and throw tantrums or poop on the couch (this is the pet side, yeah?) until you give them the attention they deserve. And yeah, that's childish, but so is Pierce. He hasn't had the chance to grow up because his family has always been spotty. And so he left the group in the end of season 2 because he felt excluded and frankly, I didn't blame him. They were awful to him and he deserved a reprieve. I feel bad for Pierce. I always have. I think that's why I could never hate him. He certainly isn't my favorite character, but I'll always have a soft spot for the poor old guy.

Shirley Bennett- doesn't she look lovely as the Christmas Pageant Queen?! Shirley's life has definitely been anything but easy; she's a recovered alcoholic, she married and had two boys very young, and then her husband left her for a, in her words, "stripper slut." She ends up at Greendale so she can rebuild her life and stop being defined as the "Christian housewife." Shirley is the queen of everything, to put it simply. I see a lot of people disliking her in the Community fandom and it really confuses me, because this woman right here is the best. Like seriously. She's a badass- sorry, Annie- and she has this sort of Jekyll-and-Hyde personality. One moment she's all, "Ooh! That's nice!" The next, she's beating Jeff at foosball and calling him Tinkletown and making him cry and wet his pants. Yeah. Beat that.

Of all the members of the study group, I think Shirley's the one who's mostly stayed the same since the beginning. Not that that's a bad thing; she's definitely had serious character growth because season 1 Shirley probably wouldn't have put up with friends not being Christian, outlandish plots created by the Dean, and so on and so forth. But she's definitely kept her personality and hasn't changed her views on anything, which I think is spectacular continuity- something the show does really well, except for those rare Troy moments and the occasional Britta moments. Shirley has never stopped being this soft human being with a big heart, but also a person who will fight to the death for everything she believes in. Someone who cares about everyone and is always there to talk to. Someone who wants so desperately to reinvent herself but who also wants to be considered youthful, vivacious, and giving. Shirley's fierce. Shirley's independent. Shirley's the absolute best.

I love Shirley because she's there to be everyone's moral compass. At first, it was Britta's job, but when she became the buzzkill, Shirley became everyone's go-to if something went awry. I love her relationship with Annie and with Jeff, and the one she shares with Britta is really interesting, too, because if they'd met outside of Greendale, I'm not sure they'd be friends. But Shirley also represents what we all hope won't happen to ourselves- we don't want to have to go back to school because we lost our identity. It terrifies me that I might one day become "the Christian housewife" who has baking as an identity. But if I do have to reinvent myself, I hope I look as cool as Shirley doing it. :)

And last but certainly not least, Annie Edison. Annie's at Greendale because of her pill addiction; she couldn't go to a real college after that, right? Annie is quite the character. I see a lot of myself in her, too; I'd say I'm a pretty fair mix of Britta and Annie. I have the same kind of high-strung nature in me- everyone says I don't know how to have fun, I'm too naive, I think too intensely about simple things. I don't improvise my life either, much like Annie, and I like to have a concrete plan of where things are going. That's what makes Annie great- she keeps the group on the straight and narrow. They barely study anymore, but when they do, rest assured it's because Annie is making them. Annie also cares fiercely about her friends and I like to think I do too. :)

But Annie also has her downsides- yes, let's confront the elephant in the room: Jeff and Annie. So she's eighteen when this starts and he's in his mid-thirties if I had to guess. Why would anyone think that's okay? I mean... gross. I've been on this rant before, so I'll spare you the dramatics. Cards on the table- I don't like the person Annie becomes when she's with Jeff. She's a whiny schoolgirl (much like Britta is when she's with Troy, are you sensing a pattern?) and it's just so not Annie. Annie's driven and focused and when she's with Jeff, she's not. Annie is powerful and headstrong at a young age, which is awesome, but I feel like lately, the show is trying to loosen her up. She needs this, I agree, but they're going about it the wrong way. I don't know. I just don't want her to be a trophy wife on Jeff's arm instead of seeing her fulfill her dreams to her highest potential.

But Annie's amazing. I love her. I think she's a brilliant character and she's the one I immediately connected/indentified with from the beginning. She's easily the most mature one in the group- most of the time. But when she's with Troy and Abed and they're playing Inspector Spacetime, I think it's also really great to see her let her hair down and have a good time. And I don't think her relationship with Jeff is all bad; I love that he cares so much about her and I think their friendship is great. I just wish they didn't have to be romantic. Guys can be friends with girls without wanting to kiss/have sex with them. It's possible, Community writers. ;) Above all, Annie Edison is amazing. I love her and you should love her too. :)

And lastly, I can't talk about the Greendale Seven without talking about their creator, Dan Harmon. Dan, I love you so much, you have no idea. The show he created is not just a random idea that popped into his head- it's his life. He actually went to community college, he actually bonded with a group of loveable misfits, he actually still keeps in contact with them to this day. He put his heart and soul into this show and it shows, because every episode (yes, even the bad ones) radiates with the workings of his genius mind. He somehow managed to craft the perfect show with literally the perfect writing staff and unfathomably the best and most-talented cast on television (seriously- I dare you to find a cast more talented, more fun, more hilarious, more hard-working, and more dedicated to making great television than the cast of Community). A famous slogan on Tumblr (yes! I've joined Tumblr, ladies and gents!) is "Dan Harmon is a genius and I will die protecting his vision." I humbly agree.

The bottom line is- I have way too many feelings for this show. I'm not going to be one of those super-crazy fans and say that this show has changed my life (shout out to those who say this on Tumblr all the time!), but it does brighten my life. I watch it when I'm sick. I watch it when I'm sad. I watch it when I'm so pissed off I want to punch someone. Community means the world to me and never fails to bring a smile to my face. :) I'm grinning as I'm writing this, because even thinking about the show makes me happy. If you haven't found a show like this, I feel sorry for you and hope one day you'll find the one that makes you feel all the feelings. I suggest Community, if you're interested. ;)

Sony and NBC can fuck us over all they want- Greendale will always be there for us and, at Greendale with all our fellow Human Beings, it's always October 19th. ;)

Season 5 is "Gone Maybe Gone"!

Ladies and gentlemen, Gossip Girl is back to its regular, entertaining self.

Remember how crappy seasons 4 and 5 were? Well, so do I. The show jumped the shark when they had Blair date Prince Louis of Monaco, Dan fall head over heels in love with Blair (who, before, he's always hated), Chuck try to impress Fleur Delacour (I'm not sure what her real name is...) and Nate and Serena... well. I don't actually know what they did. That's how insignificant they were. But it's okay; season 4 wasn't a total disaster. It even ended on a semi-good note, with Chuck manning up and maturing, Blair finally getting her happy ending (even if losing Chuck was "the wrong goodbye"... sigh), and the others doing whatever it is they do. I was okay with it. I rolled with the punches.

And then... season 5 began. Blair's pregnant, Dan's obsessively in love with her, Chuck is pining over losing Blair to the asshole Louis, Nate's sleeping with the 40-year-old British slut in charge of his company, and Serena's in freaking Los Angeles being the assistant to some movie producer. Like... wtf?! Do these kids go to college? Because I'm pretty sure they were all- sans Chuck- enrolled in college at one point... What happened to that? Blair gets pregnant and wants the baby to be Chuck's, but it's Louis's so she decides to go on with the wedding anyway, even though she doesn't love him, she loves Chuck and then there's Dan and he's so obsessed with Blair, but he knows she loves Chuck so he sets them up and they get back together for like two hours before they're both in a car accident and then she loses the baby and almost loses Chuck and makes a pact with God that she won't get back together with Chuck and she'll marry Louis and she does but Louis says it's all for publicity so she runs away with Dan, starts a relationship with him but worries that, and I quote directly from Waldorf's diary, "she'll never love Dan as much as she loves Chuck" so that relationship falls to shit and then he goes off to Italy with Georgina and Blair tells Chuck she loves him and he says he can't get distracted by her and goes to Monte Carlo, where she follows him and says she's "all in" with her bet on them. Ahhhh! And Serena and Nate are basically unimportant/nonexistant.

Like... what the actual fuck?! What was that?! That whole season made zero sense and frankly, I was just embarrassed the whole time watching it. The characters were all making decisions their season 1 & 2 selves wouldn't make. Where was fierce, attitudinal Blair who knew what she wanted and didn't take shit from anybody? Where was calm, rational, sweet Dan who put his friends' happiness above his own and didn't let the Upper East Side influence his decisions? Where in the world were Serena and Nate in general? And Chuck... don't even get me started. He started out strong and changed, reformed even. But the minute his father came back, it's like none of that character growth ever happened. He reverted back to his season 1 self- the bad boy, the asshole. Ugh. It made me cringe the entire time.

But no worries, friends. Because Josh Safran is gone and so is season five. Baby, welcome back to the real Gossip Girl with season 6, episode 1: "Gone Maybe Gone."

Where to begin, where to begin? I guess we'll start where the show did- with Dan and Georgina, an unlikely but nonetheless hilarious pairing, in Italy, Nate in NYC at The Spectator trying to locate the real Gossip Girl, and, of course, Blair and Chuck definitely back together in Monte Carlo. These two are just... You never would have expected them to be having sex in Monte Carlo, let's just put it that way. They left things very open-ended; Chuck didn't want to get back together with her at the end of season five, but Blair followed him overseas and told him she'd fight for him, for their relationship. And, well, fight she apparently did- things were getting pretty hot and heavy in Monte Carlo, if you know what I mean.

So then the drama begins- of course. Lily and Bart come back from a summer romp on a yacht and realize Serena hasn't been heard from or seen all summer. Lily wonders, and I quote, "How could I have thought it was okay to go all summer without actually speaking to my daughter?" And I laughed out loud and replied, "BECAUSE YOU'RE A HORRIBLE MOTHER!!" I mean, really. Who goes that long without making contact with their own offspring? What an idiot. Anyway, she then pretends to be concerned about Serena's whereabouts, but A) too little, too late, and B) she isn't even the one who finds her, let alone makes an effort to look. She instead contacts Nate, who calls Blair, who calls Dan, but really gets Georgina, and suddenly, all our favorite Upper East Siders are back in NYC.

Before all the shit can go down with finding Serena, Chuck and Blair have a little stare-down and chat about how hard it's been to be away from each other. This is where we learn that after their steamy make-up in Monte Carlo, they had made a pact to not make their relationship official until they both settled their issues apart first- Blair has to figure out how to run her mother's company, Waldorf Designs, and Chuck has to somehow get Bass Industries back under his control. Their logic is that they've only distracted the other when it came to business in the past (let's not repeat the whole selling Blair for a hotel debacle, okay?) so they figure if they can sort their issues now, there will be nothing standing in their way later, nothing keeping them apart. This is highly logical for two people who have never used logic in their relationship before. Nice work, guys.

So then the Serena hunt begins. Nate sells the video of Gossip Girl back to the actual Gossip Girl in exchange for Serena's whereabouts and, at a gas station, Georgina and Dan see the infamous Bass limo and follow them to Poughkeepsie, where Serena- oops, I mean Sabrina- is playing housewife to Matt Camden. I kid you not. She's lied to Matt (okay in the show his name is Steven and he's played by Barry Watson, but come on. He was on 7th Heaven, he'll never not be Matt Camden) and told him she's from Wisconsin and attended Vassar. Okay. Like Serena could ever get into Vassar (Dan asks later, "Wisconsin? Do you even know where that is on a map?" Good one, Humphrey). Everyone's super confused because this is so not Serena... so they do what they do best. They crash the wedding going on- even though it's not Serena's wedding- and tell all of her lifelong secrets to the bored and uninterested guests. Stay classy, gang.

So they all argue and Dan gets slapped by both Blair and Serena and it's hilarious both times. Afterward, Dan gets super pissed because he realizes that Blair left him for Chuck even though she's not even technically with Chuck. Blair explains their pact and Dan says that their entire relationship is not the "epic love" they think it is, but instead, it's all just a bunch of "excuses." Blair may think Dan has a point, but I think he's a little bitter, wouldn't you say? Oh Lonely Boy. You'll make it through the heartache, just you wait. After, Blair apologizes to Serena for being a complete bitch at the end of last season and that they are "stuck with each other" as best friends blah blah blah. I've seen this before; this is seriously the eighteenth time they've broken up and gotten back together as best friends. Except this time, there's a twist! Serena tells Blair she doesn't want to be "stuck" with her and that she wants a fresh start. Oh shit. Can't blame her, though. I mean, I'm not saying she's completely blameless, but everyone was pretty awful to Serena the past season. She deserves a fresh start.

So then everyone goes back to NYC. Nate meets with this girl who looks exactly like Vanessa (remember Vanessa?!), but way younger and not as good of an actress. She says she's in college but newsflash Nate: she's in high school. That will definitely not stop him from sleeping with her, though, and they leave to have a drink. Chuck and Blair are riding home in the back of his limo (ohhhh memories... ;) Am I right?) and Blair asks Chuck if the pact they made is really just an excuse to not be together, a la Dan Humphrey. Chuck tells her that he wants to be the man she deserves and needs to focus on maturing for her before they can do anything. So adorable. Also he's in a bow tie, so added bonus. Then he tugs on the necklace she's wearing to reveal the engagement ring he bought her three years ago and says, "It won't be long now. I promise." I died a little, I'm not going to lie. :D

And that's how the episode ends... kind of. For those of you who watched, notice how I left out the most boring storyline- Ivy manipulates Rufus to take down Lily. I can't even... who cares?! And also, can you refund me the meal I lost after watching the final scene in the episode? Dan walking into the loft to find Rufus and Ivy cuddling, post-coital? BLEGH. I think I went a little blind, not going to lie. So that storyline was boring and Rufus is an idiot ("We raise good girls" he ironically tells Lily in reference to their awful basket cases for daughters, Serena and Jenny) and he and Ivy?! Oh my god. So, so gross.

But other than that, the storylines were great, the characters were back to their normal selves, and those one-liners slayed me.

It's official; Gossip Girl is back. :)