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. ;)