There are many things to expect when you walk into the season premier of a primetime show. For Community, flying protagonists and witty musical numbers enunciate the show's supposed new direction: normalcy.
We are fabled Community viewers, and we understand such lampooning of mainstream television. But Dan Harmon and his team don't stop there. Over the course of their 22-minute episode, they parody everything from Glee and Doctor Who to Oz and Downton Abbey.
Clearly, though, Community is taking a bold first step into its newest season, and if the first episode is any indication, it's growing into new and great places. The plot is just as zany as fans expect, revolving around Jeff and Pierce's rivalry. Jeff, who clearly fantasized about a Pierce-less study group all summer, is suddenly confronted by Pierce's return. He talks the group out of letting Pierce back in, then falls prey to his own argument. Meanwhile, Abed goes crazy because Cougartown gets delayed. Oh, and Dean Pelton grows a beard and tries to take hold of the school, until John Goodman (whose performance was amazing) shows him who the real dean is. And Chang is living in the vents.
Confused? The premiere delivers on many levels, but clarity and accessibility for newer viewers is not one of them. And though people can find old episodes to catch up, the show isn't on Netflix or Hulu+ anymore. And because it has steadily sunk in ratings (despite its cult and critical acclaim), that's a dangerous tone to set for the first episode. We get very little introduction and the plot is almost entirely based on events from the previous two seasons.
Still, Community has bolstered its numbers by a half-million for the premiere. For fans, there was more than enough to keep them coming back and wanting more. With the additions of Michael K. Williams and Goodman (as well as a title credit for Jim Rash), the change-up that fans wanted has happened without disrupting the series' core seven students. This is a smart move by Harmon, who toyed with the idea of drastically mixing up the group dynamic. Thankfully, he let those impulses die.
The real magic of the episode is what made Community so strong in the first place; character-driven plots combined with meta-humor and cultural commentary. This episode took a potshot against a lot, from The Wire to British comedies. The Doctor Who parody, Inspector Spacetime, stands out among them, having already garnered a faux following on the Internet. Harmon also shows his film-making roots with his re-imagining of both 2001: A Space Odyssey and The Shining. Coming out of the gates this hard isn't new for the show. And though critics and executives alike wish it were a little more normal and accessible, clearly the show has other plans. Hopefully, they'll be kept.
All in all, "Biology 101" looks to be a promising start for one of NBC's comedy front-runners. If the rest of the season follows suit, it may pull itself from ratings hell and return to the forefront of television consciousness. And though Jeff seems to think this is the year they all die, maybe, just maybe, this is the year Community graduates.
