When Fight Club was released in theatres in 1999, it performed, well, bad. Like really bad. Extremely bad. Gene Simmons solo career bad. With a budget of $67 million, it only took in $37 million at the U.S box-office. Hell! The film even cost the entertainment chief at 20th Century Fox his job. One critic called it, 'A film without a single redeeming quality' that would have to 'find an audience in hell'. No shit. Fight Club, that masterpiece of film and literature starring Brad Pitt AND Edward Norton was a flop of ginormous proportions. This fact swirls around in my head all the time. What didn't people like about Fight Club?
NBC's Community is the latest piece of pop culture that is seriously leaving my head scratched up. A show about a ragtag study group of misfits dealing with the day-to-day craziness that is their community college, has become a driving force of imaginative storytelling, deep character analysation and pop culture references galore. But it's just not getting the attention it deserves...
When creator and ex-showrunner Dan Harmon analysed Season 2 for The A.V Club last year, he shared the story of him crying on his way home after receiving extremely negative feedback on the episode 'Advanced Dungeons and Dragons' from both NBC and Sony Pictures executives.
"I told my girlfriend when I got home, 'I think I'm gonna have to quit my own show because I can't operate under these circumstances. I can't be proud of something that the people who are paying me to do it are this ashamed of".
But the episode, as any Community fan will tell you, is arguably one of the best episodes the series has had to offer. Critics gave it flawless reviews, geeks praised the attention to detail, and more importantly, it gave us the best thing our eyes have ever gazed upon - Ken Jeong dressed as a Drow elf.
So what were the suits so worried about?
Well my friends, suits are worried about what all men who wear suits are worried about - numbers. The show suffers big time in the ratings, only averaging 3.5 million viewers per week. In the same 8pm Thursday timeslot the cheap and broad Big Bang Theory averages 11.9 million viewers, while the mindless, indulgent tripe that is American Idol averages about 9.1 million viewers. Yes, it really does seem audiences are more interested in safe jokes and “nice” singing than smart humour.
I don't blame a number of people that just haven't had enough time to sit down and delve into Community. It’s not a show you can instantly love after the pilot episode. Like all good things it takes time. You have to learn to accept that you're ensemble characters have Asperger’s (Abed), are criminally insane (Chang), or are extremely sexually active (Britta). You have to learn to accept that Greendale Community College is a place where paintball wars just break-out, blanket forts have taken over and therapeutic trampolines lay hidden in secret gardens. And when you get past all the wackiness, you understand that the show is really just about friendship.
But to some, the show is just a pill they can't swallow. It’s an isolating half hour that flies across the heads of anyone who doesn't have a wide knowledge of everything pop culture. It was a show made by nerds for nerds. And us nerds are pretty proud of it - so proud that when it got pushed to mid-season at the end of last year we rallied around Rockefeller Centre in goatee's singing O Christmas Troy in protest, we trended #sixseasonsandamovie week in week out on Twitter and most importantly, we tried really hard to spread the word and branch it out to others.
In the weird way television works, the study group became a part of our family. One we had to defend when people didn't appreciate how special it was, and as much as any fan base out there, we have had to endure a lot of bad news. The latest being the move to the death-slot position of Friday nights at 8pm, and more importantly the firing of the shows mad, genius creator and show-runner Dan Harmon.
Dropped from the shortened Fourth Season, Harmon had been the driving force behind Community from the very beginning, responsible for its most inventive and imaginative ideas. In a world where show runners usually just make sure everyone is doing their respectable jobs properly, Harmon had a more hands-on approach, wanting final say on every story, script and frame produced. His methods were tough (nightmarish tales have been told about 24-hour writing sessions, his constant alcohol abuse and his very public battle with cast member Chevy Chase), but by god did that man deliver. And the best thing of all, he fought the system for his art.
And herein lies the symbolism of everything Community. It is (and hopefully will remain) a show that never changed because of how weird people said it was. It is a show that accepted if it were going to be the outcast, than it was going to be the weirdest outcast of them all. Dan Harmon is Community and Community is us. And as uniting and cheesy as it sounds, we all challenge society together.
Sure, it might be too late for society to embrace the quirkiness of Jeff, Britta, Abed, Annie, Troy, Pierce, Shirley and Chang, but for the years to come the most important thing to take away from this show is that it was our show. It is a show we fought hard for and a show that represented who we were. It’s our Neutral Milk Hotel, our Freaks and Geeks, our Brand New, our Arrested Development and our Fight Club. It is something we find enchanting, enthralling and perfect despite everyone else telling us that it isn't.
#Sixseasonsandamovie
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