Community: Season 1 Premiere "Pilot" Review

 "What is community college?"

-Dean Craig Pelton

The pilot begins with the Dean of Greendale Community College attempting to give an inspiring speech during the first week of classes, however, the speech falls short due to the Dean losing one of his note cards.

Jeff Winger (Joel McHale) is taking Spanish 101 and has the hots for his classmate, Britta Perry (Gillian Jacobs).  While talking to another classmate, Abed Nadir (Danny Pudi), about her, Abed reveals that he has a very impressive memory and rattles off a lot of information about her after only talking to Britta once, including that she is very worried about the next day's Spanish test.

Jeff goes to see Psychology Professor, Ian Duncan (John Oliver).  Jeff was Duncan's lawyer who got him off on a DUI charge.  Jeff reveals he had a fake Bachelor's degree and now has to get a real one.  He asks Duncan to get him all of the answers to all of tests for the semester.  Duncan reluctantly agrees.

Jeff approaches Britta in the cafeteria, who tries to brush him off, but Jeff lies and says he is running a Spanish study group and is actually a certified Spanish tutor and taking the class as an easy A.  Britta meets with Jeff in the library study room, but Jeff's plans to hit on her are foiled when Abed arrives at Britta's invitation.  After another brief meeting with Duncan, Jeff returns to find Britta gone and four new people who Abed invited.  They include: the uptight Annie Edison (Alison Brie), Troy Barnes (Donald Glover), a jock and prom king, middle-aged mother, Shirley Bennett (Yvette Nicole Brown), and Pierce Hawthorne (Chevy Chase), an older CEO of a moist towelette company.

Jeff lies and says he is going to the bathroom, but tries to flee instead.  He runs into Britta smoking outside.  He tries to convince her that the group is untutorable and suggests they go study over dinner or drinks.  Britta wants to try as a group again before saying that if they are indeed untutorable then the two of them will bail.  

Jeff begins manipulating the study session to get everyone mad at one another.  This includes calling out Pierce for sexually harassing Shirley and causing Troy to reveal that he didn't recognize Annie, even though they had classes together in high school.  He also reveals that Annie got addicted to Adderall and had to drop out of high school, while Annie reveals that he injured himself doing a keg-flip and lost his football scholarship.

Jeff gets called out to meet Duncan, who has all of the test answers in an envelope for him, but Duncan deduces that Jeff will be asking for answers to all of his tests for all four years of college.  In exchange, Duncan insists that they trade cars.  Duncan would get Jeff's Lexus and Jeff would get Duncan's tiny Smart Car.  Jeff reluctantly agrees.

Jeff returns to the study group to find chaos.  He tries to get Britta to leave with him and she realizes that Jeff manipulated everyone to try and sleep with her.  Jeff agrees to clean up his mess if she goes on a date with him and Britta agrees.  Jeff gives an inspiring speech to the group about each of them having strengths and forgiving each other.  He pronounces them a community before announcing that he and Britta have a dinner date.  Britta reveals she lied and tells him to leave.  Jeff reveals he has the answers to the test the next day and leaves.  

Jeff opens the envelope to find blank pages and goes to confront Duncan and get his car keys back.  As Jeff passes the library, he runs into Pierce and Troy and has a good talk with both of them.  The rest of the group appears and Jeff reveals that he doesn't actually have the answers and is going to fail the test because he never learned how to properly study.  The rest of the group convinces Britta to let Jeff rejoin the group and study for the test.

What Works:

For me, the best part of this episode has always been the interactions between Jeff and Duncan.  Joel McHale and John Oliver have really good chemistry and I really like the rapport between them in their dialogue.  A lot of the funniest moments of the episode comes from their scenes together.  Jeff managing to connect Duncan's DUI to 9/11 is always hilarious.

Although none of them get much to do in the episode.  I really like the interactions between Annie, Troy, Shirley, and Pierce.  It's fun to watch Jeff manipulate them and get them to fight.  I love Shirley threatening to shove Annie's face into a jukebox and Troy and Annie roasting each other.

One of my favorite aspects of the show is that it highlights Greendale as the worst college of all time.  Any time the show rips on Greendale, I laugh.  Jeff and Duncan watching the track tryouts is fantastic.

Finally, the final scene of the episode is another highlight.  Jeff gives some interesting and insightful advice to both Pierce and Troy.  It's really his only redeeming moment of the episode.

What Sucks:

So, I'm actually not the biggest fan of the pilot episode.  It's fine, but nothing all that special.  It's probably my least favorite episode of the first three seasons.  It's pretty cool that Dan Harmon's original run has its low-point immediately.  That's actually pretty impressive.  But this episode would not have gotten me to keep watching the show.  My first episode was actually "Advanced Dungeons & Dragons" in season 2.  I just happened to catch that episode when it aired and that's what hooked me.  I went back and watched season 1 after the season 2 finale.  It's not a bad episode by any means, but it's not super engaging.

I don't think Britta or Abed are super compelling in this episode.  Britta's the "straight man" character and Abed hasn't been refined as a character yet.  I like that Britta gets one over on Jeff, but these two get the most screen-time besides Jeff and Duncan and they don't do much for me here.

Finally, I like what we get from Shirley, Annie, Troy, and Pierce, but, like I said earlier, they don't get much to do in this episode besides fight with each other.

Funniest Moment:

The funniest moment of the episode for me is when Duncan praises Jeff for getting him off on the DUI charge by connecting it to 9/11.

Heavenly Human Being:

The Heavenly Human Being Award goes to the MVP of the episode.  For this episode, I'll give the Award to Britta Perry for getting Jeff to fix the mess he made without going to dinner with him.  I considered giving it to Duncan, but he didn't end up getting to keep Jeff's Lexus.  He gets an honorable mention, but Britta is the winner.

Verdict:

Community's Pilot is fine, but nothing special.  McHale and Oliver are great and I liked the argument caused by Jeff and the final scene, but I wish the supporting cast got more time to shine and the writers haven't gotten Britta and Abed quite right yet.

 7/10: Good