Community - Season 1

 It was funny. When I first saw this, I liked Abed the most but still none of the characters made such an impact that I’d watch it  and wait for it anxiously for my ‘loved ones’. It’s just a funny little thing. 

A funny and very silly little thing, but nice, to watch at least once. I wouldn’t enjoy it the same a second time, but the first was good.

1 - Pilot.

The first episode is really an introduction both to the characters and to the setting, in this case the school- We learn what it is and who everyone is

Greendale Community School. It starts with the Dean’s speech: “You’ve heard it’s loser college for remedial teens, 20-something drop-outs, middle-aged divorcees and old people keeping their minds active as they circle the drain of eternity…however, I wish you luck.”

Abed about himself:”I’m only half Arabic, my dad is Palestinian, he’s a US citizen, he’s not a threat to national security”.

Britta, 28, (the drop-out), born in October, has two older brothers.

Jeff Winger is a lawyer, but he’s now a student because his license has been suspended, because he does not, actually, have a legitimate college degree.

The old guy is Pierce Hawthorne, the black teen is Troy, the normally-pretty looking girl is Annie and Shirley is the divorced woman.

Ian Duncan is the psychology professor.

Jeff was Duncan’s lawyer, so he hopes Duncan will give him the answers to all the tests. Duncan pretends to hand him all the answers of the semester in exchange for his car, but it’s just blank paper, so he takes his car back.

Jeff tells Britta he is a tutor in Spanish and has a Spanish study group at the library, so she joins. Of course he didn’t invite anybody else, he wanted to be alone with her, but she invited Abed.

Jeff is very good with words, and manages to turn the group into a ‘community’, as he calls it, then he comes clean after Britta refuses to go out with him and leaves the group, but is accepted back because he has no way to pass his exams now.

2 - Spanish 101.

The group loves Jeff, but Britta just thinks that although cute he is also “selfish and narcissistic to the point of near-delusion”. After she says that reporters speaking the truth are killed in Guatemala, Annie and Shirley organize a protest. Jeff is quite patient with Pierce, but the man is unbearable. Still, Jeff feels bad when Britta reveals that Pierce gave her 100$ to switch partner to become Jeff’s friend.

Chang teaches Spanish.

3 - Introduction to film.

Jeff loves the class of professor Whitman who is all about “seizing the day”, loves it because he thinks it’s an easy pass but he’s wrong. Britta gives Abed the money to join the film class, his dream. Abed’s father is not happy and sort of ‘leaves him’. Britta thinks he needs money but he buys a new camera. He goes everywhere with it, even stops going to class because his “movie is more important”. Britta wanted to take care of him but she can’t understand him. Jeff has her meet again Abed’s father to talk, and they argue instead until Abed finishes his movie and has them watching it. It’s weird (very weird) but also very sad, its meaning is that he feels responsible for his mum leaving them, because he was too weird and she couldn’t understand him. Now his dad understands and chooses to pay for his class if that’s how he can make the world understand him. 

Troy is mocked for how he sneezes, so Pierce teaches him to sneeze more like a man.

Britta thanks Jeff with a kiss where professor Whitman can see them, and it’s enough “seizing the day” for him.

4 - Social psychology.

Annie wants to join a psych class but they study how people react in a certain stressful situation, so she lets a lot of people in a room not knowing they’re being filmed, with the promise of being paid for something that will never come. Everyone breaks sooner or later, leaving the room, even Troy at the end, but Abed is still there, as calm as when he first arrived. He does not leave, 26 hours and the professor is the one to break and leave instead. When Annie asks for an explanation, he simply says that she asked him as a friend to wait and so he did.

Meanwhile Jeff and Shirley bond over gossip. They both love it. Jeff tries to play friends with Britta, so she talks about her new boyfriend Vaugh and even shows Jeff the poem he gave her, but then the group learns of their mocking him and when Britta introduces Vaugh to the group they laugh and Vaughn understands they’re mocking him and is hurt and breaks up with her.

5 - Advanced criminal law.

Professor Chang threatens to fail the whole class unless a cheater comes out; Britta admits it’s her and Jeff offers to represent her and wins, she’s not expelled.

Troy feeds Abed some lies as a joke and Abed believes it all, so later Abed tries to get him back by making him believe he’s an alien. Annie has Pierce write the school song.

6 - Football, feminism and you.

The Dean uses Jeff’s face and picture in a commercial for the school, but Jeff doesn’t want anyone to know he’s there, so he needs to convince Troy to join their terrible football team. Troy acts like an arrogant jock now and Annie is angry.

Pierce helps the Dean with designing a mascot for the team. Annie is in love with Troy.

7 - Introduction to statistics.

Annie plans a party at the school and wants everyone to join. Jeff starts hitting on professor Slater, but she says she doesn’t go out with students. He eventually manages to convince her, but then he has to give it up to help his friends. 

Pierce is embarrassed about having to take pills. He exchanges pills with someone and goes out of his mind. Shirley is very hurt about her own ex-husband wanting the ring back.

8 - Home economics.

Britta wants to be Vaughn friends again, but after Pierce talks to him, things go down. Pierce plays the keyboard while Vughn sings about Britta being a liar and a….ehm…beach…

Jeff loses his house, sleeps in his car for a while then he stays at Abed’s place until Britta sorts him out. Annie doesn’t tell Troy  she’s in love with him, instead she helps him with his date to Randi.

9 - Debate 109.

All of Abed’s films are about them, and he says it’s because he knows them so well that he films stuff before they actually do it. Britta tries to quit smoking so Pierce helps her with hypnotism - of course he can’t do it. Annie is competing for the “debate league” and she asks Jeff to be her partner; the Dean and professor Whitman ask him too, and he accepts in exchange for a parking space. Jeff has to debate that men are evil. The first day is terrible, but then they actually prepare and win. They also feel awkward because they kind of like each other and want to kiss.

10 - Environmental science.

Professor Chang gives them lots of homework so Jeff tries to talk to him. They go out together, and Chang cancels his homework. Only his. Chang is lonely after his wife left him, the group is angry with Jeff. Then he brings him together with her again. 

Troy is scared of rats but helps Abed find his. Pierce actually does help Shirley with her public speech.

11 - The politics of human sexuality.

There’s an event against STD at the school. Pierce brings an escort. Jeff can’t find a girl so he charm’s the Dean’s new secretary. Annie has to demonstrate how to wear a condom, but is very frustrated about it, not having ever seen one. Her only experience was in the dark, with a boy who then realised he was gay. Abed beats Troy in everything they do, even sport.

12 - Comparative religion.

Shirley plans a Christmas party in the library, even though she’s the only Christian there. It’s the tenth, actually, and they end up fighting a group of bullies before the party.

13 - Investigative journalism.

New semester. Buddy wants to join the group but they vote him out. Then they feel bad and welcome him, but his old group voted him in again so he leaves. Jeff works with Annie and Abed for the school paper because Jeff gets a big office.

14 - Interpretive dance.

Jeff is in a relationship with professor Slater. He freaks out when it becomes known and they are officially boyfriend and girlfriend. Britta is shocked to see them holding hands. 

Britta goes to tip tap class and Troy to modern dance class. They’re both embarrassed to tell the others but then they do it.

15 - Romantic expressionism.

Jeff and Britta see Annie laughing with Annie. Britta is 28, Annie is 18. Jeff wants Britta to help him keep them apart, so they tell Troy about her crush… so Annie gets angry because Vaughn left her, and Troy is angry because now he wants Annie and she doesn’t. Then Vaughn comes back singing to her and they’re together now. Quite cute actually. 

Abed, Troy, Shirley and Chang get together to watch bad movies and mock them, and Pierce wants to join and asks the sketch comedy club for jokes to say.

16 - Communication studies.

Britta calls Jeff while drunk at night. It’s Valentine’s Day week. She doesn’t even remember it the day after, and is horrified when Jeff has her hear it and he’s all smug about her “drunk dial”, her “booty call implication”. Now, to avoid the awkwardness, Abed tells him he has to level the ground and maybe he should make a drunk call himself, so Abed and Jeff drink a lot and while drunk he makes a call to Britta and one to his girlfriend. He half-fights with Michelle Slater, she’s upset but then Britta shows up and has her listen to 20 seconds of a very long message, 20 seconds where Jeff told her how he’s really into Michelle and doesn’t want to ruin it, so they’re ok again. Annie and Shirley got Valentine’s gifts; Troy and Pierce, embarassed to get none, send one to themselves. Chang shames them in front of the class because of it, so Annie and Shirley try to prank him to avenge them, but it backfires because Chang thinks the two males are responsible, and orders them to wear women’s clothes and dance with him at the Valentine’s Ball, or he’ll fail them. They do it, but they wear two one-colour suits, with a scarf. They were yes female outfits, but it’s not as if they were in a dress.

17 - Physical education.

There’s a drawing of Abed in a book with hearts all around, it belonged to Jenny and they all pressure Abed to meet her. Not Jeff. Despite what Jeff said, the others think they need to teach Abed how to win a girl or he’ll stay alone. Abed finally approaches the girl ony to discover that her boyfriend looks a lot like him. They thought he’d feel bad but no, he’s confident and only did it for them.

Jeff joined ‘the art of pool’ and is made to wear silly shorts, so he quits the class. The ‘shooting pool teacher’ keeps mocking him so they play pool in their underwear to see who’ll win. They even take off their underwear and Jeff wins.

18 - Basic genealogy.

Michelle dumps Jeff.

Today, family members come to the school. Jeff tries to hit on Pierce’s stepdaughter Amber. Shirley’s two sons are full of energy. Abed has his father and his fully-burka-covered-in-black cousin Abra. Troy does not want to spend time with his grandma and Britta is all: you should cherish your grandma, or something, until she meets her. Britta keeps her positive attitude, even letting the woman spank her with a piece of wood Britta helpfully provided. Chang’s brother is a rabbi. Pierce gives money to Amber and she goes away. Jeff tries to tell him, but Pierce knows she cares about that, and not him.

19 - Beginner pottery.

Jeff, Annie and Abed join a pottery class, while Shirley, Britta, Troy and Pierce join sailing class.

Jeff is uneasy because Rich is cool, very handsome, a prodigy at pottery and has even a medical degree. Jeff becomes obsessed with proving something’s wrong about Rich. He goes crazy and is expelled from class.

Jeff doesn’t know, but we hear of Rich’s traumatic childhood compared to Jeff’s loving mother.

20 - The science of illusion.

It’s April Fools. Jeff and Troy play a prank on Pierce, giving him a magician costume for his sort-of religious cult. Annie and Shirley want to play ‘cops’ joining security on campus, and Britta wants to prove she isn’t a fun killer, but ends up throwing a corpse out a window and killing a frog. Britta tries to frame Jeff, but eventually confesses.

21 - Contemporary American poultry.

They’re all crazy about chicken fingers and plot to have Abed hired to fry them because they always end up without. In no time Abed builds a big thing where they smuggle the food away and give it to those who give them something in return. Jeff leaves the group. After a while, Abed sees that his ‘friends’ have become spoiled and don’t respect him anymore. So Abed and Jeff stop it all.

22 - The art of discourse.

Pierce is always inappropriate and offensive, and when he lowers Shirley’s pants for a laugh they kick him out of the group. This disrupts their balance so they try to make him apologize, which ends up in her leaving too.

Three high-school kids keep mocking Jeff and Britta and the five of them act childish and stupid until Pierce and Shirley help settle things.

23 - Modern warfare.

There’s a paintball game: the prize is “priority registration”, the chance to choose their classes first. It’s big War, a great big fight. In the end, Jeff wins. He gives the prize to Shirley who wants more afternoons at home to be with her children.

Also, Jeff and Britta had sex.

24 - English as a second language.

Exam time. Jeff doesn’t want to take Spanish 3 next year. (Chang is 32???) Chang had no real qualification to teach andwhen Annie finds out she leaks the information, so their votes would be invalidated and they’d have to take the class again, all together. Of course Chang thinks Jeff did it because he confessed to him in secret. Troy gets offered a job as a plumber repairing sinks. Jeff is very angry at Annie. Chang is not angry anymore and plans to take courses too. In the end they all pass the exam. Unknowingly thanks to Pierce knowing the new teacher.

25 - Pascall’s triangle revisited.

Vaughn got an offer than sends him to Delaware, and Annie wants to go with him, permanently. Troy got kicked out by his dad, I think. He wanted to room with Abed, but only Pierce offers him a room. Abed says it’s for the best because they would fight and ruin their friendship. 

Michelle Slater is back and wants Jeff back. She sort of fights with Britta over him and during the end of term ball Britta tells him that she loves him in front of everyone. Michelle says the same. Everyone waits for his decision, he says “I don’t know”. He escapes outside and sees Annie who changed her mind. They talk and then they kiss.