Community, Season 3, Episode 10 “Regional Holiday Music”
Airs Thursdays, 8pm EST on NBC
So Community is now benched and for how long we don’t yet know, but if they absolutely had to go out, this was the way to do it. It combined everything that I love. Christmas, musicals, and hating of Glee, all thrown together in a very funny episode.
I knew that Dan Harmon wouldn’t hold back with it, the previous Christmas episodes were both fantastic so it’s something that he clearly loves. We have also been waiting for a full on spoof of Glee since the jabs that have been thrown at it in previous episodes, particularly Paradigms of Human Memory. I do not like that show at all. I watched it in the beginning but it has serious faults as a series that you cannot deny. Yes it is also seen as a cool thing to hate now but there shouldn’t be anything wrong with not liking another show. Jeff put it best when he said “Not liking glee club doesn’t make us bullies and implying that is reverse bullying.”
Abed and Troy rapping was both funny and entertaining. I had seen the clip in a preview so it came as no surprise but I wish that it had. I have been waiting for the show to utilize the talent that Donald Glover has. It comes right at the perfect time too, soon after the release of his album Camp.
The ways in which they all slowly succumbed to Mr Rad’s wishes were perfect. Each one of them being tricked in ways that played to their personalities. My personal favourite being the way in which Annie serenaded Jeff with a Christmas song reminiscent of “Baby It’s Cold Outside” but with the lyrics dumbed down to the point of making baby noises and uttering the word “sex” at the end of it. We all know why it’s there, they make no attempt in hiding that they put these scenes in for the internet to go crazy and create gifs. of Annie. Still it was a very funny mocking of that style of song which does play up to making the woman singing it turn into a baby of some kind. It dumbs her down essentially.
Taran Killam was perfectly cast as Mr. Rad. He was every bit Will Schuster that he needed to be from the sweater vests and jeans, to the creepy obsession he has with winning regionals. What are regionals anyway? I still couldn’t tell you and neither could Pierce. It’s no surprise when we learned that it was he who caused the original glee clubs bus to crash by cutting the breaks, something that doesn’t seem too far from what Sue Sylvester might do on Glee if they ever wanted to cause some tension.
The best song was probably Mr Rad’s with Abed. It poked fun at all of the problems that the show has without completely insulting it. “I’ll understand every scene because they’ll sing what they mean instead of making a face.”. Something that is so accurate and a common concern with people watching it. This isn’t a review of Glee however and I should move on before it turns into one.
The episode managed to show us that it is in fact ok to enjoy things sometimes but the problem is when you force yourself to enjoy something and fake gleefulness. Then you are only fooling yourself. It’s also fine to admit that you don’t like something, even if everyone else does. We saw this with Britta when she joined in, despite not liking it, just to be a part of something and to make her friends happy.
When Mr Rad turned on her for her terrible singing and improv skills, the group stepped up to defend her. They then all sat down with Abed to watch the Inspector Spacetime Christmas special that he had wanted to see with them. That is what Christmas is about, setting aside your differences and doing things with people that you care about, even if what they want to do is something that you don’t. Community knows that the group is a family and despite their differences, they can get along and enjoy spending time with each other.
The show cares about its fans and they care about the show, more than most that I have seen. That is why I know that while it is off the air for this period of time, the fans will do everything that they can to make sure it comes back to stay. I am going to miss it a lot. The last show that I cared about this strongly was Arrested Development. Luckily I didn’t catch that until after it was canceled because it’s the not knowing that is the worst thing about the benching. When will Community come back? Will it get a decent run for the rest of the season? Will it get a fourth season and tie up loose ends? These are all plaguing questions that we won’t know for a long time. One thing I do know though is that this is a special kind of show, one that comes around very rarely and one that will be sorely missed when it does end. For now that ends my run of reviews of the show but I will be back whenever it airs again to review the rest of the season.
What did you think of the show and will you miss it over the next few months?
Yiannis Cove