Community - Ladders + Lawnmower Maintenance and Postnatal Care - Review: "It's good to be back"

My god, how I’ve missed Community! I knew I missed it, but I didn’t actually realized how much until I actually watched the premiere episodes on Tuesday afternoon. While watching the premiere I felt such an overwhelming feeling of happiness that I had to try wind down and try to be a bit more objective towards what I was watching, but man! I was so incredibly happy to have the show back that I enjoyed it as if it was one of the best episodes of the show. That’s how much I missed it, and that’s why I couldn’t writer the review right away.

Waiting for almost a year is way too much, and on a season when we bid farewell to another beloved, quirky, smart and witty comedy - Parks and Recreation -, Community comes back on Yahoo as a reminder of the great era of comedies on NBC, when “Must See TV” was truly a fitting name for their Community-30 Rock - The Office - Parks and Recreation lineup. Community is the last man standing, and over its first two episodes one thing is pretty clear: the show is committed to both evolve and stay the same, and the result is pretty positive so far.

So let’s dive in!

Ladders

“Ladders” is one of the best Community season premieres I’ve seen. Well, Community doesn’t have a high bar on premiere episodes - excluding the amazing season 3 premiere -, but “Ladders” came into the world with just an air of calm reminiscent of the security fans felt knowing the show will air in Yahoo. I make this comparison because I felt that the show is no longer worried about ratings and cancellation; the colors are brighter, the pacing is not fast nor slow, and as a whole it takes its time to progress instead of trying to just catch you up in middle of some madness. And honestly, that made this premiere really endearing.

It’s not like I don’t want madness on Community - I love it! -, but it felt really fitting for a comeback episode that followed a cancellation that the show felt laid back and that the themes here were how you keep going on without losing your identity.

We left Greendale being saved last season, so in order to keep things moving, something had to happen right away. So the ceiling collapses due to high amount of frisbees that have been thrown there over the years. It’s a great visual gag, and it’s a great way to get the season moving.

I found it pretty touching - in a little way -, that Shirley was written off the way she was; Britta explains that she went away to take care of her father, which is exactly what happened to Yvette Nicole Brown. It is said in such a caring and sweet manner that I just couldn’t help but smile while also feeling a bit sad for her departure, but the door is always open for her to return, just like it is open for Donald Glover as well. It is a very small, but perfectly executed send off - not to mention her final bit, but I’ll get to that-.

Shirley’s exit is cue for Paget Brewster to join in the cast, and it’s a wonderful addition; called by the Dean as “the new Shirley”, Paget’s character Francesca “Frankie” Dart makes an interesting addition; she makes for a dull character with the twist that she is fully aware of how dull she is. And she’s also pompous, so there’s that.

Community is a show that works best when its broken characters find meaningful relationship with each other by recognizing what’s beyond their quirks, and the premiere manages to capture that essence on a way; Abed and Frankie develop a quick rapport with each other, while everyone else freaks out that Frankie will just mess up the Greendale dynamics, leading Jeff and company to create a secret noir-esquee bar secretly hidden behind the doors of Shirley’s sandwiches, while Abed starts fixing Greendale with Frankie.

The scenes on the secret bar are the highlight of the episode. The montage of everyone sharing drinks goes pretty great, and once Frankie raids in everything gets even better. Frankie’s meltdown shows just how great Paget is as an actress; she tries to act as crazy as everybody else and fails miserably on the most comedic way; and while I’m not someone who likes fart jokes, I have replayed her lines from “shut up Leonard” to “Everyone here is a fart!” at least 5 times; she just does an amazing job.

Of course, things are bound to fall apart. And once Frankie quits, the budget and everything else starts becoming a problem once Greendale starts going berserk.
We are shown Frankie trying to apply for another job, but her employer finds her too pompous and Frankie realizes that she needs a place that will take her for who she is, cue to Jeff and Abed finding her and start a montage of apologies.

Everything works out in the end, Frankie is now a member of the Save Greendale committee - I assume they still go by that name -, and we close with Garret looking angrily at the group, while Leonard gives a sudden thumb up. This kind of randomness never goes bad on Community.

And we close with a scene shared by Nicole Yvette Brown and Steven Weber, where we see how Shirley is doing on her new job, parodying the typical detective/assistant relationship. It is a random bit, but I’m glad that we got to see her one last time, though I hope she can guest star on the future or make a return should her father recover; and I really hope for her that he gets better.

Grade: B+

Stray Observations:

-Garret: “FRISBEES!”

-According to Frankie, people refer to Greendale as weird, passionate and gross. Sounds about right.

-I think it’s sweet that Britta is taking care of the sandwich shop while Shirley is unavailable. As seen above, I already miss Yvette Nicole Brown.

-Britta: “I’m going to name one of my sandwiches after her. My sandwiches suck.”

-Since Abed mentioned it, what did happen to Rachel? It would be really sad if she didn’t come back, I honestly liked her. One of the best things to come out of season four.

-Frankie: “Abed, if you change your clothe one more time today, you are fired.”

-Vicky singing in that noir-esquee club was so great!

-Nathan Fillion cameo! We need to get more of him here.

-Britta: Shut up Leonard! I once mistook six people for you in a pharmacy.

-Abed: “I hate emailing Dian. She can’t commit to a font, it’s pathological.”

-Frankie: “Shut up… Leonard. You are... old. And you deserve less because of your age!”
I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again. Community CAN’T end without having every single major character having told Leonard to shut up. With Pierce, Troy and Shirley - who by the way did it -, out, the only ones missing are Chang, Abed and Annie. I’ll be waiting.

-Frankie: “Everyone here is a fart! A living fart! From the butt of a lesser god!

-Annie after being struck by a falling ladder: “It was worth it.”

-And last but not least, I loved every single montage scene!


Lawnmower Maintenance and Postnatal Care

Now, the second episode was really much slower paced and didn’t have as many hilarious moments as the season premiere did, but I still liked it. The problem here would be that it feels like a more quiet episode of Community, and by now I’m really used to those episode that cause some noise and that stick around your head after watching it.


In a way “Lawnmower” is pretty forgettable, with the exception that we finally get to meet Britta’s parents, a lovely old couple that have been trying to take care of Britta by using her friends and the internet to keep in touch with her.

This particular storyline really never clicked because I didn’t find Britta’s reactions nearly as funny as the writing team probably intended. And it’s not that Gillian Jacob did a lousy job or anything - that’s never the case -, it’s just that Britta was just so unrealistically pissed that it was a tough sell to begin with. I mean, sure, by what I hear from Britta’s childhood her parents were quite atrocious, but you’d think that over time she would have cooled off, even a bit.

I also think we could have benefited more from seeing how Britta fits in the while Abed and Annie dynamic; with Troy gone Britta will be there to fill in the void, but the dynamics are bound to be very different from what they once were, and there is room for very fruitful, comic storylines there, but it seems like the crew decided that it was better to wait before we got into that.

The Dean storyline on the virtual reality had plenty of hits and misses. The one liners were pretty great - “Jesus wept!” -, but Frankie and Jeff were really underused here, often used as a contrast to the nonsense going on in the virtual reality. It would have been plenty more fun if Jeff had to jump in there.

Still, Jim Rash does a magnificent job getting excited over such a crappy virtual reality, it is obvious that he has great fun with it and as a result I ended up laughing a lot, even if it’s not the best Community comedic plot.

As a whole there’s lots of small moments that make the episode work, but it is still feels like it works at half speed.

But that’s just for this episode, as a whole I feel pretty good about the season so far, because I feel the show is ready to find new ways to keep itself fresh while also keeping what it makes it Community. And that’s what great show does. This episode seems to be just a mild misstep.

Grade: B-

Stray Observations:

-At the end of last season I promised to be punctual with my reviews. I already failed, but I have an excuse. I had a major internet meltdown over the weekend and it wasn’t fixed until yesterday. I only had internet through my phone and couldn’t post the review with it.
The next episode review will come up in a few hours. Sorry about starting late already.

-Frankie was pretty forgettable during this episode.

-Abed: “I told you cats don’t like me. They consider me a competitor because of my natural stealth and ambivalence.”

-Chang is better used in small doses, and seeing him wandering around campus and then on Britta’s house with his hand getting exponentially bigger was a great recurring gag.

-Cute gag: Abed and Britta trying the Troy and Abed salute.

-Dean: “Have fun in the Stone Age while I step into the third Dean-mension.”

-Dean: “I set the timezone!”
Jeff: “And my phone does that automatically.”

-Portuguese Gremlins sounds like something I would watch drunk.

-Dean: “The power. The facility. Jesus wept-!”
Jeff: “Stop saying Jesus wept.”

-Jeff: “You are not the new Annie. You are the new Abed.”
Frankie: “I don’t know what that means yet.”

-The Woodstock excuse from Britta’s parents was pretty lame, I may say.

-I always love to see Rhonda, no matter how little her role may be.

About the Author - Pablo

I'm currently studying Psychology while also writing fantasy books (one already published in my home country, Chile, you can check it out on the facebook icon). I watch many different types of shows, including my favorites Revenge, Game of Thrones, Once Upon a Time and about 23 more. Currently writing reviews for Once Upon a Time, The 100 and Community

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