Amidst the hustle and bustle of the end of the new year, a lot of people might have overlooked the ending of HBO’s red-headed stepchild Treme and tonight’s return of NBC’s looooong underrated gem Community (now back with Dan Harmon behind the creator’s helm).
Treme…An unsatisfying show sputters to a close. I wrote a few weeks back about how frustrated I was with the show’s stagnant plot lines (not much ever changes for these characters…most of whom are exactly the same throughout and at least half are in the same situations), the characters who are so stubborn and change-resistant they’re practically one-dimensional, the endless jazz jargon that maybe 100 people on Earth will find riveting, musical performances that never feel visceral enough, and the stubborn tendency to have dense (but flat) dialogue delivered by non-professional actors who seem to be trying out for their own local access talk show.
I knew I was done with the show when they had Annie spend literally five different scenes (scattered through three of the last five episodes) asking different people if they thought she should actually try to become successful at music by taking a plum gig in Nashville. The only reason she wouldn’t? Wanting to stay loyal to her adopted New Orleans sound. This problem was obscenely rarefied; this problem was presented with the dramatic equivalent of a shoulder-shrug; this problem involved her talking to different musicians (non-professional actors again) who all pretty much said the same thing; this problem was space filler. If a show’s final season is only five episodes long, and three of the episodes feel like space filler, the tank has been empty for some time. Grade for final season: C-…Grade for series finale: C
Community…Season 4 of this cult favorite was terrible, but now the original (in every way) creator, Dan Harmon, is back and season 5 is already off to a better start. This meta-sitcom will never be the most laugh out loud hilarious comedy or the one with the biggest ideas (Parks and Recreation will take the prize for the latter) but it is good to have it back and in the right form. The second episode of tonight’s two-parter is better—-it’s less afflicted by Community’s achilles heel, sermonizing speeches where everyone learns a life lesson—-because of a higher energy level, a look at the teacher’s lounge, and a great new addition in Jonathan Banks’ surly but sly professor. [I wish the Nicolas Cage subplot was less dated, but who could resist Abed’s impersonation of one of his meltdowns?]