It's been GOOD... but not great. And I think I've figured out why.


In season one, there was a LOT of inter-group tension. Jeff wanted to get into Britta's pants. Annie had a crush on Troy. Annie and Jeff had a weird little thing going on. Britta was mad at Annie for dating Vaughn. Jeff hated being at Greendale, but was starting to grow to like the people he was with.

Chang was a scary nutcase antagonist.

And then, AGAINST that backdrop, you had funny stuff like the debate, the paintball tournament, the chicken episode...


The problem is, all of that simmering tension is just- gone. Jeff and Britta hooked up, now they banter but it doesn't have the former intensity. Annie doesn't really care about Troy anymore. Vaughn's gone, Jeff has mostly come to peace with being at Greendale for the immediate future.

Annie and Jeff's thing has completely evaporated, because annoys me because they had great chemistry while being hilarious (Honestly, she's 18! Even if they didn't want to do a relationship, they could have played up the "Annie has a crush and Jeff has a hard time saying no" angle a bit. Instead, first episode, Annie goes "Ew, you're a 30-something that kissed an 18-year old, that's gross"


So, yeah. What's left? The best part of Community, in my opinion, wasn't the giant wacky setpieces- it was the interaction between characters. Yes, paintball was great, but my favorite scenes are like when, in the pilot, Jeff explains how if he names a pencil Timmy and snaps it in half, a little part of us dies inside. Or when everyone's sniping at each other over the study hall table.


So, yeah. Zombie pastiches are great, but I'd much rather have Annie and Shirley trying to out bad-cop each other because they're insecure in the wholesome ways in which they're perceived.


(Luckily, I think a lot of the episodes coming up are toning down the "wacky." The Christmas episode is going to be stop-motion animation, a la Rudolph, but there will be a few with them just in study hall or whatever).


Edit- Oh, and Senor Chang has been downgraded from awesomely hilarious antagonist to a sad puppy dog that follows them around and sometimes gets a good one liner in.