Community: "Intermediate Documentary Filmmaking" and the Documentary Sitcom

Community is one of my favourite comedies currently on the air, and this episode is no exception.  I found it to be one of the best of the season in terms of pure, laugh out loud comedy, between moments such as the "Jeff Winger's dumb gay dad" conversation, and of course, this:

Of specific interest, however, is the use of the faux documentary style in this episode.  As with the other times in Community, its use as a "meta" storytelling device is not a point of its own, but rather, a tool to tell the story the writers want to tell, while still having fun.  Some see this episode as a not-so-subtle dig at shows which use the documentary style such as The Office, Parks and Recreation or Modern Family.  While some jokes are had in pointing out  some of the ways this style can suggest a "profound thematic connection" or easily portray emotions using "talking heads," I don't believe the episode is a straightforward condemnation of these techniques.  


While the episode may point out these techniques in Community's "meta" way, it is still using them itself in a very conscious way.  As Abed himself points out, it's easier to tell a complex story when you can cut to people explaining things to the camera.  This episode in particular is telling quite a complex story, and definitely one more complex than Community often tackles.  Jeff's insecurities with his father, and how he transfers his aggression (somewhat justifiably) onto Pierce is a story that deals with a lot of pent up emotions that, from a writing perspective, are incredibly difficult to get across to the viewer.  It is through the documentary style that we are able to appreciate the subtleties of Jeff's anger and why Pierce would lash out at his friends.  While it is debatable whether their reconciliation at the end of the episode is earned or not, it is clear that the documentary style was chosen very specifically in the writing of this episode to tell this story.


While "Intermediate Documentary Filmmaking" joyfully points out how using this format of sitcom makes it easier to tell a story, even Abed points out, "It works."

Are We Having Fun Yet?

Party Down  was a truly awesome comedy which aired on Starz, that, like so many great shows before it, got cancelled prematurely, after only two seasons.

But that topic has been discussed to death, so I'd prefer to analyze how Party Down manages to be very funny in all of its episodes without ever really having that much fun.  Don't get me wrong, the show is written with a great sense of cheeriness, and the situations are often appropriately wacky and suitable for some sitcom-y misadventures.  The difference lies in the characters.

Other shows, from Community to The Big Bang Theory spend a lot of time ensuring its characters often have fun.  The Office, in its American incarnation, which derives a lot of humour from awkwardness, has always ensured that its various characters have something fun to do that makes them enjoy coming to work on some level.  This has tended to be exaggerated as the show progressed and has gotten more cartoonish, but even when the show was primarily a satire of the modern workplace, there was a sense of cheerfulness that the characters clearly felt.

Compare Jim and Pam in the early days of The Office to Henry and Casey in Party Down.  Jim and Pam initially hated their jobs much like Henry and Casey, and both pairs tend to try their best to have a good time in spite of their situation.  The primary difference here is, what feels like good fun on The Office as Jim pulls hilarious pranks on Dwight, on Party Down, it often feels sad for the characters, especially Henry.  He is without any more hopes in life anymore at the outset of the series.  Henry and Casey hook up quite fast as, unlike Jim and Pam; they have a lot less to lose, as their job itself is quite meaningless to them.

By contrast, Ron is a more inherently comedic character, but his life is possibly even more brutal.  He genuinely cares about his work, which is funny for the viewer, as this attitude seems excessive for his line of work and is in stark contrast to those around him.   He has drive and purpose in the first season: a Soup R' Crackers franchise.   He attains this goal, but the franchise fails, and his antics following his fall are simultaneously hilarious and painful to watch.  His struggle emphasizes that Party Down Catering only has meaning, because he needs than meaning in his life, but it is a meaning that no other character on the show gives it.

Roman and Kyle have their own "Odd Couple" schtick going on, which is awesome, but is usually used as comedic relief for the more melancholy main characters.  When Roman takes centre stage in episodes such as "Joel Munt's Big Deal Party," the writers do not hesitate to break Roman's character down to a low point which shows him as trapped as the rest of the characters.

Since the characters of Constance and Lydia basically serve the same function on the show, they can pretty much be discussed together.  While they are also there as comic relief, the humour of their characters, as Genevieve Koski notes, mostly comes from how their reach exceeds what they (or in Lydia's case, her daughter) are actually able to achieve.

One notable point about the show is that the writers never really go out of their way to draw the group together as a makeshift family as so many shows do (often very well, e.g. Community).  In fact, when, say, Ron or Lydia are acting as if everyone are actually great friends, they are mocked, or treated as peculiar.  Now, Party Down Catering is certainly willing to team up against a common "enemy" such as Valhalla Catering, but there is never any feeling that the characters are ineffably drawn to each other, merely that they each individually are not really destined for anything great, so they're stuck at this shit job.

Bring this all together and you've got a pretty great dark comedy, with some hilarious situations happening on the outskirts.

The series is summed up pretty nicely in the exchange at the end of "Not On Your Wife Opening Night."

"It's like all these little misunderstandings building up to this tragic ending."

This is why Henry choosing to follow his acting career at the end of the series feel so good, and not bittersweet.  He's not really leaving behind something he really cared about, he's not losing his best friends; he finally gets to start having fun with his life.