Community

Well, I've gone and fallen head over heels in love with Community and pretty much every character in it. It's a show I didn't see much of first time round, and since it released on Netflix last year it has received a new lease of life and a whole new fanbase, including me. One of the reasons its run on NBC (2009 - 2014) was dogged by low ratings (as well as being up against The Big Bang Theory in the US) was that internationally it was being shared and downloaded illegally. Oh the days when we had to wait up to two years in the UK for American shows! I'm sorry to say that this was how I ever saw the odd episode as I was seeing someone who downloaded it from bit torrents and it was part of a jumble with Parks and Recreation, Arrested Development and shows I didn't enjoy and can't remember the titles of. This was during my last PhD year so it's all a bit blurry, and if you know what I was researching, you'll know I needed escapism. And my goodness, is Community providing that for me now.

It doesn't stop there, though. My fandom has grown so quickly and intensely that I've been faster than usual to nerdily absorb everything I can find about it, and what I've found is almost as good as the show: The Darkest Timeline podcast with Joel McHale and Ken Jeong. I should be annoyed that so many actors/commedians/celebrities, etc., are oversaturating the podcasting world when scrappy indie makers like me are struggling, but democratising media means just that: everyone gets a go. And it's so flipping funny. It's also sad and informative because they initially talk about the emerging pandemic (it runs from April to July 2020) from Jeong's point of view as a former physician, the related racialised abuse towards anyone remotely Asian-looking, rampant misinformation and the lack of guidance from federal government, all before descending into comedic one-up-manship, being interrupted by surprise guests and never getting round to answering fan questions about Community. It's a riot. And I'm so enamoured by the guest just dropping in without a clunky introduction that it's very tempting to change up my own approach. Don't worry, I won't, but I do enjoy it happening on theirs. I'm also enjoying finding out as I watch the show the significance and extent of 'the darkest timeline'.

My pathway to Community this time was wanting something to doze off to at night. I have issues with insomnia and intrusive memories, the latter of which have thankfully calmed down after a course of CBT in the autumn, but I still struggle to relax enough to fall asleep. This was partly why I got into Disenchantment, if you'll recall my reflections on that. Having watched it twice over, mostly late at night, it was time to move on. Community - as I'm sure is the case for many of you reading if you have Netflix - has been popping up in my suggestions since its release. My memories of it were vague, really just flashes of classroom scenes and the basic premise. I also remembered Joel McHale's turn in The X-Files season 11 (it was fun to learn from the podcast that he's an X-phile as well...). I've seen Ken Jeong in many things over the years, and more recently had become aware of Donald Glover and Alison Brie in their movie roles. It is quite fun to watch this earlier part of their careers and see the movie star charisma oozing out of them.

I can't explain it, and seeing fans' comments, I know it's not as weird as it might sound, but I have developed a huge, intense school-girl crush on most of the main cast and actors. I get so swept up in the group dynamic and how bonkers and loaded with pop culture references it all is. And normally I don't care about this side of things, but it strangely pleases me that they're good friends in real life. I suppose it's the way of things at the moment, to find joy and giddiness wherever you can.

Speaking of The X-Files, though, I have a hypothesis that my teen fandom of it is why I'm so drawn in by Community. For me, their similarities lie in character development, intelligent writing, the actors' onscreen chemistry, and placing the characters in outlandish scenarios that could only possibly make sense in the world of the show. While for The X-Files this involved poking at the paranormal, in Community it is absurdism. Plus technically and aesthetically, the way the shows are made edge into more cinematic stylistics, and many writers and directors working on each show have enjoyed movie success.

As was the case when I watched The X-Files late at night as a teenager when it was being shown and re-run on BBC2, no sleep was happening. The X-Files was too fun then and Community is too fun now. By the time I joined The X-Files, it was showing season 6, so after the first movie and when production had moved from Vancouver to LA and moods were more relaxed in line with the better weather (and David Duchovny getting what he wanted). By this stage, most of the main story arc had been resolved (only to be strung out later when Duchovny decided to leave at the end of season 7 - another show that should have been #SixSeasonsAndAMovie). The romantic tension, or what shippers called UST (unresolved sexual tension), between Mulder (Duchovny) and Scully (Gillian Anderson) settled into subtle flirtation after their near-kiss in the 1998 film; their attraction is undeniable, but they choose not to act on it, thereby not derailing the show and not alienating the no-romo fans while giving the shipper fans enough breadcrumbs to sustain their fan-fiction (oh, on this subject I can hold by own with Abed [Danny Pudi]).

All this introduced me to the concept of 'relationshipper' fandom, which erupted amongst Community fans as well when it was clear there was chemistry between Jeff (McHale) and Annie (Brie) rather than as planned with Britta (Gillian Jacobs). And here lies a further raft of nerdy shipper comparisons: age-gap, personality oppositions, utter hotness, doing anything for each other to the bitter end including letting go, notable height difference, and for the most part being content with ignoring true feelings while finding exuses to have madcap adventures together. If I had too much time on my hands, I'd make an extended video, but I fear I've already taken this too far. 

On age-gap, Scully is about four years older than Anderson, so the gap was more between the actors, although Scully does like to remind Mulder that a lot of cultural references he makes were before her time. Annie is about eight years younger than Brie and is seventeen years younger than Jeff, so yes, we enter into potentially creepy territory given that she is 19 in season 1. Each pairing has a wedge between them: Mulder and Scully are FBI partners and Jeff (it seems to me at least) doesn't want Annie to miss out on her twenties or risk holding her back from great career and life opportunities. Oh, and it's an FBI internship she's off to when the series ends... I feel like I've just blown this case wide open.

Something unspoken between each pairing but that rears up at least once a season (and goes as far back as the X-Files pilot)* is that all Mulder/Jeff had to do was make a move and Scully/Annie would have been theirs. 

* Seriously, Scully is a medical doctor, but rushes to Mulder's motel room in her underwear to check suspicious bumps on her back - something she not only could have done clothed, but, hello, she's a doctor; how did she not know they were mosquito bites? (This is down to flimsy writing and pressure for skin from Fox, the network who wanted Scully to be a tall, busty blonde because they think that's the only way for a woman to be sexy. Gillian Anderson wasn't long setting that straight.) After clearing that up, Scully lies on Mulder's bed while that dumbass sits on the floor recounting his sister's abduction when they were children. It's traumatic and expositional and all, but she's a straight-up hottie and it doesn't hurt to inquire about these things when she's just stripped off in front of you to show you something she could have folded her waistband down for and should have recognised immediately and had a cream for. Well, that rant has been festering for some years.

There are consistent subtle hints that underneath a prim exterior, Scully and Annie are pretty sexually charged and more worldly-wise than other main characters assume, something that only occasional or one-time characters get to point out. For example, in the season 4 episode 'Small Potatoes' Scully is nearly seduced by a (not an alien - yes it matters) shapeshifter pretending to be Mulder when all he does is ask her about herself and take an interest (which is why we begin to learn about her rebellious streak as a young person and that she doesn't care a damn about FBI regulations against fraternizing with colleagues). The Jeff response with a hint of envy and overprotection to such interjections is along the lines of 'Annie's pretty young; we try not to sexualise her' or orchestrating an elaborate deflection, while Mulder's is to pointedly start referring to his partner as Dr Scully or Agent Scully to or in front of the interloper and bury himself further into conspiracies, definitely for their own benefits rather than anyone else's. 

Interestingly, when a fake Mulder (this time Michael McKean's Man In Black who is accidentally body-swapped with Mulder) tries his luck in season 6, Scully is having none of it and knows it isn't him this time. Something similar happens when darkest timeline evil Abed in the Dreamatorium (Abed and Troy's answer to the Star Trek holodecks which cause endless bother and are somehow never banned) presents as Jeff (although what Annie sees is her Abed acting weird even for him), she is also having none of it, even though she's been caught up in Abed's playacting before (but as Hans Solo in the second paintball war - did I mention this show is bonkers? - and before they could have known Donald Glover who plays Troy would go on to play a young Lando Calrissian in Solo).

I'm so far down the rabbit hole, but I can't stop. An important principle comes into play as well where it was stipulated early on in The X-Files, I think by creator Chris Carter, that the slightest touch or look between Mulder and Scully would hold more significance than any sexual conduct either character would ever engage in with anybody else. It even goes so far as to make sex at all meaningless, transactional or part of a manipulation. Even when Scully has a baby fathered by Mulder, for many convoluted reasons I'm not going to go into, it's still ambiguous as to whether this was a traditional conception or not. The principle works for Jeff and Annie too. Each has other relationships, flirtations and crushes, including Jeff repeatedly hooking up with Britta, but the chemistry never matches a fleeting look or smile he shares with Annie. And when they're angry with each other, things go ape shit, leading to a deeper closeness and understanding (and a lot of unacknowledged carnage in their wake - also reminiscent of the MSR [Mulder-Scully relationship]).

Beyond the characters, post-movie The X-Files had more comedy episodes, although the pinnacle of those for me is 'Bad Blood' in season 5, a Rashomon-style vampire romp that gives the Community Halloween episodes a run for their money. 'Arcadia' from season 6 would not be too out-of-place on Community either. It is perhaps the silliest, flimsiest episode, and it's one of my favourites for it. In this MOTW (monster of the week) episode, Mulder and Scully are undercover as a married couple, and the persona Mulder creates (he calls them Rob and Laura Petrie - very Abed) has a lot of Jeff in him. Quite possibly a bit of Pierce (Chevy Chase) too as his understanding of marriage lies largely in 1960s television dialogue. Another very Abed way of processing the scenario.

Right, so, it is clear that my regression to adolesence continues, and I may have pushed the limitations of acceptable nerd-dom with this one, but surviving a pandemic is tough, and the heart wants what it wants. What I will say as a late but original X-Files fan to established Community fans is, sometimes with TV shows it is best to be kept wanting. Like Annie and Jeff's relationship, the idea of the movie is more exciting than the movie. While there are some great episodes if you regard them out of context in seasons 8 to 11 of The X-Files and the second film had some merit, I always felt it should have gone out on the relative high of season 7 and left the fan-fiction writers to resolve any tensions for themselves. Where it comes to comedy, I wonder if the creators of shows like The Good Place learnt from those mistakes to limit and plan the story with a fitting end. Many fans of Community creator Dan Harmon won't appreciate my saying that four seasons (the length of the college degree, duh doi) would have been ideal for the series, and contrary to popular opinion, I think season 4 is great. It has some of the cleverest writing and loveliest character development I've seen, and I suspect that was to do with Megan Ganz (who had been harrassed by Harmon) having more input as a writer and producer. Sometimes creators as much as their fans need to let go to let something flourish (as Jeff does with Annie - oh, the irony).