By: Margaret Roach
One of my top ten fears is failure, some of the other greatest hits include heights, those people who wear costumes in NYC, and flesh-eating bacteria. In college, though, I am forced to confront my fear every day. In the span of my two years here, I have become that kid you hate in elementary school because they consider an 85 a bad grade. Last year I got a B+ in a course and I had to lie down for a while. It’s absolutely ridiculous, but it is one of the greatest stressors in my college career. This fear of failure doesn’t seem to be limited to just me, our society values success and this could feel straining at times- especially for the already-neurotic college student. This is why Community is one of my favorite shows about college and failure.
Community has a simple sitcom plot: a group of zany friends get together for a study group and go on zany misadventures together. It’s a much deeper show than the average sitcom. College is not often the main focus of a television series. It’s something that high schoolers go to before a show is cancelled due to low ratings. The only show that I’ve seen that is about college is the Magicians and I’m pretty sure that it is not an accurate representation of post-college life. Community shows college in a somewhat accurate way. It’s not this idealized magical place. It has yucky buildings and sometimes incompetent staff. Everyone on Community is a failure in one way or another. Jeff, the main character, is a great former defense attorney who was disbarred and now has to attend Greendale Community College. The rest of the main cast has also been horribly unsuccessful in life. Many of them are at Greendale because it’s the only place left for them to go. All of these characters are failures by society’s standards, and throughout the series they are constantly failing at achieving their end goals. By most standards, almost every character on the show is a loser; yet on the show, they are presented as lovable heroes to the audience. One of the characters named Abed is on the spectrum and has trouble connecting with other people at times. His character is generally negative and Community presents him as an intelligent person on the show. His flaws are seen simply as a part of him – sometimes good and sometimes detrimental.
The characters on Community are constantly failing at nearly everything they do. They do poorly in classes, sometimes to the point of failure. Abed is a film student and he makes terrible films that are basically unwatchable. He loves what he does, but he is so incredibly bad at it. Characters change their career path multiple times throughout the series. My favorite character is Britta. She decides to become a psych major even though that is the worst possible option for her. The show treats college as it is – a place to learn about yourself and make some questionable decisions. No one knows where they’re going in Community, one character goes from being a teacher to living in the air ducts, to a full-on dictator, and finally to a member of a study group. Paths are often complicated and unclear, but that’s all right.
Community should be an essential viewing for college students. Besides being one of the funniest comedies, it teaches lessons. The main lesson being that even though you don’t achieve all of your goals, you still might be OK in the end. Life goes on even if a character does poorly in a class. Failure is a reality for most people, and it happens almost every day. Community treats failure as not the end of the world, but as the opportunity for a lesson. It’s my goal in life to make everyone watch this show, it’s light-hearted, important, and overall a good show. It also has a young Donald Glover and I think that’s reason enough to watch the show.