When I was little I loved the show Rugrats. If you've never seen it (seriously?!) it's about a group of babies and toddlers who despite rarely venturing far from their houses or local playgrounds were able to go on unbelievably magical adventures - from the bottom of the ocean to the far reaches of space- all with the power of their imagination.
When I was a bit older this mantle was taken up by the Disney classic Recess (and not the dreadfully normal Rugrats: All grown up). Recess was about a group of 4th grade school friends who following their leader TJ went through a series of wild escapades in the world's craziest school. How crazy was this school, well as crazy as a school with a King, kindergarteners who were wild savages and an almost Olympic like obsession with kick ball can be.
Why do I bring these shows up? Because they have one key thing in common, a sense of wonder. The imagination to take normal and potentially boring childhood scenarios and shine them through the prism of a child's mind to show the viewer that the world is full of wonder and adventure even if you have to create it yourself. We tend to lose that sense of wonder and we pass through the barrier of adolescence into adulthood but some people retain it. This is where the recently cancelled Community comes in.
Community was a sitcom (and it hurts to write was) set in a community college. It's main protagonists were six members brought together by a Spanish study group who have all been drawn to Greendale community college after suffering personal or professional setbacks in their lives. I'm not going to go into the whole back story here because I believe if you haven't seen it already you really should go and watch this brilliant show.
Why was it brilliant? Simply because it had that sense of wonder I alluded to before from school wide paintball wars, giant blanket forts to taking "the floor is lava" game to new extremes complete with factions and furniture islands. Even the concept that an app that encourages students to rate each other caused society to fragment into a dystopian class based system showed the craziness of the adventures they were having. But that was why it was brilliant. The show was prepared to do things no other show would do. From having an entire storyline happen in the background (Abed delivers a baby) to a clip show consisting purely of clips that never appeared in any episode or even the psychiatrist who tried to convince the study group they were in a mental hospital and that their time at Greendale was actually a mass delusion.
Community was brilliant, quirky and clever but because of this was never going to have the broad reach of a show like The Big Bang Theory. It was the kid at school who was pick on for being different even though that's what makes him awesome. And while shows like "two and half men" continue to be the school bully that refuses to graduate it seems like Community is being forced to drop out.
Communities cancellation has been met with great sadness across the internet even though no one is that surprised. A show that clever and with that much imagination will never appeal to everyone and so the NBC Grim Reaper has been stalking it for the past few years. There is talk that the show could be bought by a digital company such Hulu or even Netflix so while this seems like the end of the study group we can only hope that Community will return and meet it's main goal of six seasons and a movie
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