'Community' Season 6, Episode 1 - 'Ladders' Recap

"Community" is back, and things are different.

The study room table is short three members: Pierce, Troy and now Shirley are all gone, as Shirley is the latest to (as Abed puts it) "spin off." Naturally, that means the Save Greendale committee needs a new "character," especially after a surplus of roof frisbees destroyed the cafeteria.

Enter Frankie Dart, played by Paget Brewster. Frankie, as she tells Abed, doesn't have a lot of quirks. She's a pretty boring person who just gets stuff done without a lot of drama. In the real world, that's a good thing. In a TV show, it's not.

As is often the case when "Community" goes through a big change, we see it through Abed's POV. Here, Frankie gets as close as anyone to convincing him that he's not in a TV show, or at least that he needs to keep his propensity for montages a little more based in reality.

Meanwhile, the rest of the group (which at this point is just Annie, Jeff and Britta as Chang is not invited to a lot of stuff) creates a speakeasy behind Shirley's sandwich shop when Frankie bans alcohol. There are prohibition-era costumes and music, people talk all old-timey-like, and Abed can do as many montages as he wants.

Abed is torn, but when the group finally gets Frankie to quit, he sides with Jeff et al. With no insurance and no leader with any sense of reality, though, Greendale devolves into chaos. When the "ladders" professor (he teaches a class that consists of just him climbing ladders) falls on the students, though, the gang realizes they need Frankie, at least a litte.

As usual, this episode was full of meta humor and self-awareness: Abed tells Frankie, "My concern is that your arrival marks the end of what I call 'our show.'"

Frankie makes a good point, though: "Good shows change," she says, adding, "I assume. I don't actually own a TV." We'll take that as a slight nod to the fact that the show is now on Yahoo! and not technically on TV.

So has the "Community" move to Yahoo! changed the show? Yes, slightly. But this is still the "Community" we know and love, so fans should be happy with this sixth season...so long as it's followed by a movie.

Best Moments of the Week:

- The group protesting Frankie taking Shirley's chair, but not caring about her taking Pierce's. It works both for the characters and in real life!

- Abed's "Timeosaurs" video. I hope we see that movie by the end of the season.

- This question from Jeff: "How much can you improve Greendale before it stops being Greendale?"

- "I third Annie's number two-ing of the movement Britta made." "Gross."

- "Don't think of it as bad baking, think of it as a crushing blow to a gender sterotype."