awkwardreviews

Goodbye… Troy…

This show never quite ceases to amaze me, not a single episode goes by without me thanking the writers, directors, and producers for making something like this air. An oddity, a show so weird that it can’t help but push people away…
Today, my favorite character, Troy Barnes (played masterfully by Donald Glover) departed from the show, his character is to set sail in the wide open ocean. Just like the actor himself, Donald Glover, left the show to set sail on the wide open ocean of opportunity, something this show gave him, and something i can’t help but feel sorrow about… but i get it. I understand why he is leaving, opportunities come and go, and this was the kickstarter to his acting career.
And oh boy was it a kickstarter… after episode twenty of the first season, he was my favorite character beyond a doubt. However, as the show progressed, in a sense, every character is my favorite. Every actor has an immense capability to portray a very human character in a very cartoon-ish show.
Today, the most unchanged character, Abed, changes. Everything in his world changes, because a chunk of his world has just left. And although this day has not come yet, I can’t help but feel for Abed, as i know i’ll be left with the same emptiness once this show goes off the air.
There is something beautiful about the way this episode was handled… and at first I could not place it. But then, on the third or fourth watch through, I came to the realization that this episode embodies the show. Everything about it is strictly Community, episodes like these can’t be pulled off by any other show. “Escapism” is what Community is. It’s wacky, fast paced, incredibly smart and silly at the same time, and best of all, it has heart. Because no matter how wacky the situation is, like Abed falling into imaginary lava and dying, it’s still somehow grounded. The emotion behind it is still resonant and felt.
During the final few scenes, when Troy is saying his goodbyes, the most poignant one was of course Abed’s. Abed is someone whom is almost always written perfectly, the writers know exactly how to give someone like him character. So it felt so natural that someone like Abed would resort to trying to prolong Troy’s stay, denying the fact that he has to leave. So it only felt perfect when it ended up being a “clone” that saved Abed. As he was always placed in a world of his own, a world that we almost never understand, but almost always can relate to.
I think we get his pain, we get Abed’s fear and anguish, and the almost uneccesserally touching line that Troy spoke. The fact that no one understands Abed, yet he understood him just a little. Maybe that’s their connection, the fact that Troy was able to understand and befriend Abed, and after this episode wrapped up, and I realized that we are almost half way done through this season… I felt the pain, I felt the sorrow, but most of all, I felt like i just watched yet another episode of Community that simply blows everything around it out of the water. And i did… the perfect ending, to my favorite character.
Goodbye Troy

Grade: A  (A seal of Approval to mark a grade even higher than “A”, a true masterpiece)