“Community” aired the finale of its sixth season June 2. As we say goodbye to Greendale once again, it’s hard to ignore how much the show has changed and grown since its premiere. This growth is mirrored in the changes experienced by one of the show’s most popular characters: Abed Nadir.
In the pilot of “Community,” Abed is a jittery pop culture nerd who is ill at ease with others. He makes many pop culture references to help himself understand the world, even if others don’t understand them. Still, he displays an early gift for impressions and invites the other characters to join Jeff, Britta and him in their study group.
Over the course of the first season, Abed would become best friends with fellow study group member Troy and develops closer relationships with the rest of the study group. Instead of using his pop culture knowledge to alienate himself, Abed eventually utilizes it as a way of helping his friends. An example of this can be seen in his “M*A*S*H” references to Jeff to help him resolve his conflicts in “Investigative Journalism.”
As Abed became more comfortable with his friends, so too did “Community” become more sure of itself and its storytelling abilities.
The brilliant and diverse run of episodes “Community” had in its second season was foreshadowed by Abed in its first episode, when he said he hoped they would do more “bigger, fast-paced, self-contained escapades.” His versatility in these episodes — from epic meta filmmaker in “Messianic Myths and Ancient Peoples” to badass gunslinger/Han Solo in the two-part season finale — was indicative of the ambidexterity of “Community” itself.
The definitive season two episode, and one of the series most famous, centered on Abed. “Abed’s Uncontrollable Christmas” was done in the stop-motion animation of a Rankin/Bass holiday special after a breakdown leaves Abed seeing the world that way.
Abed eventually recovers from his breakdown and learns the meaning of Christmas — which he had been searching for — “is the idea that it has meaning. ?And it can mean whatever we want.” The message people can take conventional things and imbue them with their own meaning, as well as create new social structures better suited to them, is the message of the entire series of “Community.”
Season three was a dark year for “Community.” The show was put on hiatus in November, and its return date was not announced until February of the following year. Dan Harmon’s desire to maintain control over his show and his fear of losing it can be seen in Abed’s unwillingness to change and his fear of losing his friends.
Those weaknesses of Abed were shown in such brilliant episodes as ““Regional Holiday Music,” “Digital Exploration of Interior Design,” “Virtual Systems Analysis” and “Introduction to Finality.”
Abed’s growing maturity was foreshadowed in the season three finale when he asked Britta to be his therapist. He makes a commitment to pursue a normal relationship with a woman named Rachel in the season four episode “Herstory of Dance.” It is also telling that he serves as Jeff’s conscience in his dream sequence in “Advanced Introduction to Finality” as it symbolizes Jeff’s view of Abed’s intelligence and trustworthiness.
Abed continues to grow in season five as he dates Rachel and says goodbye to his best friend Troy. Granted, he says goodbye to him after Britta and Troy pretend to clone him following a massive game of “the floor is lava,” but the sentiment shows he is headed in the right direction. With Dan Harmon back as showrunner, so was “Community.”
The apotheosis of Abed’s maturity comes in the season six finale of “Community.” He takes a job in L.A. on a TV show and plans to move there despite having to leave his friends. Still one to point out how stories develop, Abed tells Jeff, “I’m growing up.”
“Community” matured a lot over the years. Its various changes were reflected in the various story arcs of Abed as he went from being a man who couldn’t connect with people to a man with friends and a brighter career future.
I cannot wait to see how Abed continues to grow in the final part of a years-old prediction: #andamovie.
Jesse Pasternack
