Review: Is 'Community" Dan Harmon's 'Smile?'

No matter the format, there is always a tension in art between cleverness and commerce. Many artists believe that if the general public understands the work then somehow it's too simple, too dumbed down to be considered a true work of art.

And yet when you look at artists at the peak of their talents, they manage to create works that combine wild originality with a resonance that touches nearly everyone. The music of The Beatles was transformative, but yet was incredibly commercially successful. While Van Gogh didn't have much success in his lifetime, his works are now considered both sublimely beautiful and very accessible.

But it can be a fine line between originality and madness. When I found out the Beach Boys long-shelved masterpiece "Smile" was to be released, I was ecstatic. This was rumored to be a work of genius, music created by Brian Wilson at the peak of his talents.

But it was a work created in an environment that was insular and filled with stress. Wilson was inching closer to madness every day, battling his fellow bandmates, the record label as well as a drug addiction.

When I finally listened to "Smile" I was both captivated and wistful. It was indeed a work of genius, with passages that still sound out there on the edges of music nearly forty years after it was created. But it is also ultimately music that I hardly listen to. For all of its genius, all that insularity and chaos forged a sound that seems more concerned with tricks than with heart.

I have found myself feeling the same way about "Community" this season, as the show has struggled to remain on the air. Dan Harmon has created a show that is filled with genius. But it's ultimately been a season of looking inward. Episodes are so self-referential and jammed with pre-built Internet memes that I find myself longing for the days of season one when the show was about the characters.

That's not to say that there haven't been flashes of brilliance in every episode. But the end product seems to be designed to appeal to the hardcore fan, to reward the viewers who have stuck it out through every twist and turn. It's a process that thrills the fanbase but creates episodes that are the television equivalent of placing a piano in a sandbox to see of makes the music sound more "beachy."

There have been a couple of other factors that I suspect have impacted the direction of this past season. The show has an industry reputation for having a set that can be stressful and chaotic. Harmon's well-documented and odd public battle with Chevy Chase is just the most high-profile example of the struggles for the heart of the show. For what it's worth, I've interviewed Chase twice and he was an ass both times. But I'm struck by how many industry people I've spoken with who have said to me in private that Chase is a jerk, but.....

The Internet has also magnified the speed by which the show has evolved into a self-contained world. "Community" fans are able to connect and rally the troops with an impressive speed. But while that fan base has benefited from the connectivity, it also seems to have accelerated the show's tone that "Hey, we don't expect you to get it, you tasteless chumps."

Despite all of this, I have watched every episode this season and I'll be around for whatever next season brings. But I'll be hoping to see a little more of that show I first fell in love with in season one.