So guys, have you heard?  Community is BACK!!!!

That's right! My favorite group of community college misfits will be back on our television screens on February 7th! I'm so excited I may poop. Or puke. Or something. 

It is with great trepidation, however, that I approach February 7th, because something is amiss. I fear that the great and powerful 'Community' may be starting an uphill battle which is can't overcome.  

This is not the first time the show has had to do this.  Rumors surrounding the cancellation of Community have been circulating since the end of Season 2, and yet it came back and got itself a third season.  And then just when everyone thought that was it, it's kaput for Community, they came out with an announcement of Season 4, premiering on October 19th, and the fan base breathed a collective sigh of relief.  We then sucked all that air right back in when October 19th rolled around and there was no Community.  Little did we know that it had been pushed back to the spring, we thought it was over, they had destroyed us, and we were left to wallow in our own tears.  The light is back, and it is shining.  But until that season premiere happens, we won't know just how bright that light shines.  

Community is the brainchild of a brilliant television writer named Dan Harmon.  Harmon has created an amazing piece of comedy which comments on just about everything possible, is self-effacing, self-aware (without being pretentious), and really too damn smart for its own good.  This is all because Harmon is notoriously strict in his control of the show.  The show has been sculpted, crafted, and given to us by Harmon, and he has held tight onto the reins the whole way.  I am not sorry for that in the slightest.  The show has so much heart because it doesn't apologize for what it is.  It doesn't go out of its way to try and get a broader audience.  It doesn't exist to appeal to anyone, it hopes that someone is willing to watch it, and it does what it wants.  This is not the kind of show that Television Producers like to get behind, in other words.  Where they wanted ratings and cash, Harmon wanted quality.  He has been at odds with the producers since the first season, and so it is no surprise, that after three seasons, begging him to open it up to a wider audience base, they fired him.

Why can't anyone write a full complete thought in song form anymore?  I have a playlist on my iTunes that syncs to my iPhone which is all music that I haven't ever listened to in my iTunes library.  Recently I've had a string of newer Hip-Hop, Alternative, Rock, and Pop and I'm a little annoyed with what I've been hearing.

It's not the quality of the songs, or the accompaniments, or the simplicity or intricacy of the musical writing, what has been annoying me specifically is what I call "Twitter" lyric writing.  In other words, lyrics which serve only to be smart or clever to themselves.  Lyrics which rhyme, and complete a thought short enough to be encapsulated in a twitter update.  The more clever of these lyrics start with a very convoluted, dense, and undecipherable sentence, they then add a "because" or a "so" or a "when" or some other word meaning "check out what comes next to wrap up the phrase".  They then end with a equally convoluted, but more decipherable sentence which helps to explain the last one.  Afterward we move on to a completely new thought, and a completely new set of lyrics which also could be their own twitter status'.

Let me give you an example:

This means, literally nothing in relation to compared to the moral/meaning of the song, it is simply a clever lyric designed to make people impressed with Owl City's lyrical prowess. 

"Always be yourself....unless you suck."
- Joss Whedon

Joss Whedon is the writer/director who created such iconic television shows as Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, and my personal favorite, Firefly.  His career doesn't stop there, however, he also created the TV show Dollhouse, wrote the Firefly spin-off movie Serenity, and created the Time Magazine Top 10 Web Series Dr. Horrible's Sing-A-Long Blog.  At the start of his career, he wrote two movies which were huge in my childhood, Toy Story and Titan A.E., and most recently he is a writer/producer of the horror movie hit The Cabin in the Woods and is the writer/director of the new record-breaking box office hit The Avengers.

Before his two most recent movie hits, Joss Whedon was a bit of an enigma.  He has a rabid fanbase, who fight tooth and claw to support every project he signs on to, and yet none of his projects besides Buffy, Angel, and Dr. Horrible have been very successful.  Firefly was cancelled after only 13 episodes, and despite a couple of seasons, Dollhouse received lukewarm reviews from critics and fans alike.  Despite all this, the members of the Whedonverse (as diehard fans call themselves) have always spouted his praises to anyone who will listen (myself included).  There was a period of time, however, that Joss was underground enough that people who liked knowing new, undiscovered movies and tv shows would jump on the chance to learn about Joss Whedon.  He was like The Shins after Garden State, he was hip and cool to know about.  Then Joss Whedon got just large enough to lose those people.  Suddenly there were newer, lesser known "genius'" and no one was willing to explore Joss Whedon anymore.  Everyone had heard of him, but he had so many flops that people felt he must not be very talented.  Despite my cries of his genius, and at the injustice of the canceling of his tv shows, no one was willing to give Joss the time of day anymore.  I did what any good member of the Whedonverse did when such a moment arises, I sat down and watched Firefly from start to finish followed by Serenity, I watched the entirety of Buffy, and I cursed the world that ignored my celebricrush, and waited until next year's Comicon in order for Joss to reveal something awesome for me to look forward to.

Then something strange happened, Marvel announced that Joss was their man to write/direct the culmination of all of these superhero movies, The Avengers.  

I sat up a little in my seat.  "I'm sorry, who?  My man?  Joss Whedon?  The guy who creates everything that is good and holy for television/movies, but the studios never like it so they fire him and cancel his shows?  Marvel Studios is trusting The Avengers to him?  They're trusting Joss with Robert Downey Jr as Iron Man, Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury, Chris Hemsworth as Thor, Chris Evans as Captain America, and Edward Norton as The Hulk?  Dear sweet jesus this is going to be the greatest movie of all time, and no one but me is going to like it!  Wait, what?  Oh they fired Edward Norton and hired Mark Ruffalo?  Well he's gonna suck in that role."  All of those thoughts went through my head.  I told everyone Joss was taking it over, and predictably, everyone told me that like all the rest of his movies and tv shows, this would be underwhelming, and only a select few people would get it.

Guess what didn't happen?