Ladders (Community)

"Ladders"
Community episode
Episode no. Season 6
Episode 1
Directed by Rob Schrab
Written by
Production code 602
Original air date March 17, 2015
Running time 27 minutes
Guest actors

"Ladders" is the first episode of the sixth season of the American comedy television series Community, and the ninety-eighth episode of the series overall. It was released on Yahoo! Screen in the United States on March 17, 2015, along with the following episode, "Lawnmower Maintenance and Postnatal Care".

"Ladders" marks the departure of series regular Yvette Nicole Brown as Shirley Bennett, who left the series to care for her ill father. The episode also marks the first appearance of Paget Brewster as Francesca "Frankie" Dart as a recurring character.

Plot

Upon collapse of the Greendale Community College ceiling due to the critical weight of frisbees on the roof, Dean Pelton (Jim Rash) hires an administrative consultant, Frankie Dart (Paget Brewster), to organize things at Greendale. Frankie soon finds that she is opposed by members of the Save Greendale Committee, Jeff Winger (Joel McHale), Annie Edison (Alison Brie), Abed Nadir (Danny Pudi), Britta Perry (Gillian Jacobs), and Benjamin Chang (Ken Jeong).

Cultural references

The opening sequence flashback featuring Leonard (Richard Erdman) referenced the intro in Dazed and Confused with the song, Sweet Emotion by the band, Aerosmith. Leonard's quote "Like tears in rain" is a quote from the character Roy Batty in the 1982 science-fiction film, Blade Runner. The presence of the load-bearing columns added in the construction of the new cafeteria was explained by the production moving from the old Paramount Studios set to the new CBS set (which contained these obtruding pillars) to film the sixth season.[1] The episode also parodied the overuse of uplifting montages in pop culture, a film-making device that Abed said was "a movie apologizing for reality".[2] The underground bar (started by the study group to oppose Frankie's mission) where characters dress in 1920's attire and drink alcohol is a reference to the 1920's era response to the prohibition of alcohol where bootleggers surreptitiously traded alcohol in defiance of the ban.

Production

Following cancellation of the series by NBC, Yahoo! Screen renewed the series for a sixth season on its media-streaming website.[3] Community co-showrunner, Dan Harmon, stated:

"I am very pleased that Community will be returning for its predestined sixth season on Yahoo. I look forward to bringing our beloved NBC sitcom to a larger audience by moving it online. I vow to dominate our new competition. Rest easy, Big Bang Theory. Look out, Bang Bus!"[3]

Harmon stated that the runtime for each episode is "flexible" due to the lack of the network-controlled commercial breaks and time slot. Harmon added that the change in platform brings with it a creative license to show content that would normally be restricted on a network, qualifying the lack of restriction by saying, "It's kind of funny because these regulations aren't being imposed on us by an industry anymore, we're out in the middle of this field, but we're immediately finding these rules on our own anyway."[4]

Following Yvette Nicole Brown's departure from the series to care for her ill father,[5] the series added two new actors, Paget Brewster as Francesca "Frankie" Dart, an insurance consultant brought in to help repair the school, and Keith David as retired scientist Elroy Patashnik. Guest stars Jonathan Banks, who played the criminology professor Buzz Hickey in the fifth season, and John Oliver, who played Professor Duncan, are not expected to return as they are involved in other projects, Better Call Saul and Last Week Tonight, respectively. Production for the series began on November 17, 2014.[6]

"Ladders" was released together with the following episode, "Lawnmower Maintenance and Postnatal Care".

Critical reception

"Ladders" received generally positive reviews from critics.[1] Alan Sepinwall of HitFix called the episode "so busy dealing with exposition and meta-commentary about departed actors and changed situations [...] that it doesn't have a ton of room for big laughs, even as it wisely only tries to introduce Paget Brewster's Frankie into the ensemble, saving Keith David's Elroy for "Lawnmower Maintenance and Postnatal Care"."[7]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Goldman, Eric (March 17, 2015). "Community: "Ladders" Review". IGN. Retrieved March 24, 2015.
  2. ↑ Seitz, Matt (March 17, 2015). "Community Still Feels, Moves, and Thinks Like the One You Know". Vulture. Retrieved March 24, 2015.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Harris, Aisha (June 30, 2014). "Community Is Getting Its Sixth Season—on Yahoo". Slate. Retrieved March 24, 2015.
  4. ↑ Kavner, Lucas (March 17, 2015). "Dan Harmon on Community’s New Season on Yahoo, Base-Level Anxiety, and the Future of Broadcast TV". Vulture. Retrieved March 25, 2015.
  5. ↑ Pennington, Gail (March 19, 2015). "Yvette Nicole Brown left ‘Community’ to care for her father". Salina Journal. Retrieved March 24, 2015.
  6. ↑ Nemetz, Dave (November 11, 2014). "'Community' Enrolls Paget Brewster, Keith David for Season 6". Yahoo. Retrieved March 24, 2015.
  7. ↑ Sepinwall, Alan (March 17, 2015). "Season premiere review: 'Community' - 'Ladders/Lawnmower Maintenance and Postnatal Care'". HitFix. Retrieved March 24, 2015.

External links