10 Best Community Episodes

Community’s college setting allows for a wide cast of colourful characters, but only a few of them get a spotlight episode. “Advanced Dungeons And Dragons”, centring on the erstwhile-background joke character Fat Neil, is one of the show’s very best.

It’s a downbeat episode with a suicidal subtext: Neil, bullied for his weight, is implied to be considering suicide. The gang, sans Pierce, put together a game of Dungeons And Dragons intended to make him feel better, but when the old timer finds out he’s been purposefully excluded, he resolves to ruin it.

This is a rare sitcom episode about bullying and depression that never feels preachy or saccharin. The study group’s attempts to make Neil feel better about himself are ham fisted - it’s through his own good nature that he recognises his own worth.

Credit should be given to Chevy Chase, too, who really commits to Pierce’s heel turn. Over the course of the second season he embraces the darkness, and Chase is unafraid to make the character genuinely horrible, which adds an element of spice going forward. It’s a high concept episode done on a minor budget, and it’s all the better for its confined setting.