Emotional Consequences of Broadcast Television

As another school year ends, Frankie (Paget Brewster) disbands the Save Greendale Committee for the summer. Elroy (Keith David) reveals that he was hired by LinkedIn and bids farewell, uncertain whether he will return.

At Britta's (Gillian Jacobs) bar, the characters imagine various "season seven" scenarios set around the study table. Abed (Danny Pudi) illustrates their tropes but questions whether there will be a seventh season. Dean Pelton (Jim Rash) struggles to articulate his pitch with Shirley, Elroy and a third black character. Chang (Ken Jeong) creates Ice Cube Head (Justin Roiland), who eats phones and zaps people with his powers. Jeff (Joel McHale) is about to leave in anger when Annie (Alison Brie) arrives with news of an FBI internship in Washington, D.C., and doubt over her return. Jeff imagines himself stuck around a table with secondary characters arguing: Vicki (Danielle Kaplowitz), Garrett (Erik Charles Nielsen), Leonard (Richard Erdman), Todd (David Neher), Dave (Darsan Solomon) and the new tech billionaire Scrunch (Seth Green).

Now keen to join the conversation, Jeff suggests the seventh season shows Annie as an FBI agent investigating the murder of Britta's parents. Britta pitches a political storyline about war with the government, and the Dean is offended as Britta depicts him as a transgender woman. Frankie is interrupted in a boring pitch where Chang farts. Abed compares television to friendship, saying its purpose is providing comfort. Jeff then suggests they all become teachers, with himself as the Dean and Dean Pelton as a trainee Dean. The others agree until Abed announces he has secured a production assistant role on a television show in Los Angeles. Jeff imagines himself strangling many clones of Abed.

At the study room, Jeff imagines raising a child with Annie, who questions whether he really wants that. The real Annie enters and they share desires for each other's youth and maturity, sharing a kiss. The group arrive and all hug, with Chang shouting that he is gay, and the characters picturing their idyllic season seven. Jeff imagines himself with attractive women and emotional security. Later, he drops Annie and Abed at the airport and rejoins the others at the bar.

The screen fades to black with the hashtag #andamovie. The end tag features a commercial with a family playing the fictional Community board game, narrated by Dan Harmon. The son (Connor Rosen) reveals a script for the commercial itself. The dad (Wayne Federman) explains that they do not exist. The family sits in shocked silence as Harmon delivers a fourth–wall breaking monologue about the game and Community.

"Emotional Consequences of Broadcast Television" was written by showrunner and series creator Dan Harmon and Chris McKenna, and was directed by Rob Schrab.^[2] The opening shots of the episode featuring the characters exiting the building were originally going to be used for an episode based around a fire drill.^[3]

 

This episode features the only uses of TV-MA language in the series, spoken once by Dean Pelton (Jim Rash) and once by Britta Perry (Gillian Jacobs). Network restrictions on profanity did not apply as the season was produced by Yahoo! Screen.^[4][5] In an interview with TV Insider, Harmon explained how it happened:

It was kind of unintentional. That one that Jim does is adlibbed. As soon as he said it, the entire cast started laughing, but I edited around it. As for Britta's I should have bleeped it... it's weird to have two "fucks" on that one.^[6]

The character Ben Chang (Ken Jeong) makes a fart joke where he farts in relation to season four. The season had been referred to both in and out of universe as "the gas leak year", due to a perceived reduction in quality and inconsistent character behavior.^[7][8] According to Jacobs, Abed's speech about television made Jeong cry.^[9]

The episode features Joel McHale, Gillian Jacobs, Danny Pudi, Ken Jeong, Jim Rash, and Alison Brie as Jeff Winger, Britta Perry, Abed Nadir, Ben Chang, Dean Pelton, and Annie Edison respectively.^[10][11] Various recurring characters appear in the episode, most prominently, Paget Brewster as Frankie Dart^[12] and Keith David as Elroy Patashnik.^[13]

The episode features a cameo by former series regular Yvette Nicole Brown,^[14] who had left the show following the end of season five to take care of a sick family member.^[15][16] Brown previously made a cameo appearance during the season six premiere, "Ladders" (2015).^[17] Additionally, Justin Roiland—who worked with Harmon on Rick and Morty—makes a voice only cameo as "Ice Cube Head" during Chang's pitch.^[5] Seth Green plays a billionaire who buys the campus in one pitch.^[18] Dan Harmon does the voice over in the episode's end tag. Harmon's performance is uncredited.^[2]

Most season finales of Community ended with uncertainty over the program's future, particularly season three's "Introduction to Finality" (2012). Elroy says over whether he will return: "I think so ... Probably ... Maybe." This also describes the possible return of the show and its continually changing main cast. Critics found that "Emotional Consequences of Broadcast Television" had the greatest deal of closure of a season finale.^[19][4][18]

The episode's structure mirrors "Remedial Chaos Theory" (2011) through the use of multiple timelines that explore characterization, here through each character pitching a seventh season.^[4][19] It also uses a framing device similar to "Horror Fiction in Seven Spooky Steps" (2011) and "Virtual Systems Analysis" (2012) with various characters telling stories.^[20] The episode makes a references to "Basic Intergluteal Numismatics" (2014), which leaves ambiguous the identity of the Ass Crack Bandit. In the finale, when the matter comes up in conversation, Annie is nervous and suggests that it "could've been anybody".^[21]

During the episode, Jeff experiences anxiety as Elroy, Abed and Annie announce plans for the future. In "Intro to Recycled Cinema" (2015), he expressed vulnerability to Abed about being the last person left at Greendale. Jeff's pitches for season seven reflect his insecurity, a theme of the sixth season. This contrasts with the second part of season five's finale "Basic Sandwich" (2014), in which Abed and Annie seek to avoid change while Jeff embraces it. His misguided relationship with Britta in "Basic Sandwich" parallels his vision of having a family with Annie in "Emotional Consequences of Broadcast Television".^[19] Annie is the one in the series finale to help him accept his position.^[4]

The song "Ends of the Earth" by Lord Huron plays during the final moments of the episode as Jeff drops Abed and Annie off at the airport and drinks with the rest of the group. Jeff hugs Abed twice, indicating how much he values their friendship, and his final words are not audible over the music.^[18][4][19]

Before the end tag, the episode cuts to a black screen reading "#andamovie", a shortening of the phrase "six seasons and a movie". The phrase was first used by Abed in "Paradigms of Human Memory" (2011), in reference to the short-lived program The Cape (2010–2011), and became a fan slogan to protest the show's cancellations and hiatuses.^[22][23] Following the finale, there was speculation around a seventh season, but actors' contracts had expired. Yahoo! also expressed interest in immediately producing a movie, to which Harmon responded that he needed to "miss Community" before writing it.^[24][25][26] A film was commissioned by Peacock in 2022.^[27]

The end tag features Harmon's voice in a fourth wall breaking monologue that references the series finale of St. Elsewhere (1982–1988).^[11][28] Additionally, the narration includes reference to the "secretive obselete" Nielsen rating system used by television channels to measure viewership; he comments that "it turns out tens of millions were watching the whole time". The program was cancelled by NBC after season five averaged three million viewers.^[11] For the sixth season it moved to the online streaming platform Yahoo! Screen, which shut down in 2016 with Community as its most substantial production.^[11][29] Similar commentary can be found in the opening moments, where the Dean notes that a long list of groups—including his father and the health inspector—did not think the college would survive the year. The groups may be an analogy for NBC and detractors of the show, and Community's future frequently being uncertain.^[19]

"Emotional Consequences of Broadcast Television" received critical acclaim. Critics praised the episode for its tone feeling that it provided a perfect ending for the series.^[30][18][20] Joshua Alston of The A.V. Club gave the episode an "A" rating, praising the episode on its acting and emotion. He noted that the pitches worked well at showing off the characters' differences: "With each new version, we're reminded of how these characters are different, what perspective they bring to the Save Greendale Committee, as well as how they see the group and what they get out of belonging to it."^[20]

Eric Goldman of IGN rated the episode a 9 out of 10, praising its character development and likening it to another well-received episode, season three's "Remedial Chaos Theory". He noted that despite the closing hashtag, it did not seem like Harmon and McKenna were particularly hopeful of a continuation of the series. Goldman then expressed his doubt on a movie, before adding that "if this ends up being the final time we see these characters, it was a really well done farewell, acknowledging the important time they've spent together".^[5] Writing for Variety, Alex Stedman felt that the episode was a satisfying and emotional end to the series and opined that it was "unapologetically meta", due to its frequent use of meta humor in the episode.^[31] Writing for Time, James Poniewozik relished the episode's concept for its imaginative meta humor and breaking the fourth wall using the individual characters' identities.^[32] Writing for Paste, Sean Gandert wrote that the episode was a "fitting" conclusion to the series, though he questioned the characterization of the cast particularly that of Jeff, additionally feeling that the episode overly relied on cliches.^[33]

Both writing for Den of Geek, Mark Harrison and Joe Matar praised the episode.^[12][34] Mater praised the episode's meta plot, comparing it to the first part of the season five finale, "Basic Story" (2014), which he heavily criticized. He felt that while "Basic Story" was "obnoxiously smug" in its meta plot, "Emotional Consequences of Broadcast Television" was far more self-critical and acknowledging of Community's faults.^[34] Slant Magazine's Chris Barsanti rated it the tenth-best episode, praising Abed's comparison of relationships to television and the end tag.^[28] Darren Franich of Entertainment Weekly called it "laugh-out-loud funny", described it to be a perfect finale for Community, and praised the end tag.^[2] A retrospective ranking by Entertainment Weekly of the show's top episodes placed the episode seventh, noting the "raw confessional quality" of the episode and calling it "one of the greatest series finales ever."^[30] Writing for The Daily Beast, Chancellor Agard said that like the strongest episodes of the show, "the self-referential and gratuitously meta humor is strung together by an emotional thread focusing on what these wacky friendships mean to each person", but did not find it "as brilliant" as "Remedial Chaos Theory".^[19] Uproxx's Alan Sepinwall praised the finale as "tremendously satisfying" and fitting for the series.^[4] Alex Welch of Screen Rant reviewed it as not the "best or funniest episode, but easily [the] most emotionally satisfying finale". Welch praised the pitches as funny and revealing of the characters' psychology, the cameos, and the "emotionally carthatic" moment of Jeff standing alone at the study group table.^[18]

• "Emotional Consequences of Broadcast Television" at Yahoo! Screen.com
• "Emotional Consequences of Broadcast Television" at IMDb