Posted in: NBC, Netflix, streaming, TV | Tagged: community, dan harmon, joel mchale, nbc, netflix, Yvette Nicole Brown

Community: Yvette Nicole Brown Solves "The Mystery of Shirley's Purse"

Published Mon, 20 Dec 2021 16:08:13 -0600

The last time we checked in on how things were going with the folks from the beloved sitcom Community, we were hearing from series creator Dan Harmon and star Joel McHale on what the chances were of the duo reuniting with Gillian Jacobs (Britta), Danny Pudi (Abed), Yvette Nicole Brown (Shirley), Alison Brie (Annie), Donald Glover (Troy), and the rest of the fam back together to wrap up their destiny of "Six Seasons and a Movie." While the news at the time was promising, things have been pretty quiet since. But that doesn't mean we still don't check back in with the cast to see how things are going, and we usually end up learning something new in the process. Like when a fan mentioned to Brown via Twitter how Shirley is never, ever, ever without her purse and how that got them thinking about what Brown had in the purse while filming was going on. Well, it turns out Brown actually used Shirley's purse as… wait for it… a purse. Yup. As Brown tweeted, she keeps her "phone, keys, a book or magazine to read in between takes, my script with notes." And why? Because Brown's "from East Cleveland" where they "trust sparingly" so she was able to keep a watch on both her stuff and Shirley's purse at the same time. And we do not hesitate for a second to say that we know exactly how Brown feels and we would be doing the same thing- here's a look at the tweet:

During an interview with Vulture's Good One podcast from the summer, series creator Dan Harmon revealed that he thinks about the movie "at least once a week" and that "locks are coming away," explaining that "the only problems are becoming the creative ones, which is great because I love those problems. I love having these conversations, and they're being had." But that said, moving forward with a big-screen take on a beloved series that's been off the air for a while (and honestly, didn't have Game of Thrones-level numbers of viewers) raises some questions for Harmon- here are some of the highlights.

Should It Cater to New Viewers or the "Community" Faithful?: "Here's the biggest philosophical question: Are you supposed to service a mythical new viewer? The obvious, dogmatic, practical, off-the-street answer is like, no, you don't. It's fan service. Why would there be a 'Community' movie? Who do you think is going to walk in off the street and buy popcorn and sit and watch a 'Community' movie like that?

Saying that that person doesn't exist is a lot different from asking yourself structurally if you're supposed to design the movie for them because there's a new viewer inside of all of us. If every Marvel movie started with inside references to all 90 other Marvel movies, even if you had seen all of them — even if on one level you'd be like, 'This is the greatest Marvel movie ever because all of the movies are in here'. I think that a part of your brain would be going, Yeah, but it's kind of not a good movie for this reason. It's just speaking in gibberish. What does this mean? I exist in that camp like you?

Formalistically, you owe a movie that I think the fans can not only enjoy, but they can stand back and go, 'You know, the crazy thing about this 'Community' movie is that if you didn't know there was a show, this is an insanely good movie'. There's a reason to watch it and then definitely watch the series because now you're like, 'Holy crap'. I don't know if that's arrogance, pretentiousness, responsibility, self-deprecation, torture. I can't get myself out of that camp.

Finding a Storyline That Would Fit A Six-Years-Later Timeline: "Do you want to see these people play dress-up in their old outfits and come in and go, 'Look at me. Meep meep, moop moop. Look what I used to do'? Yes, to some degree; no, to some degree. And contrary to that, do you want to see these people not doing that and coming in in pantsuits and going, 'I'm an adult now. Meep-meep, moop-moop. Remember when we did this?' Is there a way to provide a little bit of all of it for everybody and come out on the other side, with everybody going, 'Wow, that is like everything I didn't even know I wanted from a Community reunion?' If history is any teacher, what I will try to do is solve all those problems, and I'll end up making a big plate of self-indulgent spaghetti that only five people love."

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