TV #26 of 2021:

Community, season 4

I’d probably agree with the popular consensus that this is the weakest stretch of Community, but it’s honestly not that big a step down from the chaotic year before. Fans were reasonably upset that showrunner / creator Dan Harmon had been fired — not knowing then how abusive he was on set — and it’s true that this season doesn’t have many of those flashes of brilliance that often elevate his work. Nevertheless, I don’t know if the network needed to bring him back as they did afterwards rather than give the replacement team longer to perfect their own spin on the material. (And his later retcon that there was a gas leak on campus during these events is plain petty and cruel, although it’s almost a fair return for Abed’s deeply unearned line about making paintball cool again here.)

This run has its share of issues, but there’s also potential to stake out new ground, and in rewatching with some distance, I think a residual fondness for the study group helps paper over most of the flaws. The biggest ideas are the inherited Troy/Britta relationship and the Chang amnesia plot, and while neither ultimately amounts to much, it’s not like any romance or that problematic antagonist has ever been this program’s strongest element. The fact they flop is more noticeable with less of anything else going on, but that hardly destroys the show’s legacy. It’s still a solid three-star title, reliably delivering laughs and quirky scenarios without necessarily evidencing any grander ambitions or deeper insights. Heck, this should have been a poignant farewell moment for Pierce, whose actor Chevy Chase finally carried out his threat to quit, yet he’s missing half the time and his arc barely gets an afterthought of development at the very end of the finale.

So it’s not awful, but it really lacks follow-through, particularly in the sitcom’s trademark high-concept experiments. Under Harmon, the joke was never just that a community college was suddenly home to organized crime or a zombie outbreak or an animated holiday special or whatever; it was in how thoroughly the writers got inside those other genres and lovingly repurposed their familiar tropes. Season 4 by contrast veers closer to referential humor, as though it’s enough to simply turn the cast into Sesame Street style puppets for twenty minutes and not even try to filter that separate storytelling tradition via the distinctive Greendale weirdness.

With the length cut from 22 episodes to 13, this year flies by too quickly to make a firm impression for good or for ill, but the lingering sense is largely one of wasted possibilities and necessary ingredients present yet not quite clicking. I’m glad the series recovers and doesn’t ever get any worse, but this could have been significantly improved through a few rounds of rewrites and a clearer driving vision.

★★★☆☆

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TV #24 of 2021:

Community, season 3

This stretch of Community is its most serialized yet (and possibly ever; I don’t recall the later stuff too clearly). That’s always impressive in a sitcom, and it adds a nice sense of momentum to the year as various arcs unfold. Of course, the downside is that fewer individual episodes pop out as all-time series best — although Remedial Chaos Theory and Regional Holiday Music should probably be on that list — and it’s a bit jarring when a production issue creates continuity errors by rearranging the airing schedule.

I also think Chang is well-placed here as a power-hungry security guard, splitting the difference between the strict teacher and the unhinged student that he’s been in the past. I don’t love how broad and cartoonish his part of the plot eventually grows, culminating in a literal fascistic takeover of the campus, but it’s an inspired use of a tricky character. Less successful for me is the show-within-a-show Inspector Spacetime, which never seems to justify itself beyond an obvious Doctor Who stand-in that’s weirdly uncommented-upon by someone as plugged into nerdy pop culture as Abed.

Behind the scenes, showrunner / creator Dan Harmon was failing to meet deadlines and publicly feuding with actor Chevy Chase, and it recently came out that he was sexually harassing and emotionally abusing the writers during his tenure as well. For some or all of those reasons, he was let go from the program for season four, but then brought back for five and six after fans complained and the ratings slid. Community was sort of perpetually on the bubble of potential cancellation, but from this point on, for better or worse, that slipped from subtext into the proper text of the series, with veiled dialogue about critical response and popularity and renewal campaigns and whatnot. If you know that background it’s difficult to ignore while watching, and there’s a definite feeling of entitled resentment percolating throughout this run.

As sometimes happens, writing this review has helped me work out my reaction to the season, and ultimately is going to lower the rating I was expecting to award. This is still a very funny title that I enjoy week to week, and a few gems like John Goodman’s air-conditioning repair school annex represent delightful new additions to the Greendale mythology. But overall this outing bites off way more than it can chew, and the result is messier both on-screen and off- than I had remembered.

[Content warning for racism, ableism, homophobia, and antisemitism.]

★★★☆☆

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