What Makes the Hated Last Seasons of TV’s Best Comedies Secretly Smart
By Chris Snellgrove | Published
NBC sitcom Community is rightfully considered one of the best television comedies ever made, at least for the first three seasons. However, showrunner Dan Harmon was replaced in Season 4, a season whose low ratings and reception would earn it the Harmon-approved nickname “the year of the gas leak.” Harmon returned for seasons 5 and 6, but the show continued to lose original cast members, and after leaving NBC, its final season aired to a much smaller audience on Yahoo!
Because of this, there is a common belief in Community fandom and the internet at large that the show should have ended after Season 3 and that the last three seasons should have been skipped entirely. While it’s true that Season 4 was pretty iffy (it didn’t have Dan Harmon’s special kind of crazy), Seasons 5 and 6 very good. Not only are they worthy of the previous seasons, but these episodes are far better than anything you can find on TV right now.
Six Seasons and a Movie
First, some context about the rise and fall of Community. From the start, the show has been something of a hit for NBC: it received widespread acclaim and major awards buzz, taking home a Primetime Emmy (one of four the show would ultimately be nominated for) in its second season. At the same time, the show struggled in the ratings, and was put on hold for Season 3 before being brought back after a long campaign by #SaveCommunity fans who became part of the cast.
Community was renewed for Season 4, but after clashing with NBC executives and Chevy Chase in increasingly public ways, Dan Harmon got the boot and was replaced as showrunner. He was brought back for Season 5, but this was the season that beloved cast member Donald Glover left the show. As the show again suffered from low ratings, NBC officially canceled it Communityand would later air its sixth and final season (which saw the departure of Yvette Nicole Brown) on streaming service Yahoo TV.
Fan Disappointment Was Roads Ahead
It’s not hard to see why the second part of the Community got a bad rap: Season 4 is very different, and everyone feels different without the presence of Dan Harmon (who famously based the show on his experiences as a Glenndale Community College student who became part of a study group). When Harmon returned in Season 4, he used a throwaway line about the gas leak to casually explain that none of the events of that season had happened.
However, resetting the theory was not enough for some fans: finally, Community lost three of its key cast members (Donald Glover, Chevy Chase, and Yvette Nicole Brown), which greatly affected the performance of the show. This was a show whose appeal all came from the strange chemistry of the very different characters who came together to survive in their college classrooms. Because that dynamic changed so much with the introduction of new characters, many fans thought that seasons 5 and 6, even with the return of Dan Harmon as the show’s creator, were not worth watching.
They didn’t Britta Last Seasons
Here’s the thing, though: those seasons are surprisingly beautiful, and that’s in large part because Community getting new blood. It is true that the show lost something special with the departure of the original cast, especially Donald Glover. His Troy character’s interaction with Abed forms the heart and soul of the show. But Season 5 saw the addition of Breaking Bad iconic is Jonathan Banks, his brutal, no-nonsense professor who gives our beloved misguided readers an incredibly crusty figure to bounce off of (he’s particularly impressive in “Advanced Dungeons & Dragons”).
Similarly, Season 6 saw the introduction of Paget Brewster as the administrator who, without a softer edge, provides a similar role: she is someone with a certain difficulty that other characters (not as mature as before) can easily play with. But the real secret sauce of CommunityThe sixth season is Keith David, whose sly creator combines the best parts of Pierce (the old and delightfully disconnected) and the most extreme parts of Troy (especially with jokes that make racism a bad punchline). Davis is a true cinematic gem, and he breathes so much in Season 6, you’ll never guess it’s the last season until the end.
Funnier And Weirder Than Greendale Itself
Besides the amazing performances from newcomers like Keith David, another reason why CommunityThe final two seasons are must-watch episodes as funny and ambitious as anything that has come before. “GI Jeff,” for example, tells a heartwarming story about Jeff using high-quality animation, with all the old-fashioned jokes. GI Joe cartoon is sure to keep any ’80s kid whose action figures are eligible laughing until the credits roll. Similarly, “App Development and Integration” makes a serious comment about the modern obsession with social media, but it does so with humorous scenes that remind you of that. Community is the most bonkers TV show ever made.
This is, of course, always Community The formula: showrunner Dan Harmon specializes in wrapping moving, often emotional stories in the form of episodes that feature consistent characters and stand-up comedy. The show’s final two seasons keep this momentum going and prove that the formula is still good with episodes like “Lawn Mower Maintenance and Postpartum Care,” which pairs Britta’s story of rebelling against her parents in a helicopter with Dean’s obsession with reality (a gag that seems even funnier after the repeated failures of unpopular tech like Apple Vision Promotions).
Escape from the Darkest Timeline
Even to the end, Community it’s great at subverting our expectations in a humorous way: “Short Courses and Advanced Rust,” for example, has a cynical college Board inviting Dean Pelton to be a member because it would look good on them to hire a gay man. Pelton struggles with this, however, because he expresses more than just “gay” and doesn’t like the idea of being put in a restrictive box. Amidst this imaginative tale of unusual exploration and inappropriate school politics, we find B’s plot about Chang playing Mr. Myagi and the catchy singer (“Gay Dean,” from Dolly Parton’s “Jolene”).
Long story not too short: Community it’s still one of the best sitcoms ever made, and no show on modern television has been able to reach its comedic heights. But I want this to be a PSA (or at least a very special program of Troy and Abed in the Morning) that the last two seasons of the show are like seasons 1-3, and if you left the series during the year of the gas leak, there is still time to come back and watch the whole show. If you do so soon enough, you’ll be in time to enjoy the upcoming film Community, which will fulfill the prophecy often quoted by both Abed and the fandom: “six seasons and a movie!”
