The following contains some of my thoughts on the latest season of NBC's Community, which I am glad to see on the air, even without the comedic genius of Dan Harmon, the show's creator. I shall divide my thoughts on the season into separate categories, the "Good" and the "Bad."
Good:
Episode 6 where Troy and Annie working together as detectives is cute and hilarious, mainly Troy for contradicting every single thing Annie says and does. Surprisingly, Pierce (Chevy Chase) actually made me laugh with his character's ridiculous bigotry in the form of blackface and yellowface hand-puppets. In addition, I think my favorite episode of the season is the Freaky Friday parody where Troy and Abed switch bodies and Abed (or Troy, if you will) has to break up with Britta, which was relieving to me since the whole Troy-Britta relationship thing seemed too awkward and messed with the fengshui of the group, particularly the Abed-Troy relationship. Moreover, I think I can speak for everyone when I say that to see Jeff and Annie progress is most fans' dream, or perhaps even Abed and Annie. Regardless, I think it's nice for the show to respect the rules of sitcoms as laid down by Fry in Futurama: at the end of the show nothing really changes because audiences fear change and feel stupid when unexpected things occur. Indeed, Dean was on point throughout the episode and the rest of the season with his crossdressing antics and obsessive love for Jeff, even moving into the neighboring apartment to be closer to Jeff when the latter graduates! On the Freaky Friday episode he excessively states Jeff was "inside of him" because he pretended they could switch bodies, too, as Troy and Abed did when lights were flickered and they danced around a held DVD copy of Freaky Friday, which was priceless. Did I mention that on the Halloween episode Troy and Abed went as Calvin and Hobbes?!!! That said, this season, though far from the zenith of Community, was appreciable in value. Some episodes lacked the necessary jokes but Abed largely saved the show, as well as Annie, Jeff, Troy and the Dean. In fact, I love the Dean, his sexual obsession and love for Jeff was always a highlight as well as his costumes and cross-dressing.
In addition, Pierce's role was limited and the group socializes more and more without his character. I assume the feuds between Harmon and Chase carried over into this season despite the former's absence, so the writers gradually wrote him out of the show progressively until he graduates at the end of the season with Jeff. And did I mention the parody of the classic sitcom trope of two dates simultaneously? Abed was forced into attending two dances at the same time, same gym in Greendale with dates suggested from Shirley and Annie but eventually foolishly being too much of an Abed to realize the coat-check girl who was helping him keep up the masquerade was the one he should be dating. Oh, and "Intro to Knots" was hilarious with the group tying up their history professor at Jeff's Christmas party mainly for the ludicrousness of the whole episode, especially Abed enjoying real-life as if it were a film, per usual.
Bad:
Chang and Pierce were mostly annoying characters and the Chang sub-plot of working with the dean of City College against Greendale was obvious and a waste of time for the most part. It seemed like the writers were trying to keep Chang's character around for some of the crazy hijinks that he performed under Harmon's reign, although I personally never liked Chang's character except for the first season where he taught our heroes Spanish. When Chang had power in the classroom he could actually be funny, such as when he called Shirley and Troy sucio, or dirty. Also, the laughs were definitely down and even the "out-there" or more meta and fantastical elements of the old Community did not survive the transition to the "new" Community. Without Harmon's artistic vision and control, the show has tried more and more to become a "normal" sitcom in the hopes of increasing its mainstream audience yet in the process, loses too much of the wackiness of the world first crafted by Harmon.
I was also disappointed by the lack of enough airtime for Pierce's half-brother, played by Giancarlo Esposito. However, if the payoff is less Pierce, then I will accept it. A few of the episodes did not work very well nor were they the most humorous, such as the puppet episode, which was only interesting in their secret-sharing. Likewise, episodes such as "Alternative History of the German Invasion" was just plain uninteresting and not the most amusing, whereas "Advanced Documentary Filmmaking" tread on old-ground in a feeble attempt to follow in the footsteps of Harmon's Community without his guidance to ensure artistic continuity and integrity. Thus, some episodes in the season paled in comparison to older seasons, particularly when the show's producers endeavored to do a similarly themed episode from the past but fell a little short. It's just too different now, and even the characters seem a little different in NBC's pitch for mainstream success. When will networks learn to cherish and support the artistry of their original sitcoms instead of selling out for bucks in this cruel, heartless world?
My final thoughts on the season finale and the entirety of the season's run:
I actually liked it, though it wasn't anywhere near the heights of former season finales, though they tried to bring in paintball fights again. I caught the obvious Matrix allusions but I felt like there was another sci-fi/popular culture reference I missed throughout the season. I think I only liked it because of my great affection for the show's characters and the potential changes that will be introduced in season 5 now that Jeff is not a Greendale student. By the way, I like how, as Fry explains in Futurama, everything reverts back to the way it was with Troy and Britta breaking up. I felt that was awkward and just didn't go along well for most of the season, although I would've liked to see some progress between Jeff and Annie (everyone's favorite will they/won't they? couple in the series). As usual, Chang was largely annoying and not very funny as well as suffering from a seemingly pointless sideplot whereas Pierce was largely ignorable and the show's writers seem to be deliberately excluding him more and more from the show, perhaps to prepare for his complete absence in season 5? I read somewhere that Harmon may return in some capacity in the next season so getting rid of Pierce would be better for the show since Chase's relationship with Harmon in real life is so poor. Perhaps that's why the writers had him graduate at the last minute too, since that could then explain his absence in season 5. But I thought the season finale would have been better off as a serious farewell or perhaps a two-part finale with more development of an actual paintball fight across campus or just more displays of emotional bonds between Jeff and Annie, which, obviously, were alluded to in dark/evil Annie's statements regarding sex with evil Jeff. Oh well, though far from perfect, I still love the show and truly pray for six seasons and a movie.
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