7 March 2013
COMMUNITY: Despite major shakeups in production, Community is still Community.
By Desmond Ho, Staff Writer
It was a rather rough journey, but the cult-favorite TV series Community has finally returned. Originally supposed to air on October 19 of last year, the premiere of the show’s fourth season instead aired on February 7. This is the first season without the creator and original showrunner Dan Harmon, who was generally viewed as the creative mastermind of the series. The show also saw the departures of writer/producer Chris McKenna, episode directors/executive producers Anthony and Joe Russo, actor/writer Dino Stamatopoulos and executive producers Neil Goldman and Garrett Donovan. On November 21, it was announced that main cast member Chevy Chase had left the show, but will still appear in 11 episodes. The departures, coupled with the show’s relatively average ratings and niche humor, led many to believe that the show wouldn’t come back after season 3. Fortunately, NBC renewed Community for a fourth season (albeit only for 13 episodes), which may very well be its last. Many were also skeptical of the show maintaining quality after all those departures.
Even after many key people left, Community still feels like Community. The meta-humor and pop culture references that earned the show a cult following are still here in spades, and it honestly doesn’t feel that different from past seasons of the show. That’s not to say the episodes have been great, but then again, the third season was pretty inconsistent to begin with. The lows were mediocre, but the soaring high points more than made up for them.
The plot of the first episode of the new season, “History of 101,” follows the main gang of students as they enter their senior year at Greendale Community College. Snarky ex-attorney Jeff Winger (Joel McHale) reveals that he completed several online courses over the summer and only needs one more class (“History of Ice Cream”) to graduate early. The rest of the group is taken aback by this, and detached film/TV connoisseur Abed (Danny Pudi) goes into his own idealized state of mind, which of course is a multi-cam sitcom complete with a laugh track. Over the summer, socially and politically aware leftist Britta (Gillian Jacobs) and Abed’s partner-in-crime Troy (Donald Glover) began dating, which leads to Troy attempting to allow Britta into his and Abed’s best-friend customs. Straight-laced and straight-A student Annie (Alison Brie) and the mild-mannered divorced mother Shirley (Yvette Nicole Brown) plan to try to spend their senior year shrugging off classes and playing pranks, but the former isn’t very good at being rebellious. Meanwhile, Dean Craig Pelton (Jim Rash) sets up Hunger Games-esque competitions to decide who gets spots into the overbooked “History of Ice Cream” class.
When Community is at its prime, it’s excellent. “History of 101” is not a great episode, but it’s a decent start to the season. Some of the gags fall flat; the sitcom in Abed’s mind in particular outstays its welcome after the first appearance. So far, the show seems to be in good enough hands even without Dan Harmon, and the episode was good enough to make me feel optimistic about the rest of the (half) season.
Courtesy of flavorwire.files.wordpress.com