Community 2009

When I first watched Community, it was already off the air, and I binged the entire thing. As I made my way through, it quickly became one of my favorite shows. However, upon rewatching it a few times over the years, it definitely lost some of its luster. While I rated the entirety of the program an eight, I still think that's being generous. In reality, this show was a handful of really great episodes, mainly those w/ a thematic nature, surrounded by a lot of bad television. Over the years, a number of fans leaned on the idea that this was dependent upon Dan Harmon leaving the program as show runner after three seasons, as the fourth season was considered weak in comparison to the first three, and the fifth was a return to greatness. I don't subscribe to this hypothesis, though. I felt that the fourth season, while not in the same tone as the first three, was just as good. The fifth season made changes that didn't fit w/ the current of the program, and as for the sixth, much of that was truly awful television. The ending of the show felt pushed together, b/c for all the Annie-Jeff will they, won't they talk, the reality was that the writers really didn't explore this much beyond the first couple seasons. Yes, there were the furtive glances and off-handed remarks, but in totality, there wasn't much exploration of this storyline. Thus, in the finale, Jeff's outpouring of emotion toward Annie was really out of the blue. And, more than anything, the homophobic jokes and toilet humor by Chang really killed any semblance of a mood. I saw no purpose to those, but it gave me some insight into Dan Harmon's abilities as a writer, and it told me that he really was overhyped. For every great idea he had, he had seven or eight that were unremarkable or outright terrible.

Through all of this, the show was solid throughout the first two seasons and midway through the third, but the writing seemed to take a nosedive at that point. While some of the program's best episodes were aired during the third season, the writers also began leaning heavily into certain characteristics of the characters: Shirley's cloying behavior, Annie's neuroticism, Pierce's political incorrectness, Troy's ridiculousness, Britta's , Abed's tenuous grip on reality, Jeff's superficiality, and worst of all, Chang's full-blown psychopathy and the dean's creepiness.

Recently, it was announced that a Community movie would be produced. I'm not sure how I felt about this, b/c many aspects of this show didn't age well. Dan Harmon also announced that the movie wouldn't rely on aspects of the show that made it really great, such as Dungeons & Dragons or pillow/blanket forts. This might be of concern, if Harmon tried to go w/ old tropes, rather than the fresh takes that made this show great, when it really hit its groove.

Community is a different show for the shake of begin different. Constant fourth wall references quickly started to bother me. And yes there are few gags but to few auctally for a show of 6 seasons. Often time show gets to meta, edgy and weird. Starts as a normal fun sitcom to a something like 'it's alway sunny in Philadelphia ' and not in a nice way. Episode are watchable and I understand the creator decision to pass on the show after 6 season. It's would obviously have started to look repetitive. I feel like for that very same reason they threw original character and introduce new characters in later season but that killed somewhat familiarity in the show. Character always argue and that's what happens most of the time, only few character are given character development choice or at least good believable attempts. To me this show is opposite of 'the office'. In 'the office' out most mundane secen you can have spontaneous jokes because the characters are treated well so there is always something happening that you can watch, but here something insane happens and to stick to level of vewier attention they need to add more insane stuff, and there is that loophole and somewhere between trying to make each episode and season different and top the previous one, familiarity is lost. They do revisit the show hit episodes and remake them in later season, but the fourth wall jokes and meta stuff keep reminding that it's just a show and stop the story from being real. So why 7/10, I guess cause what I said first, it's different.

Average season rating: 7.0

While I could get a more accurate read on how I felt about the series overall by averaging my 110 individual episode ratings, that's far too much work to do manually when I'm supposed to be relaxing with some entertaining TV.

Community is an absolute roller coaster ride, on multiple levels.

First, because of the obvious: As with any sitcom, the "funny quotient" and other aspects of writing quality fluctuate greatly between episodes. Some will have you struggling to avoid falling off your chair; others will have you struggling to stay awake. This is expected.

Second, because of stylistic touches: When Community dives into a conceptual episode, it goes deep. They don't necessarily all hit, but even the ones I don't like (whether because I dislike the genre being spoofed, or the alternative production style, whatever) must be respected for their commitment to the gag.

Third, because the show's entire tone shifts from year to year, mostly in the latter seasons. Honestly, once I got past Season 3, most of the remaining episodes were a bit of a slog. This seems to be a common sentiment among fans—one that the show itself lampshades, especially when it comes to the "Year of the Gas Leak" (Season 4). I'm fairly completionist about my TV, and it takes a lot to make me drop a show midway, but if Season 5 hadn't shown some improvement I very well might have bailed early. A few scattered oases of "the old Community" kept me going through the end.

Finally, the show started switching out core cast members about halfway through. Between failing to work out some offscreen drama involving a certain actor, losing multiple actors to outside career and family constraints, and temporarily replacing the series' creator as showrunner (you guessed it, that was Season 4), Community spent most of its latter half trying to reacquaint the audience with its characters every season. That's not an easy task even in the best circumstances, and it was made harder by the show's season length getting slashed almost in half around the same time as cast members started being replaced.

Make no mistake, though: The show is good… at first. It's worth watching. Early Abed is still one of my favorite characters, but so is Professor Hickey—and until halfway through, there is no Buzz Hickey.

If you're not a completionist: You'll do yourself a favor if you just watch the first three seasons, maybe hand-pick a few of the highest-rated episodes from the latter three seasons just for flavor, and then skip to the Season 6 finale (which, despite the unevenness of that final season, is fairly solid).

If you want the bad and the good together: Go ahead and watch it all. You'll probably find stuff to like in the "bad" seasons, like I did.

If you're a completionist: You'll probably muddle through just as I did. Once you're into Season 4 and beyond, be ready to take however much attention you usually devote to watching TV and give half of it to something else: work, a game, a book, etc.; or do what I did and use Community as a backdrop for eating lunch/dinner.

Rating statistics on a per-show or per-season basis would make a great Trakt feature, though. Maybe even a VIP perk?
At any rate, there's a VIP forum thread for it: https://forums.trakt.tv/t/average-ratings-for-seasons-entire-series/1902?u=dgw (please vote if you can!)

That is a comedy series. Don't miss it. Dat Troy...