Ongoing Community Discussion Thread

[JirinPanthosa]

When they first fired Harmon I heard that one of the new showrunner was the showrunner of Just Shoot Me. And then they released a press release saying "Don't worry, we'll make the characters just as quirky as they used to be."

That's the real issue with this season. The people making the decisions had no idea why the show was good. They understood what sort of storylines worked in Community, and they understood basically how the characters worked. But they had no idea why it all worked and why it was all funny. The D&D episode wasn't funny because it was a D&D episode, it was funny because the writer of the episode really got D&D and created an episode that anybody who ever played it identified with. The season 4 crew just didn't get what about the show's subject matter made the audience like it.

I figure the reason they're bringing it back is that most of its viewers are in the big money-spending demographic, and because the ratings underrate the actual viewership because none of the viewers watch it during its actual timeslot.

 

[the G-man]

...that, and the fact that NBC has such a crap lineup they don't have too many options to replace it with.

 

[Goji]

Except it has been replaced. It's not on their schedule, at all (not even the spring schedule). So, now we're waiting for one of its replacements to fail. Which may not take long, we shall see.

I'm glad that Dan Harmon will be back. I've never been one of the show's die hard fans but I mostly enjoy it. I can say that for this past season as well, but it sucks that the show was taken away from its creator. It's nice when the creative people win.

 

[LeadHead]

Except it has been replaced. It's not on their schedule, at all (not even the spring schedule). So, now we're waiting for one of its replacements to fail. Which may not take long, we shall see.

Given the survival rate of stuff on NBC, once the season starts, we won't have to wait long for options to open up.

 

[Goji]

One would hope. Took a while this last season, though.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

NBC has like 20 new shows. A few of them are going to fail.

I have a feeling Community is going to be treated like NBC's King Of The Hill for the next few years.

 

[Australis]

Damn straight.

Well, I found this show a few weeks ago, watched it all in marathons, great great show. Then read this entire thread over 3 days. Wow, some of you guys (and it is mainly guys in here) are very 'shippy! That said, the Troy/Britta thing? If Troy was a JW, he'd be shunned for his Godless fornicatin' with the Godless atheist. Donald Glover would know that.

No one mentioned 'Biology 101' in which they referenced '2001' and was pretty well done.

And in the psych hospital scene when the Dean talked to Dr Garrett, and Garrett replies in a deep voice, that cracked me up.

Rewatching the L&O ep, pretty good.

 

[doubleohfive]

Not that there was any doubt, but it does appear Harmon is coming back as showrunner:

http://www.rollingstone.com/movies/news/dan-harmon-says-hes-returning-to-community-20130601

 

[TheGodBen]

Dan Harmon has revealed that Chris McKenna will be returning to the show with the role of co-showrunner, which is excellent news. Harmon also claims that he has not watched any of season 4 and that Sony have suggested him recording a DVD commentary track of his first viewing of the season. That sounds like a really interesting idea, but on the other hand it has the potential to be really awkward.

 

[Professor Zoom]

Dan Harmon has revealed that Chris McKenna will be returning to the show with the role of co-showrunner, which is excellent news. Harmon also claims that he has not watched any of season 4 and that Sony have suggested him recording a DVD commentary track of his first viewing of the season. That sounds like a really interesting idea, but on the other hand it has the potential to be really awkward.

Yeah. I hope they don't do that. I didn't like Season 4 and actually stopped watching. But that sorta sounds like a douchey thing to do. What if Harmon really hates it? I would hope he doesn't crap on the writers, that would be douchey of him. But, I don't want to hear him try to be nice...

... of course, who am I kidding, I'm not going to watch season four on DVD.

 

[gblews]

Dan Harmon has revealed that Chris McKenna will be returning to the show with the role of co-showrunner, which is excellent news. Harmon also claims that he has not watched any of season 4 and that Sony have suggested him recording a DVD commentary track of his first viewing of the season. That sounds like a really interesting idea, but on the other hand it has the potential to be really awkward.

Sounds like Sony just wants to move some season 4 DVD's. It would be interesting if he were to be really honest, and probably ackward too, as you say, but I don't think he would be totally honest. That would be like gloating or going out of your way to take shots at people. Ultimately there isn't any point in this unless he just wants to help Sony out.

 

[bigdaddy]

It's going to be interesting to see how he reacts to season 4. He has to on screen because he either has to say season 4 was a dream or continue on from it. So we will see his views of season 4 no matter what.

 

[tighr]

Harmon also claims that he has not watched any of season 4 and that Sony have suggested him recording a DVD commentary track of his first viewing of the season. That sounds like a really interesting idea, but on the other hand it has the potential to be really awkward.

Depending on what reviews say (and who are we kidding, AVclub or some website will undoubtedly review the commentary tracks), I would be interested in hearing what he has to say.

 

[Admiral_Young]

Good news about Harmon...hopefully he is the key to getting the show back on track, we'll have to wait and see.

 

[Sci]

Having completely lost interest in Community last year, I'm happy to hear that Harmon's coming back.

It'll be interesting to see how Harmon handles S4. One of the things I like about him is that he makes a real effort to get into others' heads, even when he doesn't necessarily like them much. He once said -- I am paraphrasing from my memory of Harmon's Reddit AMA, IIRC -- of Chevy Chase that he found his insistence on fighting to be acknowledged and respected to be inspirational, the best thing about him, and to be the chief virtue of Chase's that they'd tried to bring to Pierce. So Harmon is a guy who can emphasize with people even when you'd think he couldn't. He may well take a far less harsh view of S4 than many think. (I say, having seen only four episodes of S4.)

 

[davejames]

Yeah I have to admit I stopped watching halfway through last season as well. There were a few eps (like the Halloween one) that still felt like the old Community, but too many were just completely off, or came across more like spoofs (like the dreadful puppet ep).

I had kind of made peace with not watching the show anymore, but I guess if Harmon is back I'll have to reconsider that.

 

[TheGodBen]

Yeah. I hope they don't do that. I didn't like Season 4 and actually stopped watching. But that sorta sounds like a douchey thing to do. What if Harmon really hates it? I would hope he doesn't crap on the writers, that would be douchey of him. But, I don't want to hear him try to be nice...

I have to agree, it's something that sounds interesting in theory but which would probably end up pretty bad. There are certain points in season 4 (such as the various darkest timeline bits) where he's either going to have to feign politeness or tear into the show, and both of those would be uncomfortable to listen to.

His take on Basic Human Anatomy would be nice though as that was a genuinely good episode. I would encourage anyone that jumped ship during season 4 to give that episode a watch.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

I don't think Harmon would be a dick about it, but he would offer criticisms where they're due.

It'd be interesting to see but I wouldn't buy the DVDs just for it.

 

[gblews]

Found this great interview of Joel McHale on the Howard Stern Show. I'd say the first third of the interview is mostly about The Soup, but they do get into discussion of Community eventually, namely, Chevy.

Joel goes into detail about Chevy's time on the show including the n-word incident, and Chevy in general. Howard and Chevy always had a contentious relationship (which Howard says has been repaired), and he is fascinated by Chevy's weirdness. They also get into a small discussion about Dan Harmon but nothing new is revealed.

Joel is a funny guy and Howard is a great interviewer.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J90B80fzPHE

 

[shivkala]

A friend just asked me if there was any worthwhile episodes from season 4. They were a fan of the first 3 seasons, but didn't watch it this past season.

In my opinion, I'd say that "Conventions of Space and Time" (she's a Doctor Who fan), ""Herstory of Dance," and "Basic Human Anatomy" were pretty decent (not great, but decent).

I'm on the fence about "Heroic Origins" and "Advanced Introduction to Finality." On one hand, I'm a sucker for interconnected origins (yes, I loved Lost, in part for seeing how everyone was connected) and it was nice to see a continuation of the darkest timeline story. On the other hand, "Heroic Origins" seemed forced and "Advanced Introduction to Finality" killed the darkest timeline in a way that possibly ruins "Remedial Chaos Theory."

I guess this partly depends on what Harmon will or won't use from season 4, but aside from episodes that might tie into next season, on a pure entertainment, non-meta level, did I miss anything from this season that's watchable? Did I include anything that doesn't belong? And how do you guys feel about the last two episodes of the season as far as recommending to a fan of seasons 1-3?