Community Season Six
I might be the only fan to have gotten into Community during Season four. I discovered the show in my senior year of College and used a free month of Hulu Plus to catch every episode in a mad dash to absorb it all before the season premiere that year. I felt oddly connected to the sitcom despite never having been someone who watched sitcoms. Maybe it was just because the Greendale crew started college the same year as me but I think it was just because Community had something special going on. So I can’t really get into trashing Season four like everyone else. All of Community is good in some way to me. Season four will always have a fond spot in my heart because it was the last season with the original cast, at the very least. Anyway we’re now two seasons removed from that. This article is about Season six and whether the show survived its move to Yahoo. Well…it did. Did you really think a show that survived cancellation three times would be defeated by the internet that embraced it all along?
The freedom Yahoo gave Community really shined through on every episode. The after episode gag was probably the funniest aspect of the new format. The last one of the season even had an emotional but completely hilarious rant from Dan Harmon to the viewers of Community. Another positive in this season was the resurgence of Britta (Gillian Jacobs). She was completely hilarious this year. I really felt like the relationship with Troy (Donald Glover) didn’t quite fit and since then there have been times I’ve enjoyed her again but this season I really dug her throughout. Both newcomers Elroy Patashnik (Keith David) and Frankie Dart (Paget Brewster) did wonderful jobs in new supporting rolls this season. Elroy was introduced in what may have been the best episode of the season, ‘Lawnmower Maintenance and Postnatal Care’. As usual the Dean (Jim Rash) stole many episodes with his hilarious eccentricities. In the previously mentioned episode, he becomes obsessed with a 90s virtual reality system and refuses to get out of it. I would have been happy with Season six if that was all I got but I got even more great stuff.
Matt Berry had a hilarious guest spot as Roger DeSalvo in the episode ‘Grifting 101’, which I’ve watched multiple times and it’s only gotten funnier on each viewing. I got to see Jeff (Joel McHale) murder an ipad in ‘Laws of Robotics and Party Rights’. There was a new paintball episode called ‘Modern Espionage’ where I got to see a Highlander parody homage, an Avengers homage and a bunch of others. I even got to see Jeff and Annie (Alison Brie) mock Marvel movies at about the same time as I was having my own doubts. It seems like Harmon really does have his finger on the pulse of his geeky crowd. (Disclaimer: I really enjoy Marvel films, I just feel like they are overdoing it lately…you can’t love something if it never leaves occasionally). I even got to see Garrett (Erik Charles Nielsen) get married! Let’s not forget Abed (Danny Pudi) saving the day by envisioning different flashback set ups in ‘Basic RV Repair and Palmistry’.
So to sum this up as best I can. Season six was a great success for Community and it’s fans. It managed to improve in almost every area from the year previously and deliver some great new concepts. The only way I can truly end this review though, is with a pitch for the Community Movie.
In my mind it has to have a Blues Brothers’ sense of getting the band back together. The group will be forced to re-assemble to rescue Troy and I mean the whole group. I’d love it if Pierce pulled a fast one and turned out to have faked his death. Whatever drama Chevy Chase may have caused, the character was fantastic. As for the plot past that…well that’s for other writers but that would definitely be my set up.
#AndAMovie
