Community (Season 4)

Coming after my favorite season of all time, is probably my least favorite of all time, and that absolutely pains me to say. Community's first three seasons were perfect, and Seasons 5 & 6 are great too, which is why it absolutely pains me that such an amazing show was sullied by a season as bad as its fourth. Ladies, gentleman, and enbies, it's time for a rant.

The issue with Community's fourth season is simple. Dan Harmon was fired so the season was written and directed by other people. However, they couldn't capture Dan Harmon's signature blend of hilarious meta humor and sharp dialogue with genuinely fleshed-out characters and a ton of heart and sincerity that made the show as amazing as it is. The fact is that not every show is like Buffy, which had a writer's room so big that literally anyone could leave and the show would still be in great hands. Just like you can't have the West Wing without Sorkin, or Breaking Bad without Gilligan, you can't have Community without Dan Harmon. He helped make the show what it is, and most of the episodes in Season 4 just felt like a cheap parody.

You can tell throughout Season 4 that the writers seem to think that Community is just about movie references and experimentation, so the episodes are jam-packed with empty movie references, and pretty much every episode tries to be creative. However, what makes Community so great is that all of the meta humor is in service of the characters. Critical Film Studies is great not because it's based off of Pulp Fiction and My Dinner With Andre, but because of how it uses those movies to build a story on Jeff and Abed's friendship. In Season 4, we get a superhero origin story for all of the characters, not to say anything about their relationship, but just because it's fun. The worst instance of this problem is in the Muppet episode, which doesn't do anything with its concept aside from saying "Hey, everyone! The characters are Muppets now! Isn't that funny?". I get that they were trying to mimic something like Abed's Uncontrollable Christmas, but that episode had one of the most insightful commentaries on the meaning of Christmas ever. What did this episode have? Nothing.

All of the characters end up turned into one-note caricatures, meaning that they lose the subtle respect they have for each other in all of the other seasons. Even when they bicker, fight, and face conflicts, you know that this Greendale study group cares about each other. However, you don't get that sense in Season 4. It feels like the characters don't like spending time together, especially Pierce, who's eagerness to leave Greendale ruins all of his subtle character growth in the last three seasons. And then there's Chang whose fake-amnesia storyline is not only unfunny, but it isn't even resolved by the end of the season. Maybe simplifying the characters could be fine if it allowed for some great comedy, but as mentioned before, none of the humor is sharp or witty. It never goes further than just pointing out that it's referencing a movie, genre, or trend.

The worst part about Season 4 for me is about how it pretty much ruins all of the plot threads that had been slowly built up throughout the first three seasons. Jeff's father issues finally get resolved here, but it's disappointing because the writing just isn't up to par. Britta and Troy finally get together, but they anticlimactically break up later on in the season because they just didn't work. I wonder if the writers knew that they were the reason why Troy and Britta didn't work. There's even a storyline about City College, who was a looming villain throughout the series, but they don't get a resolution either. The season even has some interesting premises, like the characters going to an Inspector Spacetime convention or a war over who gets the study table, but none of it is executed well at all. Worst of all, this season gives us the graduation from Greendale College, which should have been a big heartwarming finale. However, it was mean-spirited and anticlimactic, with most of the episode being an imaginary paintball battle with the darkest timeline. They couldn't even get the paintball right, as the choreography wasn't nearly as fun and intricate as in the rest of the show. It's so painful because with good writing, this season could have been one of the best, but none of it was executed well at all.

I try to find redeeming qualities for everything I watch. Even when I'm disappointed in what I'm watching, I try to find things to enjoy. Even when I was mad with the Mr Robot finale, I still voiced how much I loved the first two-thirds of the season. But I just can't seem to do that here, it's just that bad. There's no highlights, no diamonds in the rough (except maybe Abed's girlfriend), there was no way I could have even done this review without it devolving into an angry rant like this.

Overall, Community's fourth season is just plain awful. It lacks any sort of heart whatsoever. The comedy falls flat, the storylines are dumb, the characters have become one-dimensional caricatures of themselves, and the good ideas that were set up in previous seasons were wasted with bad execution. It's a fate I wouldn't wish on any TV show, let alone one I love as much as Community. So let's just pretend this season never happened, shall we?

0/5 Stars