Why Season 4 is Community's Absolute Worst
HTML-код
- Опубликовано: 27 сен 2024
- This video is sponsored by Adam & Eve. Go to AdamandEve.com Use Code: "Midnight" for 50% Off 1 Item + Free Shipping in the US & Canada. Some exclusions apply.
Way before it was on Netflix, Community always had a hard time in the ratings at NBC. Fans were thrilled when it was renewed for season 4, but Dan Harmon was out. In this video, I go over the weird season without him, and how things were never quite the same for Jeff, Abed, Troy, Britta, Shirley and Annie.
MERCH: standard.tv/co...
Music by Epidemic Sound (www.epidemicsou...)
Follow me on Twitter: / midnightcap
Follow me on Facebook: / midnightcap
Special thanks to Andrew Elliott (Stalli111: / stalli111 ) for editing this video!
A movie is the only thing to get us out of this darkest timeline.
and it's almost a "ten years later, where are they now" type of deal
#sixseasonsandamovie
a Twin Peaks type deal where it's 25 years later... but I think Chevy Chase wasn't expendable
It truly is our only hope
We will get a movie
Season 4 is bad by Community standards, but by sitcom standards it's still good.
It feels like fan-fiction to me. Decently written fan-fiction but just missing the mysterious elements that made it magical.
@@philllllllll yeah I think you just perfectly described it
@@philllllllll yes, you are not wrong. I just think people are too harsh on season 4 because of the amazing 3 seasons that came before. But it has its good moments.
I honestly think that Season 4 is one of the most overhated seasons of any tv show. Sure, it's not nearly at the same level of quality as the past three seasons that came before it, but I still would watch it over Big Bang Theory or any other generic sitcom at the time.
@@michaelvessel4604 yeah I agree on that, by sitcom and comedy standards in general it’s pretty solid, I always watch the whole season on rewatches. But I just feel like it lost that mysterious, and magic element that Dan Harmon brought to the show. And for that it’s hated on
Dean Pelton "swapping bodies" with Jeff is one of my favorite moments in the entire series and it happens halfway through S4, so I can't say it's "the absolute worst" without being dishonest.
the freaky friday episode was written by jim rash (the dean). wish they had him write more episodes that episode because it was definitely the best one in s4
Season 4 is a very funny season that only gets all the hate because it is surrounded by some of the greatest seasons of a sitcom ever. So compared to seasons 1-3 and 5-6, season 4 looks bad. Compared to basically every other sitcom at the time, season 4 was actually pretty great.
Annie getting giggly at the Dean was gold.
@@ernestoagapitogarcesconyad1710genuinely liked that episode, that's when I was like "season 4 really has its moments"
@@CaligoArye What makes it work so well is that the only times she's really been into Abed previously was when Abed when playing a character (see Don Draper in S1 Han Solo back in S2, and Don Draper) so the idea that she has trouble seeing past the character someone is portraying themselves as already well established.
At least S4 brought us the callback line:
"Ghosts can't go through doors, stupid. They're not fire!"
Wasn't that from the Season 3 finale or second last episode? Or do you just mean they starting bringing it back in S4?
@@Hazoodles
Chang said "Fire can't go through doors, stupid. It's not a ghost!" in (I think) the S3 finale, then Pierce said the other line in S4.
@@ob2kenobi388 Oh yeah i didn't even notice which version you had said in your original comment. My bad!
Ya but when Pierce said it , it felt forced ... Much like the rest of the season. It was more of an eye roll moment for me instead of a clever easter egg
Is it really a call back when it was on the finale of the previous season? A real callback would be Abed in s5 e1 telling Jeff the line about "I see your value now" which was told before in the first episode
One of my favorite lines in sitcom history comes in season 5. The study group is sitting around the table, and Winger says, "what happened to you people?" Then proceeds to go around the room and calls everyone out for how awesome and unique of characters they used to be compared to how boring, cliche, and stereotypical they are now. It's one of the funniest and most on point meta jokes I've ever heard
@@leynadebono4754 S5E1: Repilot, at the start of Act 3. He ends by saying "we went in one side as real people and came out the other as twisted cartoons"
@@joealine77 so true . Like s1 to 3 ther wher real people beginnt of s4 ws still ok and then boom
acknowledging you are doing a shit job does not make it less shit, just more obvious
@@DragicaOfficial Your remark doesn’t make sense because the joke came from Dan Harmon who returned for season 5. So the fact the group became parody like caricatures of themselves in season 4 wasn’t his own fault. So the joke isn’t a self-admittance of doing a “shit job” from any of the show runners or writers. Just more a jab from one show runner to another.
@@peedfarded season 4 wasn’t that bad. I don’t like how the later seasons act like it was just terrible, it actually makes it even worse than whatever people think of season 4
“I farted during the fourth one, it’s an inside joke”
Damn you i was going to say that lol
No. I am Fartacus.
just rewatched that episode. haha
Sharted
@@ascottishgamerx9728 okie dokie
Season 4 feels like fan-fiction. Decently written fan-fiction, but nowhere near the quality of the original show.
Exactly. It's as if I tried to write Community episodes only knowing the show on a surface level.
I generally tell people:
Season 4: Community Fanfiction
Season 5 & 6: Diet Community
Season 4 is the Cursed Child of Community
@@hasmhas yes I never thought of it like this but it really sums it up. I really enjoy 5 and 6 but it'll never be as good as full on community
@@hasmhas At least seasons 5 and 6 are consistently funny and still feel like Community. Season 4 is the least funny and least interesting season.
I hate Abed's "We finally found a way to make paintball cool again" line because, even the seasons without paintpall have paintball episodes. Season 3 has a big pillow war and season 5 have the floor is lava episode. Both capturing the homage/parody action flick semblance just like the paintball episodes of season 1, 2 and 6.
The pillow fort episodes are fucking genius, like who else but Dan Harmon could come up with something as creative as that? 🤣
It's a bad line because it highlights just how un-cool it is; the finale is a really bad re-integration of two previous Community ideas (the timelines ands paintball) seemingly without understanding why those things were good the first time around.
I didn’t like it since it just felt like they’re trying to force the audience to think it was cool and inadvertently implied that the paintball type episodes weren’t cool now which just pisses me off
The season 4 paintball episode was one of the worst episodes in the entire series. Season 6 did paintball better.
Pillowfort fucking sucked too.
Weirdly, I thought Community was at its best when it was at least semi-grounded, just poking fun as the silliness of community college. Dean telling everyone to search their “immediate areas” in the first scene is one of my favorite jokes in the whole show
Yeah, that's why seasons 1 and 2 are my favourites.
That’s why I was never really a huge fan of the whole Chang takeover
I actually felt it was fine, not knowing what was going on behind the scenes at the time I didn't really feel that anything was out of place. When Pierce died, Troy left, and Shirley left that's when I began to feel that the show was a bit weird. Mostly because of the fact that it had already lost it's charm. There was no more "community" it was just the remaints of the study group with whichever professors decided to join them. Like Mike from breaking bad joining them for a bit, what was up with that? just felt weird. I could also go on about Frankie and Elroy but they were Ok. Basically what I'm trying to say is once it wasn't a study group anymore it just wasn't the same show. Like remember the episode when they rented a pulp fiction themed restaurant? No way that could've worked with the newest cast. Troy completed Abed and without him Abed just became the weird guy to the new cast. Man there are so many reasons why I felt that after they weren't a study group, that's when community died.
agreed, i felt that after troy left was when it starts to go worse. i quite liked season 4 except the puppet episode
I honestly thought season six was pretty great, like the episode with the giant hand was utterly hilarous
Yeah that's how I felt when the show was running but watching it again it's kinda clear how much season 4 stands out as a sore thumb from a writing and tone perspective
Changnesia is by far the dumbest arc in television comedies I’ve seen, no pay off, just overly used and annoying.
And the problem, is that, the arc had a lot of potential. But they just be like: at the end of the season, lets erased all of the arc, from the main story
@@TrunksG it was shitty from its conception, it was obviously fake
You must have not watched a lot of shows if that’s by far the dumbest arc you’ve ever seen.
@@vincevvn just not a lot of bad ones
It's clear they had absolutely no idea what to do with Chang after the Season 3 finale. He doesn't have a clear purposes in any of the subsequent seasons.
Was not expecting an Adam and eve ad in this channel lmao
Straight up thought it was a joke at first.
He's done it once before, I remember being quite confused lol.
I literally came here just to say this. 🤣🤣
But get your money Cap'n!
It's not the first time
Captain Midnight FUUUUUUUCKS
The big thing that really stands out in season four is how the characters become caricatures of themselves. Shirley literally become 3-kids from the later GI Joe episode. Her entire personality is “I could be home with my kids.” This happened before, but she had depth beyond that. Similarly, The S4 writers did not write Abed correctly. They wrote him as an awkward guy, not someone on the spectrum. Those are the two glaring examples, but like the Troy/Britta romance you mentioned, they come across as generic, despite the writers best attempts at Harmonizing the show. #sixseasonsandamovie
And also all the kissing up the writers did to Chevy Chase.
Shirley was awesome in the MeowMeowBeenz episode
I just think the Britta/Troy romance could be well developed since there's a couple of episodes in Seasons 1-3 that show how great they would be together. Idk if Harmon would actually write it, but the characters surely had that potential
@@rachelbond998 Season 5, Hickey was in it. It's the kind of classic conceptual episode that rarely miss in Community
@@rachelbond998 the way mustard turns Britta into a leader of the masses 😭
Community season 4 has one of the most amazing cameos ever. “Inspector Space Time” is clearly a Doctor Who parody and they cast Matt Lucas to play an IST super fan in season 4. 3 years later he would actually be cast as Nardole in Doctor Who. Sure no one could have known what was going to happen later, but I literally gasped when he showed up.
Me too! As a huge doctor who fan who didn’t watch community until it was on streaming services, I wasn’t sure if it was intentional, since I didn’t know if he had been cast as nardole yet
It's awe inspiring how great the first episode after Gas Leak Year gets and how fast it's happening. First seconds of season five and you immediately feel the difference in your bones.
Jeff coming in and yelling at them all is just so cathartic.
Yeah I could feel it right from the moment before his drink got taken away.
lol Humprhies' tesis was a bridge made of lego
It's kind of crazy how wrong season 4 felt too. I came to community late and how no idea about dan leaving the show, but even in the first episode of S4 I went from "oh this hunger deans is kind of a neat concept, I'm excited" to "huh....that just didn't really work"
Couldn't disagree more. Although both seasons are a mixed bag to me, I think I got more enjoyment out of season 4 than 5 overall, and the season 5 opening episode is especially bad. Considering what a lateral move going from season 4 to 5 was, all the 'gas leak' references also felt particularly unearned and petty. That had me cringing more than anything season 4 did.
I thought that once Glover left the show became a complete shell of its former self
It was pretty Childish before then, ngl
@@imveryangryitsnotbutter you mean pretty childish gambino 😎
@@kinleydeboer7280 That's The Joke™
@@imveryangryitsnotbutter i think he was trying a bit of cringe humor there ":D
Yeah. Season 4 might be worse than what came before, but it's still better than what came after. I think Harmon's desperate attempts to return the show to what he wanted and to distance it from season 4 backfired badly.
I think the Sophie B Hawkins dance episode felt like classic Community and would fit in well in the first 3 seasons. It didn't break new ground, but the characters all acted like themselves, it was funny, and it had lot of heart. Most of the rest of the season I barely remember.
Jeff's monologue to his dad in S4 is honestly under-rated
I'm a new community fan and to be honest when I was watching through the show through I did not notice season 4 being weird or bad or anything like that -- I found it very enjoyable and had no idea weird stuff was going on behind the scenes minus some of the stuff with Chevy Chase. I agree the finale is terrible and so is the puppet episode but the highlights for me were fun and good! It was actually the beginning of season 5 where I felt as if something felt weird and bad and wrong. I really was not vibing with the show for a bit so I kind of quit watching for a while then before eventually coming back and finishing it.
I think them not being students in Greendale and graduating messed up the show
I feel exactly the same. Four was fine and five started to wear me out a little. Six being better again. Its my second watch right now and i felt exactly the same last time round
I feel like the only reason people don't like season 5 is it was no longer about students specifically (how could it be?) And we lost some main characters (unavoidable). Season 4 on the other hand, is bad because of the writing. Without Harmon, almost all the season 4 episodes are pretty awful by community standards. Even the cast has said they knew the writing for their characters didn't make sense.
i had basically the same experience. didn’t mind season 4, seasons 5-6 were the ones where it felt completely pointless and off
Yeah same here first time through. Loved it. Still do. The purists are brutal man.
Gasleak year is a fair label for it. It writes off all of the out of character moments as a gasleak but it still keeps it in character that it happened. Which means good or bad or stupid, the characters have to live with that and it still developed them. I love it.
I actually liked "Herstory of Dance" the most out of S4
not even for the Abed story, I actually loved the Britta plotline and how Pierce defends her to Jeff at the end of the episode, it was a rare thing to see from Pierce and I wish we saw him interact with Britta a bit more actually, sadly it was like.. the last episode of S4 where Pierce is in the whole of the episode, not written out or left behind in the study room by the other characters.
Dean Peltons role in season can't be understated, he is legit the best part of season 4
I’m in the minority but I love season five and six. They’re so weird and different yet familiar.
now there's a man who knows how to marry his cousin!
Seasons 5 and 6 are kind of like watching different show. A really, really good show, but not the same.
Honestly I don't if I prefer the early seasons or the later ones. Depends on my mood I guess
I think season 5 is one of the best seasons of the show. It reached very unique emotional levels, along with some really unique and funny concepts like Jeff’s coma, or the Meow Meow Beanz episode, or even basic sandwich. It’s was super cool to see it and I think is overlooked a lot
Season 5 is absolute killer,crazy fun to watch. Season 6 kind of had a rough start,but started to go well along the way.
I remember watching through season 6 for the first time, I got emotional thinking about how much the show had changed. In a way it felt like it had matured to me. There were still funny antics and crazy situations but a lot of the childish wonder and silly comedy were replaced by more riffs on finality, progress, and moving on. Not to say all of it was gone. There are a few episodes with classic Harmon weirdness (The SciFi Movie Episode, The VR Episode). All the same, it was different in a good way to me, it was still recognizable but it had gotten some scars and was a little rough around the edges, but it recognized itself for that and I think it played on that aspect really well.
I just remember Pierce not being in scenes with others.
The way he was edited in to those last couple episodes was pretty laughable. I know the show had to work with what Chevy was willing to give them, but man
honestly I was glad to see him go,
The thing that's crazy to think about is that this is the longest that Chevy has been involved with any show by far. His next longest tenure was with SNL where he lasted just over one season before falling out with everyone. The fact that Harmon and Community were able to keep their relationship with Chase as long as they did is an incredible feat that will never be matched.
@@crystalwolcott4744 I can agree if you are a cast member or were directly involved in community production, but Pierce's character is a HUGE loss to the show. He was, for me, a great mix between Michael Scott and Creed, as an old man constantly making horrible but hilarious comments without any awareness. After Pierce left the only one with the "scratched" comedy characteristic left was Chang, but Chang unfortunately just becomes a terrible, mostly unfunny character in the finals seasons.
@@brennomachado5585 They also portrayed Pierce in a way that makes you sympathize with him. Like for every episode where he's a jerk, there's another big thing he does to show how good he is at heart. (Spoilers ahead)
For example; letting Troy stay at his mansion, giving his inheritance to his half-brother, his favoritism of Annie, being a father figure (ish) to Troy, etc. Plus, he actually wanted to move past his old views as shown in the drag queen episode, and when they swapped out some of his "favorite terms" for less offensive options in season two (I forgot which episode :
There’s some literal cringe fest moments in season 4 that prevent me from ever getting through it in one piece. Seasons 5 and 6 had issues but not for lack of good writing. Season 4 tried to fit as much fan service and callbacks as possible and it physically hurt me.
I liked season 4, it’s better than season 6.
@@Nononono36353 I think so too something about season 6 felt depressing at least in season 4 they were still students
@@Nononono36353 Agreed, at least the main cast is still there. S6 was just lame with the new characters and overall sad vibe
tRoY aNd AbEd In ThE MORNING
Troy and Abed AND ANNIE in the morning!! ♫
- Allison Brie
nightssss
Troy and Abed are in mourning ...
Season 4 had a difficult time hitting the right notes. It never really knew how to handle the Troy and Britta relationship, so they just kind of let it play out for a while with no real drive, until they just decided to end it halfway through the season. I also found Malcolm McDowell's addition to the season to be an odd mix. Also it was pretty obvious by that point that Chase was on his way out, so it was kinda cringe watching the characters make excuses as to why Pierce was not around for several episodes. Most of all though, it just seemed like the network was trying to take the popular elements of the show and scrape them for everything they were worth. It was like watching the sequel to a good movie. Instead of building on itself it re-treads the popular elements of the original, which creates kind of a shallow copy of the first, missing all the depth that made the original what it was.
One thing I did appreciate about season 4 is the fact that it made Britta a slightly more serious character again. Watching her evolution from the start of the show to the end of season 3 can be slightly painful at times. As much as I love how they took her from leading love interest to goofy screw up liberal parody, i think they went a little overboard by the time we got to season 3. She had essentially become nothing more than a punchline by then. Season 4 has her picked on a lot less, contribute a lot more, and even gives her a few wins for a change. it was a nice change of pace.
I really really want Dan Harmon to remake the episode when Jeff meets his father. I know it would’ve been special.
This! It's the biggest loss I got from season 4, and no one seems to talk about it. It really broke my heart how bad it was, after Dan Harmon had put so much thought into setting it up.
@@animehearthd5469 it's weird, but I don't think Jeff would have gone and seen his father.
Harmon wanted Jeff's dad to be Bill Murray.
But that episode was already special
When I was watching community for the first time I never realized season 4 was "different".. to this day I don't think it's "forced" as many say. I think it was fine
Honestly.....same.
I do feel that it's the first season where things start to deviate from the track we're put on in seasons 1-3, and there are far less moments and arcs to like than in those earlier seasons, but I really don't think it's horrible the way many people make it out to be. But then, I'm just a sitcom pleb tbh
@@gerbendekker3273 could be but I didn't notice the deviation even when I first watched the show
I definitely did.
Same. I've always felt like the Harmon stans are projecting pretty hard on Season 4.
Jeffs speech to his dad is the highlight of the season in my opinion
agreed, I thought that episode was so well done. yes, the premise does feel more like an episode you'd find on your average dramedy, but the writing of that specific scene, and joel's execution of the speech, are amazing to me. I remember sucking in my breath when jeff reveals the scar... I'm tearing up now just thinking about it. it's the type of 'tragic backstory moment' reveal that punches you in the gut, but makes total sense for the character when you reflect on it. the writers of season 4 do deserve some credit for what they did well. for the most part, though... *do* blame it all on the gas leak
I'll also point out that S4's gimmicks were just that: quirky gimmicks. On every other season the gimmick was used in direct relation to the story of the episode. Abed sees things in claymation because he suffered a trauma from his mother no longer wanting to visit on Christmas, so he reverted to seeing things in stop-motion which reminded him of happy childhood holidays. The video game episode gimmick was in relation to the mind games daddy Hawthorne played with Pierce and Gilbert. But the puppet episode of season 4? Now, nothing much to do with the story of the episode itself, nor do they really comment on puppet style shows like Muppets or Sesame Street. Harmon doing that episode would have made it connect to the plot as well as having several puppet TV show tropes to add life to it.
And yes, the finale was the absolute worst. It directly contradicts the sentiment of the s3 episode where the group sees the therapist and recalls a third round of paintball that they call lame and say they will never do again. And then they did it again and they dared to say it was "cool". I was excited for the prospect of another paintball episode and even I cringed at that line.
The puppet episode was bar none the worst episode of "Community".
why are community fans so retarded? the puppets were a good medium to see the group in a setting they otherwise could not have been due to budget constraints. nothing wrong with that episode.
@ccshumshum8104 the problem with that episode is that it's a standard sitcom storyline and setup instead of parody. Harmon would've written that episode poking fun at and using tropes from the Muppets and Sesame St. Instead it's literally just a normal episode with puppets
@@uhoh9000 "...poking fun at and using tropes from..." that wouldn't make it better
@@ccshumshum8104 what do you think parody is? Lol. That's literally the entire premise of the show. It's a sitcom parody.
I remember being so pissed when I found out they had fired Dan Harmon, and actually stopped watching community halfway season 4 and only finished it a year ago on Netflix. That said, I also later found out how awful Dan was to the writers, especially to Megan Ganz, and I believe firing him was the right choice, and it's a shame it didn't work for the show. Thankfully he has since publicly apologized in a way that I have rarely seen and seems genuinely sorry for the stuff he did.
ive been looking for a comment ab this! sexual harassment in the workplace should not ever be tolerated, even when the perpetrator is talented. like you said tho, he seems to have reflected a lot on his actions and is sorry.
Yeah it always bothered me that people put so much blame on Chevy (who behaved like a dick), but did not really care how awful the work conditions were for the whole crew, especially the writers and directors who had to fix all the fuck ups drunk Harmon did. You don't get fired from your own show, if you just "misbehave" a little, especially back then, but he overspend the budget, whole episodes had to be rewritten because of it and working with an unfinished script does not help either.
I know abiut the Megan ganz thing, Which was completely unacceptable. But for the most part I haven't heard about harming having problems with the other writers. Like I got the impression that the reason the writers worked so late were more because the writers room took on this really perfectionist culture. Im sure dan played a part in that but it seems like everyone just wnated to write the best scriot possible. outside of ganz I haven't heard any writer bring up any issues with Harmon. Idk maybe other writers talked about how frustrating dan was to work with and I just never saw them discuss it.
Season 4 is hard because you can tell that they were really trying. There was earnest effort put in to emulate Harmon's style, but that style was just so bizarre and specific that they couldn't do it. The way you put it was frankly very accurate, the "cover band" version of the show. It's an earnest attempt that just isn't backed up with the talent behind the writing.
One of the most underrated seasons of any tv show ever. Is it the weakest season of this show? Absolutely. But it's nowhere nearly as terrible as most people make it out to be. It's still infinitely better than most comedy shows that were being released at the time, and probably better than a lot of sitcoms being released currently.
I don’t even think it’s the weakest season. Easily season 6 is the weakest one.
@@vincevvn totally agree
yeah, even the worst of community is still streets ahead the best of most sitcoms
"It's still infinitely better than most comedy shows that were being released at the time, and probably better than a lot of sitcoms being released currently."
I don't understand what people are thinking when they say this, the worst episodes of Community are incredibly shitty. I can't comprehend what sitcoms you're watching when you think the bad episodes are "still better than anything else".
If I had to rank Community's seasons, it would be 3, 1, 2, 6, 4 and 5. Wait, no... 2, then 1
In my view, seasons 1-3 are nearly perfect seasons of television (Season 3 especially)
the 3rd season finale just felt like a perfect ending tbh and then it continued and the characters kinda got lost
I agree with this statement
Honestly to me season 4 feels like the last of "Community" that is normal. Just them in Greendale going about their studies. With seasons 5 and 6 things quickly got weird especially with Pierce and Troy leaving the main cast. That is why I personally look to season 4 as one might look at the last year they spent with a loved one who has passed away. I am not happy with the lost potential of season 4 but I am very happy I got to see it in the first place.
honestly? i loved season 6. something about it just felt dumb, goofy, and insane. it feels like the actors just having fun and doing plot lines that don’t make much sense to those who aren’t partial to a particular style of comedy. the first three are still far superior, but there’s something about season 6 that i adore
this is a year late but the reason why season 6 worked is because it was organic and actually focused on community college
100% agreed. Season 6 gave the show a great finale.
Every episode felt the same tho. Everybody had their cliche roles and were cookie cutter placed into their scenarios.
Also Never finding out what happened to Troy killed season 6 for me. All I wanted was closure.
I have changnesia during this season and can’t remember it 😂
The characters turned into caricatures of themselves in S4.
That actually happened in season 3.
@@lindenstromberg6859 yeah I love season 3 but the characters were just reduced to certain character traits. Poor Britta :(
@@lindenstromberg6859 Agreed. Season 4 tried to get most of the characters back to their Seasons 1-2 selves. Unfortunately Season 3 was such a departure that Season 4 felt off if you didn't rewatch the first two seasons and remember how the characters used to be.
I love season 5 and 6, Elroy and Frankie are fantastic characters
Hell yeah they are!
i love frankie so much
Yeah I think they actually hold up quite well to the first 3 seasons especially knowing the budget reduction lol
The season 6 finale is definitely one of the top 5 best episodes
Season six is one of my favorite seasons of the show in general
Heroic origins rewrites half of the characters backstories just so they can make tenuous connections between characters’ pasts, not a fan
I can kind of understand where Chevy was coming from. Despite his and Harmon's relationship, I feel like Dan would've been able to fully complete his character arc in Season 4, but to have that squandered because of a change in direction, it makes sense why he would want to leave right there, especially if he thought his character and the show would go nowhere.
The puppet episode only made me laugh twice, when the Dean took the whip out of puppet Jeff's hand and when puppet Jeff was flirting with him.
I honestly really like episodes 1-8 of season five so far. They're all really good, but I feel like once Troy leaves it just takes away a core element of the show that left it feeling empty. Abed didn't have the same impact without him. I also really like the body swap episode. I've only been watching the season 4 episodes I hear are good (I'm a new fan, so this is my first time watching), and it definitely doesn't disappoint. I really like how you can see a bit of Abed rubbing off on Troy. Troy has a hard time process his emotions and the world around him, so he turns to TV tropes to help him, even if he is trying to escape having to confront him. It's one of my favorite Troy and Abed episodes because it's a great display of their friendship and how they help each other move through the world. It's really solid imo. I've never cared much for romance plots and subplots, so I really just view Troy's relationship with Britta as an opportunity for his character to grow and learn what he wants in life.
yeah honestly the last few episodes of it were a bit of a clown fest, season 6 was generally smooth in my opinion, the only weak episode would be the grifting one
My personal ranking list for Community is 2, 3, 1, 5, 4, 6. I know, I'm a heathen for liking 4 more than 6. It's not like I like the episodes more, but season 4 was the last time the main cast was all together, and it still had this vibe that I always associated with the show.
My order is 3 6 1 5 2 4
I like season 4 but it had the most episodes i didn't really enjoy. Season 6 is just really nice for me.
My order is 2 5 3 1 6 4. I actually loved season 5 more than season 3 and the 3-episode arc from figuring out Pierce's death to Troy leaving Greendale is potentially the best arc in the series.
2 3 1 4 6 5.
I hated S5 after Troy left. Almost stopped watching.
Season 4 was the worst, even though it was the last season when all 7 main cast were together. I prefer S5&6 because they made sense. The cast leaving was unfortunate but also much like real life where friends fall out but life moves on.
I remember hating the final season the most so when I found out about the hate towards s4, I was confused. As far as I know I had fun watching it til the final season. I just got so bored when cast members started leaving the show and got replaced multiple times by other actors. That’s the part where I felt like everything felt forced.
Lol I feel the same, having finished the show not long ago, the last season is my overall least favourite. A lot of the episode concepts felt recycled and not the same without the old cast members. But overall it's a fantastic show, and most shows have a few less-good seasons.
@@Zoronita I agree. I have re-watched Community twice. First 5 years ago on Nextflix. I got through Seasons 1-4 no problem and stopped after a few episodes of season 5. Last year re-watch exact same thing happened. I agree Seasons 1-3 are the best but Season 4 was entertaining enough that it didn't feel like work to continue watching it.
@@brittanygray7416 For what it's worth, I think Season 6 was decent ish and especially the last 3 episodes of S6 are really great despite the lack of Troy, Pierce, and Shirley
@Mo Is Absolutely Cracked You're high. Season 5 is one of the best seasons. Hickey is a great addition to the cast and Troy's final episode is perfect. Season 6 is still vastly better than season 4 and the finale was great. Season 4 had almost no good or funny episodes.
I was just thinking "this season isn't that bad" then I went back and looked at the episodes. All I can say is it's something. The season felt like a gag that went on for too long. I was kinda hoping the evil timeline versions of them would have something interesting but it just went on for to long and hyped up for something that felt bland. The changnesia gag was okay... but again felt like it was going for too long. And they didn't even have a satisfying ending to the long extend joke. But I did like the heroic orgins episode too. That one was very funny and I liked the overly complex analysis of everything leading them to go to college
I actually disliked "Heroic Origins" - took out the magic of _Community_ by making the Greendale Seven all connected to each other and destined to meet (instead of being random strangers who end up becoming a family). Objectively fine episode though.
@@s29nv1sr1 yeah true. It definitely wasn't the worst of the season tho
@@s29nv1sr1 I totally agree. The episode is fairly enjoyable but overall it adds absolutely nothing to the show (or, I should say, it adds nothing that anybody asked for/wanted). It’s easily the worst episode of the series for me, besides possibly the conventions episode.
@@s29nv1sr1 but didn’t season 3 have an episode that was made solely to make Jeff and Shirley connected? They start out by hanging in an area that they barely go to and get mad because people are playing foosball, give Shirley a skill she never brings up and a backstory Jeff never acknowledges till that moment. Atleast in ‘heroic origins’ they’re still technically strangers that did nothing more than indirectly influenced each other’s lives.
@@TrxstMonty Well, yes. But that was only two people who were connected like 30 years prior and didn't even recognize each other for over two years of being close friends
Honestly, from memory, I remember disliking season 6 more than season 4. Maybe I needa rewatch tho?
Defiinitely try to give it a rewatch, it may be hard going into s06 back then with an open mind after losing most of the main cast of the show but it's such a blast to watch. definitely taking s06 over s04 anyday.
@@stuff_er I need to watch them again but I remember laughing and enjoying myself while watching both sO5 and s06. I remember how off and sometimes boring s04 was.
For me, season 6 is only decent upon the first time through, but upon rewatch, it gets better. And the last three episodes of the show are still amazing.
I completely agree with you. I put season 6(with the exception of the last 3 episodes) as one of my worst tv experiences ever. I was literally hoping for every episode to end soon.
@@stuff_er i love season 4 over season 6. season 6 is like a 2/10
The dean's amulet joke in this season was still one of the best in the show
I felt that the last 2 seasons were the worst because while at first it’s funny but when you rewatch it and think about it you realize how sad it is. It’s filled with a hollowed out cast, which the audience has known for a while and instead of trying to find someone to fill these holes they decide to leave the holes wide open and as a result a lot of the characters lost there shine. Abed became a weirdo without Troy there to highlight him (and vise versa) without Pierce there the group had no one to rag on and so some of the smaller happy moments are gone.
I don't understand why everyone thinks season 4 is the worst, when to me is so much better than season 5 and 6. Every time I was slowly understanding that a new boring character is gonna be part of the "main" group i wanted to cry
I saw the series for the first time recently and couldn't stand season 6. Most episodes were boring and you can clearly tell it's a different set at some other studio/location, making the study room look depressing
@@NeedyForMusic yeah season 6 is close to unwatchable
The more I grow up the more I appreciate season 5 and 6. Top tier in my opinion, hated them when I saw them on live TV.
Absolutely love that first episode of season 5 where you just know Dan is back in full force
I despise the origin episode. Retconning the whole point of the show
Yea it felt a little tacked on but I still really enjoyed it.
ABSOLUTELY true.
The origins episode acts like it adds a whole new layer to these characters, but it doesn't at all. How does it benefit the characters or our understanding of them if it transpires they had totally random coincidental run-ins with each other prior to actually getting to know each other? Why should we care? Nothing else in the show plays on the idea of 'destiny' or things 'meant to be', so what is the point?
but didn’t season 3 have an episode that was made solely to make Jeff and Shirley connected? They start out by hanging in an area that they barely go to and get mad because people are playing foosball, give Shirley a skill she never brings up and a backstory Jeff never acknowledges till that moment. They act closer at the end of the episode and then continue afterwards like it didn’t even happen until season 4. Atleast in ‘heroic origins’ they’re still technically strangers that did nothing more than indirectly influenced each other’s lives.
@@TrxstMonty Fair. I didn't really like that either tbh but at least it was only two of them
Honestly I can't tell because I saw community for the first time when it was just brought to Netflix. I loved it tho, it has become one of my favorite sitcoms. I agree that the relationship between Troy and Britta was weird, but I don't remember liking or disliking a specific episode or thinking it didn't fit in with the rest. I would have to watch it again but i don't know if I could tell any difference without it being biased by what I know now.
History 101, Paranormal Parentage, Herstory of Dance, Intro to Knots, Advanced Documentary Filmmaking, and Basic Human Anatomy all slap
And This is Adventure, the first song from Intro to Felt Surrogacy, is a banger. Plus the Dean interacting with puppet Jeff? Gold
I usually rewatch community every year and I skip a lot of the season 4 stuff. I don't think it's all bad as people say, and it definitely doesn't deserve the hatred that it gets from itself in later seasons. The gas leak year joke always made me feel a little awkward especially since there are some good episodes. Jim Rash (the actor who played the dean) directed the body swap episode and it hits that sentimental crux point really well that shows like The Simpsons lived off in its first 10 seasons.
My favorite episode of the season, Herstory of Dance never gets mentioned. But it's such a solid Britta episode that understands the characters rather than having some eccentric theme episode quirk.
Even though I usually skip 70% of the episodes, I think it's okay. Mostly I feel people are upset by the lack of payoff for a lot of the things. Harmon said he always imagined Bill Murray as Jeff's father. Instead we got an awkward Thanksgiving episode that lacked any emotional resonance. Similarly with the Troy/Britta relationship and the horrible inclusion of paintball in the last 6 minutes of the "final episode". The show seemed to homage itself.
I literally JUST finished watching an episode of Community. Cool, cool cool cool
It's really bizarre because the concepts for the episodes fit, I can't watch any of them and say "this does not feel like something that would happen on Community". It's the interactions between characters that feel completely wrong, and it's really hard to pinpoint why. Troy especially is a completely different character than in any of the previous seasons.
Seasons 1-3 were amazing. Season 4 started a downward trend. Once the chemistry of Donald and Chevy were gone the show was never the same.
Each season had amazing moments. But, how things were even when Harmon returned to the show just wasn’t the same as when he left.
The last season makes me genuinely sad. It fell so far. There isn’t anything in that season that I would be eager to watch a second time. Most of it I didn’t care to watch the first time I saw it.
I went from eagerly devouring each episode and excited to watch the next to .... sitting through the last seasons just to have seen it. Not because I was enjoying it, just because I felt obligated to keep watching.
So upon my first watch I think the show started feeling "weird" to me during season 4 but s5e01 really rubbed me the wrong way. In retrospect though I guess it was necessary to retcon the end of season 4 to continue the show. Also, while my initial impression of the last 2 season wasn't great (felt dreary and dreamlike almost), some of my favorite lines were delivered by Elroy, Hickey, and Frankie. I guess the show was irreparably changed after season 3, but I only really find most of season 4 and the very beginning of season 1 hard to re-watch.
Yeah, as you said, the point of S5E1 was to set up the rest of the season (and I didn't actually think it was that bad unlike S2E1 which served the same purpose but was found painful af).
And I get finding S4 to re-watch, I usually only watch the Freaky Friday episode written by Jim Rash (the dean), not the regular S4 writers, but what's wrong with the start of Season 1? S1 is my favourite community season
@@bobthellama6988 Ya I love the freaky friday episode too.
Season 1 up to the Halloween episode just feels a bit off to me. Like the characters aren't fully fleshed out yet and the emotional beats with the season 1 soundtrack feels a bit too much just like a normal sitcom instead of parody of one.
The early part of season one still has some great bits but I think it's just the fact that I've seen the whole show so many times that the very beginning feels awkward and uncanny to me.
I'd be lying though if the image of Jeff and Pierce waving the Israeli and Palestinian flags wasn't burned into my brain though.
I'd love the see separate follow up videos for seasons 5 and 6. While not capturing the magic of those first three seasons, there is a lot to like about them.
Agreed. Season 6 is a bit uneven with some great eps & some not-so-great ones but it still felt more like Community & nailed the characters better than season 4. Season 5 is severely underrated. It’s pretty much gold from start to finish
Deanspite popular opinion, I really like seasons 5 and 6. But I’ve only watched the whole show once, and then some good episodes again. I might have to watch the whole show again to have a definite opinion, so that might Chang. But as of right now, I think seasons 2 and 3 are perfection. Seasons 1, 5 and 6 are really good. Season 4 is bad for Community’s standards.
I really like season 5 and 6. They did an amazing job sending off Troy. Also, Hickey is a great character.
now theres a man, who knows how to marry his cousin!
lol evil emoji in the profile picture. Evil troy and abed i the mooorning
Heroic Origins is one of my least favorite episodes of the series for how much it retcons everything.
Yeah I found it super lazy when it devolved into the "they were always best friends but didn't know it" thing.
Yeah, it's one of the worst.
I liked it.
5:21 he says 'Intro to Felt Surgery'. It's actually Surrogacy but the episode definitively FELT like SURGERY. It put me to sleep, took something away from me and made me uncomfortable for weeks after.
I always took Advanced Introduction to Finality to be ironic rather than nearly any of it serious. Abed saying "We finally made paintball cool again" always struck me as more of a "Yeah, TOTALLY"
Season 6 is criminally underrated change my mind
Frankie and Elroy are the two greatest late-series additions in any tv show ever. Immediately for right in and never felt like forced copies of the cast members who left
Season 6 is arguably worse than 4. It's just a very sad viewing experience overall - you're acutely aware of the absence of the characters who left. It feels like something that is slowly dying rather than doing a grand finale. It has a couple of good episodes, but overall there's a lot of jumping the shark with weird high concept episodes which don't really land.
I just rewatched the show, and season 6 may actually be my favorite. Every single episode is a banger, and the new cast members are stellar. It doesn't have the effortless lighthearted charm of season 2 or the insane payoff of season 3 but it's so consistently funny and I think strikes a perfect balance between wacky hijinks and sobering realism.
@@videogamenostalgia I think Season 6 has duds but there’s also some real bangers in there. The finale is one of my favorite series finales of all time and I also really love the wedding documentary episode
Agreed! The series finale is so damn near perfect. And Frankie and Elroy were amazing additions.
I always felt the hate for season 4 was overdone. Fans mad at executives taking there anger out on a season of tv that tried its best and still provided some of the funniest and most heart-warming moments of the show, at least to me.
That said Intro to finality was terrible.
It's advanced intro to finality if you're talking about season 4. But I honestly don't get why people hated that episode so much. What was wrong with it?
@@curranfrank2854 Yeah, apart from it mostly being a dream sequence and feeling like it kind of forced its reason for paintball being brought back (it's weird that Jeff was daydreaming events that out there rather than Abed, for example), there's really nothing else wrong with the episode. It's one of the weaker episodes of the season, but it's not bad.
5:21
He hated 'Intro to Felt Surrogacy' so much he went out of his way to get the name wrong
Community always did a great job of turning the behind the scenes issues into topics the show dove into. Starting season 3 off with the song and ending with the Dean telling them they wouldn't have any money this year was great if you knew the behind the scenes drama. Same with how Pierce evolved and devolved based on the behind the scenes issues.
I went back to watch Community with my wife, who had never seen it before, and we really slowed down around S4-5. With a lot of the actors leaving and coming off the bumpiness of S4, I don't think 5 and 6 really ever got back into the same swing. We eventually finished the show, but I'm left feeling like S1-3 really are the golden years of Community.
Seasons 5&6 are significantly worse than season 4. Season 4 isn’t even bad, it’s just not as good as 1-3.
By referring to it as the bad season (or the gas leak) it both covers up Dan Harmon’s bad behavior and makes season 5&6 seem better in comparison. But imo seasons 5&6 felt like a leaking balloon in terms of quality and creativity. And losing Chevy Chase and Donald Glover back to back was a one two punch that the show never recovered from. And it’s desperate attempts to were embarrassingly bad.
And on top of that, the fans willingness and enthusiasm to take Dan Harmon’s side has always disgusted me. He was an unprofessional, alcoholic, sexual harasser who single handedly tanked his own show with his bad behavior
I know this is an old comment lol but wholeheartedly agree. The gas leak jokes were super petty by Dan Harmon and just more evidence that he's an unprofessional jackass
Honestly still better than season 6, the cast is still complete, and it seems that it was more impactful on screen than the fact that Dan was missing.
Anyway, when Chevy & Gambino left, it really sinked the show.
@@rachelbond998 yeah, everyone’s talking about Troy’s departure as the moment the show declined, for me it was when they slowly got rid of Pierce.
Peak Pierce is my favorite Community’s Character, he was so so funny, and loved the father figure he was to Jeff in some episodes.
Disagree completely. Deacon five and six are two of my favorites and brilliantly executed, despite some major tonal shifts.
Watching the first episode of Season 5 was like seeing a dead person revive on its former self.
You cannot convince me that yahoo screen actually existed and was not just people imagining it because of a gas leak
season 6 doesn't feel like community anymore, the things that made community changed
i will forever defend season 6 as the most underrated season in the show, it's so unique, theres this air of sadness to everything that might be too cynical for most but it works for me because it just makes sense
Adam and Eve? Aren’t those s*x toys?🤣
Yes he got sponsored by a s*x toy company
don't kink shame people
@@emrazum I’m not, it’s just funny.😁
@@MichaelStrawn_I_am yes, very unexpected, only used to like sexplanations type channels having them sponsor
Hey, it's kind of hard to make money on RUclips these days, so I can't blame him for turning to a s*x toy company to make a little extra cash.
I didn’t even notice it was any different until the characters started disappearing.
I honestly think no one would’ve thought Season 4 was AS bad if we didn’t know that Dan Harmon had left. I didn’t discover Community until 2020 & while Season 4 was a little boring, it contains two of my favorite episodes.
Frankie is the most underrated character of community. That scene when she tries not to hurt the dean's feelings always cracks me up.
meh
She is such a unique character being created for the express purpose of ending the show and even stating this herself. With one singular motive for a character, you wouldn’t expect them to be that hilarious.
I really enjoyed her and Elroy
Nah, she's even more of a buzz kill than britta
@@MisterSketch4 She really was the new person who came in and nailed it.
I never understood the gas leak joke because I didn’t know people hated season 4 that badly. I gotta say I HATED season 5 and I didn’t really like season 6
Probably worth noting that Dan's season 4 would have also had Britta and Troy dating. I mean, he may have made it feel more natural for people (I thought it was alright), but still.
When Shirley admitted to losing her kids, that broke me. She was no longer a charter I knew. I always skip that episode due to this.
You have no idea how badly I would like a Movie, even if it's just ok, the fact they have been saying 6 seasons and a Movie for so long, and by some miracle they got 6 seasons, the should happen just for the sake of it
In real time, season 4 was where I feel off. I was exactly shocked the show went on for 2 more seasons when I caught up on netflix. On rewatch, I would actually argue that season 6 is the worst. Troy and Abed where my favorite and we had done of that in season 6...
Tbh season 4 is fine. It feels weird to hear someone say that they'd rather skip entire episodes because they were "that bad". Honestly it boggles my mind when someone says they cringed so hard they couldn't watch whatever they were watching. It's such a silly mindset.
But I'm not a TV critic so what do I know?
Community without Dan Harmon > Community without Donald Glover/Chevy Chase.
Simple , cause Dan Harnon had nothing to do with it .
Yeah, he said that.
I'm a little surprised Herstory of Dance didn't get a shout out in the decent episodes of S4 part, especially since Brie Larson's character is one of the few elements of S4 that carried over into S5. I remember being shocked when that episode aired because it was the first storyline that season that I got emotionally invested in.
To be honest I still preferred it to seasons 5 and 6. Unlike those seasons it had all the original charcters, & it was still a study group. There might have been some bland episodes but it still felt more like the earlier seasons than 5 or 6 ever did (especially 6) even without Dan Harmon as showrunner.
I'm so streets behind!
Took me a while to realize that when they say "Gas Leak Year" they were referring to season 4.
I’d say 6 is the worst
This may be a bit controversial, but I’d take Season 4 over Season 6. Season 6 just felt so detracted from the original Community, and although it did have some good moments, it just felt a bit dull.
I actually like the Puppet episode probably because it's so strange that I'm actively fascinated by what's happening. Plus anytime Community just becomes a musical show is a fun time for me.
S4 was the Cursed Child version of Community. A decent fan fiction that we are forced to count as canon.
The best episode of S4 was Basic Human Anatomy (Freaky Friday) which was written by Jim Rash (the dean) and not other writers of season 4.
Personally, I didn't have any issues with S4, but I did have issues with S5&6. Those last two seasons changed so much from how the show was during S1-3, that I feel those first 3 seasons were a lot better than the last 3 seasons overall. I didn't like how most of the cast left and got replaced by mediocre characters, and S6 most of all even didn't look like the previous 5 seasons, like has anyone noticed the camera quality?
Glad to hear Paranormal Parentage getting some love for once. That felt like a strong character-based episode to me, on par with a lot of season 3 eps.
the other seasons are not that good and season 4 is not that bad
people just say that is pretty bad because they know the creator was gone for that season. fans of the show need to show that they know the behind the scenes
the last season was pretty weak. poor production value, repeating plots from previous season and a lot of the original cast was gone
WAIT WHAT??? I think the season 4 finale was one of - if not the - best community episodes ever!!
Honestly that’s a good analysis of the season. It still has some of the magic but it’s largely hit or miss compared to the previous seasons. I think that managed to have a lot of good moments and even episodes, and it started off pretty strong too with the B plot of Abed’s sitcom version of the study group in his head. Alternate History of the German Invasion is one of my favorites, but the finale really blew it with the “all a dream.”