Thus far, I’ve covered two different shows I enjoyed watching. This blog post will be a little different. Per Evelyn’s request, this week’s blog post will be about the show Community. In the initial seasons, Community is an excellent comedy TV series. After a certain point, the episodes’ quality slowly starts to decline and eventually has a sharp drop off.
Community is a show about a group of students (from age 18 to 68) and their lives at Greendale Community College. The creativity of the writers separates Community from other TV shows. Dan Harmon, the primary writer, went on to write the Rick and Morty TV series after Community. The first three seasons were partially written by Anthony and Joe Russo, the directors of the Marvel movies, too. With such talented writers, it is no surprise that Community is an extremely creative show. One episode may be acted traditionally, while the next may be a musical, and the next, animated. It isn’t just the types of episodes that make Community special, but the unique, strange, and oddly effective plot lines. For example, one episode is a hypothetical situation in which the Greendale Community College was converted into a subway station. You may be thinking that that sounds like a strange concept for an episode. You would be right. 
Nonetheless, the episode received high ratings, and I remember enjoying the episode, myself.
Notably, Community has an impressive number of guest stars. From Betty White to Jack Black, Community never shied away from surprising the audience with celebrities having one-time or recurring roles.
Next, friendship was a key element in keeping the audience engaged. Meaghan Darwish from TVInsider writes that “Unlike some of the more heartwarming comedies of the era like Parks and Recreation and The Office, some characters from Community were far less redeemable, which makes their kinder moments towards each other all the more sweet.” While I wish she didn’t elevate Community above The Office, she makes a fair assessment. Community is less of a feel-good show and after the inter-relational drama and conflict, seeing the friends come back together at the end of the episode is satisfying. While that may seem cliché or predictable, the show is still written to leave the audience guessing until the very end; even then, the writers may throw you for a loop. Strong friendships have been key components of successful TV series in the past, most obviously Friends, and Community is no exception.
The cast was especially good. Having a strong cast is crucial for any TV
series to excel, and Community is no exception. The cast includes big names such as Donald Glover
(known to the music world as “Childish Gambino), successful comedian, actor, and doctor Ken Jeong, and many others. Each member of the cast has continued to make names for themselves since the show concluded in June 2015. Additionally, multiple of the members remained connected to Anthony and Joe Russon and landed minor roles in Marvel movies. This special cast’s future success is a testament to the success of Community.
After three successful seasons, the show tanked straight into the ground. The primary writer, Dan Harmon, was fired because of sexually harassing one of his writers, and both the Russo brothers exited too. Joe Mchale, the lead actor, said in an interview that “The show is in Dan’s brain – and he’s by far the only person that can do it.” Viewers noticed a clear distinction between Dan’s Community and David Guarascio and Moses Port, the replacement writers.
With the new writers, the style of writing changed. Community lost its depth and morphed into “feel-good tv,” an aspect that Meaghan Darwish had said Community had separated itself from. Furthermore, the special relationships among the main characters lost their charm and began to feel forced.
While Harmon returned for season five as NBC became desperate to revive Community, the episodes still fell flat. In some circumstances, episodes seemed to fall back on prior successful plot lines, and other episodes seemed over-the-top and unnecessary. One episode was just puppets and voice actors! Community no longer even had a compelling antagonist and any conflict between characters seemed unnecessary or unrealistic so audiences were unable to connect to the characters.
Community. The show that was and was not. Brilliant for three seasons. Abysmal for the rest.
I recommend you watch Community with an open mind, but realize when it’s time to stop and never ever watch another episode. Trust me.
Works Cited
Bath, Dave. “Community: 10 Major Flaws That Fans Choose to Ignore.” ScreenRant, 12 Mar. 2021, https://screenrant.com/community-flaws-fans-ignore/#:~:text=The%20popular%20series%20Community%20has,becoming%20a%20hit%20for%20NBC.
Darwish, Meaghan. “Why ‘Community’ Is Still One of TV’s Best Comedies 5 Years Later.” TV Insider, https://www.tvinsider.com/gallery/best-tv-comedy-community-series-finale/#3.
Roy, Ujjainee. “Community: 10 Ways the Show Got Worse & Worse.” ScreenRant, 9 July 2020, https://screenrant.com/community-ways-show-got-worse/.
Shutt, Mike. “The Conversation That Got Dan Harmon Kicked off of Community.” /Film, SlashFilm, 7 July 2022, https://www.slashfilm.com/919911/the-conversation-that-got-dan-harmon-kicked-off-of-community/#:~:text=After%20the%20show%20wrapped%2C%20we,it%20would%20hurt%20the%20quality.
“When Good TV Goes Bad: How Community’s Fourth Series Failed to Make the Grade.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 20 Aug. 2018, https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2018/aug/20/when-good-tv-goes-bad-community.
Hi Chris, I am not much of a TV show watcher myself which means that I have never watched a lot of popular shows, including Community. You told the story of Community very well and it is sad that such a great show fell off for reasons that could’ve been avoided. I think it is crazy that so many of the people involved with the show ended up doing much bigger things in the future, like Childish Gambino, Ken Jeong, and the writers. If I was a fan of Community during the time it was airing, I feel like I could have predicted the downfall of the show. After the main writers leave, it is unrealistic to expect a show to stay good for much longer. On top of that, the concept of the show could get old, which would also drive away fans. The plot of the show sounds entertaining and it is unfortunate that the show fell off so hard, even so, I might still give it a watch.
Hi Chris! This is a blog that I can get behind. I love watching TV and even get emotionally invested in most of them. I have never heard of the “Community” but it really does sound like a great concept. The way you described it reminded me of Friends but more so in a school environment. People of all ages do attend community colleges so the idea makes perfect sense. I love that you made it a point to talk about the important aspects of a TV show. The cast is most definitely number one. Especially when adapting a book to a show or movie, the actors really have to fit some sort of picture that the audience was imagining. But in any case bad actors just make for a bad show overall. I don’t even feel that you need celebrities to bring attention to the series, simply just a well executed idea. You also brought up one of the dark but true parts of Hollywood, people get taken advantage of. Whether that’s sexually or mentally, a lot of time those in power will use their resources for wrong. I am glad you touched on that point and did not shy away from this reality. Overall great work and I will definitely be coming back to read your future pieces!