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| Alison Brie and Donald Glover go into their Community dance |
Fourth place U.S. network NBC announced this week that, among other changes, they are shelving Community come the new year. Although there are promises that all 22 episodes commissioned this season will eventually be shown, things look grim beyond that for the low-rated sitcom.
Which sucks. Community is awesome.
Especially this season, as creator Dan Harmon seems to be railing against the dying of the light by going out with some of the most out-of-the-box episodes yet.
Viewers who have passed on this show because they don’t buy Joel McHale and Chevy Chase going back to school are missing the point. Community is about comedy, pure and simple. The study group is just an excuse to take all these characters and turn them inside out.
Harmon tweets today that tonight’s episode (8 p.m. on NBC and City) is not likely to win any new fans:
AND, tonight, celebrate Community’s unschedulization with the least accessible, least marketable episode in its alienating history!
It’s got something to do with Dean Pelton (Jim Rash) being asked to make a commercial for the school. The study group is pulled into the mix, as is Greendale celebrity grad Luis Guzman (How to Make it in America).
An episode a few weeks ago where the same moment was replayed from seven different perspectives (“Remedial Chaos Theory”) was beyond brilliant, like Rashomon meets SCTV. The series even did a Claymation episode, for crying out loud. Harmon has diced traditional sitcom conventions, thrown them into a blender, and thrown the results at his talented cast. Sure, critics embrace it because it is daring and different, but isn’t that what all viewers want too? If you haven’t watched it in a while, check it out tonight.
