‘Community’ returns as something less than it was before

The fourth season of Community has a different feel than the show ever did in the past. It’s important to get that out of the way upfront because it’s the question every fan has had on their mind since last May. When creator and showrunner Dan Harmon was fired, all anyone could think about was whether the new team of David Guarascio and Moses Port would be able to maintain the same level of creativity and dark humor.

The answer is no. Three episodes in, there are a lot of the same elements that helped turn Community into the biggest cult hit of the past few years, but there’s a noticeable change in how the show is being written and presented.

That doesn’t mean it’s suddenly a terrible show, though. Several writers and directors are still part of the show, people who were a part of the creative process under Harmon. However, without Harmon developing the plotlines and rewriting every script, the cohesion and tightness are missing.

The premiere, which was given quite a bit of fanfare in advertisement by NBC, featured the Greendale Seven study group returning to campus for their senior year. However, to assure the group all have the same class together, Jeff (Joel McHale) has to take part in a campus-wide event known as the Hunger Deans to win spots for his friends.

Community has built a name on the way it integrates film and television parodies seamlessly into the reality of its world, so the idea of a Hunger Games parody offered a lot of potential for a show that has sent the Greendale campus into full-scale warfare on multiple occasions.

The problem, the first of several in the fourth season, is that the timing just wasn’t right. The premiere is often centered on a story that features the entire study group, setting up the individual characters and what their story arcs for the year will be.

The premiere tried to accomplish this, but with four different storylines going on at once, it was hard to become invested or get a sense of what this season will be about. Also, in trying to tell so many stories at once, the Hunger Games parody never got to develop into anything nearly as epic or creative as it could’ve been, instead amounting to Jeff occasionally saying he’d won another event.

The second episode fared better, but still had issues. Serving as this year’s belated Halloween episode, the study group finally visited Pierce’s (Chevy Chase) mansion in a Scooby Doo style mystery.

The bits of homage, such as rotating bookshelves and hidden passages, felt much more natural here, but there were character moments that just didn’t feel right. In some instances, characters showed clear signs of regressing, such as Annie (Alison Brie) once again harboring a crush on Jeff, feelings she seemed to have dealt with last season.

Overall, though, the first two episodes of season four still had the general Community vibe. The third episode, the first by a new addition to the writing team, was the biggest question mark, and unfortunately, this is where things went the most off the rails.

Set at a convention for the series’ Doctor Who parody Inspector Spacetime, this episode once again had the characters all off doing their own thing and not really working together to tell one or two cohesive stories. To be fair, this is a problem the show frequently had in its first season, but trying to throw parody on top of it can make for too much going on.

What really sinks the episode, though, is that it’s just not funny. There are out-of-character moments, half-baked story threads and, worst of all, jokes at the expense of geek culture instead of celebrating it.

It’s a problem many shows have as the years go by. As new writers come in, the essence of what made the show work in the first place is slowly replaced by efforts to recapture the magic.

This is where the absence of Harmon is most apparent. There was always a writing team, but his involvement in the process helped define the show’s voice and helped new writers understand what made the show work.

So, yes, the show is not only different without Dan Harmon, it’s simply not as good. There’s still humor to be had and the potential for funny episodes, but the loss of the man who spent three years defining the show is a blow it may never recover from.