I really miss Dan Harmon and this season’s finale really set it in stone for me. This last season has been alright, not terrible but not really that great either - just, well, alright. When I go back and reminisce about previous season’s episodes, I’m reminded not only of how much I used to truly adore Community, but also how witty and on key the writing was. Dan Harmon managed to create a world full of offbeat and ridiculous characters turned relatable and realistic through their faults and relationships. It was the first show where I felt I could actually relate to a character or characters and by the third season it had started to feel like a place to call home for anyone that had ever felt weird or like they didn’t fit in. It reassured you that being weird was not only okay but not weird at all - it was normal. Community wasn’t a show about broken people, it was a show about people, who, like everyone, were a little bit broken..
“There are no normal people, there are just different kinds of weird, all of it is human and all humanity is better than everything inhuman.”
Dan Harmon really cared about his fans and it showed; Community’s first three seasons were geeky, smart, poignant, and full of subtle, well timed jokes and references that made watching it enjoyable and memorable. So it doesn’t really seem surprising to me that this season fell a bit short of what I had come to expect from the previous three seasons. While David Guarascio and Moses Port seem to be fans and tried their best to preserve Community (this season wasn’t awful, and I certainty don’t think it’s fair to blame them for it’s failings) there was just something missing. The characters seemed like just that - characters, and for as much as I wanted to believe that things would just go back to the way they were after Harmon was let go… they didn’t. Things just didn’t feel the same. Harmon made Community, not only literally but figuratively as well, and while it’ hasn’t been terrible without him, it certainly hasn’t been the same.
