That line is revisited in season four’s “Economics of Marine Biology,” this time with Britta stating that she should have run off to Dubai with the man who propositioned her. In season three’s “Digital Exploration of Interior Design,” Britta (Gillian Jacobs), tasked with seducing the human embodiment of the Subway sandwich chain, pushes back, saying, “I am not a whore, and not that I’ve done the math, but if I were, I’d be the super classy kind who gets flown to Dubai to stay in an underwater hotel.” Lines and quips from Community’s greatest hits are repeated frequently – presumably, to prove that this is the same show – but in ways that don’t feel organic, and, worse, miss the point entirely. Annie would never succumb to a lecherous professor’s foot fetish. Even in Shirley’s worst moments, she would never forget her children overnight. Similarly, the final song of the hot-air balloon episode, “Intro to Felt Surrogacy,” has the characters revealing “dark secrets” that, in Shirley (Yvette Nicole Brown) and Annie’s cases specifically, run entirely opposite to everything we know about them. He and Annie (Alison Brie) are the closest to a couple they’ve ever been, despite the twenty-year age difference previous seasons made a point to explain was gross and morally questionable. Jeff (McHale) comes out of the gate as “New Jeff,” abruptly different and given no follow-through on this trajectory. Worse still, season four forgets who the main characters are, too. The MacGuffin Institute of “Advanced Documentary Filmmaking” mistakes blatant gags for winking meta-ness. The Germans are now, instead of the hyper-specific bar-sport kings of season three’s “Foosball and Nocturnal Vigilantism,” the broadest of villains. The normally reliable Chris Diamantopoulos replaces Nick Kroll, speaking in a strange Marvin the Martian-styled accent. Later, the German foosball players reappear. The premiere includes a Hunger Games spoof that has nothing to do with The Hunger Games, and is, in fact, something more akin to American Gladiator. The once-vaunted innovation and homages that made Community a cult-favorite became empty gimmicks. With this much turmoil behind-the-scenes, it’s little wonder that what did finally air was, well, less than stellar. The Thanksgiving episode shows a rage that, quite frankly, Chase isn’t skilled enough to fake. In the meantime, he took out his growing anger on the cast. He pushed back against this new direction, before, ultimately, crossing the very same line he was arguing against and leaving the show in disgrace. In ways even Chase, difficult on a good day, felt went too far. His character, Pierce, despite some growth in previous seasons, became explicitly racist in ways that are uncomfortable to watch. Something Bobrow is confident Harmon never would have done.Īnd then, of course, there was the Chevy Chase of it all. Look at “Intro to Knots.” The Christmas episode was meant as an homage to Hitchcock’s Rope, including the use of minimal one-shot takes, but, per Bobrow, he and Shapeero acquiesced almost immediately to studio demands to make the episode more traditional. Meanwhile, those that remained – most notably director Tristram Shapeero and writers Andy Bobrow and Megan Ganz – found themselves without a bulwark against Sony. The Russo Brothers, producers and frequent directors, were stolen away by Marvel. Producers and writers Neil Goldman, Garrett Donovan, Chris McKenna, and Dino Stamatopoulos left the show in solidarity with Harmon. And while putting the onus of the show’s entire well-being on one man’s shoulders does a disservice to the rest of the crew – nevermind Harmon’s already overburdened ego – his departure nonetheless created waves that Guarascio and Port weren’t able to navigate. Harmon, the driving force behind Community for better and worse, was fired by Sony at the end of season three after years of contentious behavior.
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