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Six Seasons

Decent Essays

Six Seasons and a Movie: NBC’s Community
Community has always been a conundrum for NBC. The show, created by Dan Harmon and produced by Sony Pictures Television (IMDb), has never been a ratings magnet and yet has one of the most vocal online fan bases. Community follows the path of fraudulent ex lawyer Jeff Winger, played by Joel McHale, as he is forced to go to Greendale Community College in order to obtain a college degree so that he practice law again. On the way, he begrudgingly befriends an eclectic study group that shapes his character for the better. Community has so far aired a total of eighty-four episodes in four seasons (IMDb), and it has picked up a thirteen-episode order for the current season (“Upfronts 2013”). After a mediocre …show more content…

As they tried to rebrand Community for wider appeal, the writers drew not only on old plot points Harmon had set up in previously seasons, such as Jeff’s relationship with his estranged father, but on what they somewhat erroneously thought fans wanted to see (i.e. a romance between Britta and Troy). Though many characters from the study group had commanding A-story lines in individual episodes, the writers tried to focus in on Jeff’s character growth in this season as he approached graduation. The fifth episode, “Cooperative Escapism in Familial Relations,” addressed Jeff’s tense relationship with his father. During Thanksgiving, Jeff confronts his dad and realizes that, though he is a broken man because of his father’s abandonment, Jeff does not need his approval to be the better man he has become at Greendale. Episode twelve, “Heroic Origins”, focused less specifically on Jeff but still explored how Jeff’s previous lawyer life negatively affected the others before the study group was even formed. In the season finale, “Advanced Introduction to Finality,” Jeff embraces his new, more empathetic identity as he refuses a lucrative position with an old law partner, instead committing to remain the better man he became in the last four years by working for a smaller firm in order to stay near the study group. Community in its previous seasons was defined by the nature of Harmon’s leadership and innovation with all his characters; without him, the show stagnated in its focus on Jeff and became too predictable in its attempt to appeal to a wider

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