Past Seasons Talk: Six Seasons and A Movie!

[formerlyfreedom]

A place to discuss particular episodes, arcs and moments from the Community's first four seasons. Please remember this isn't a complete catch-all topic -- check out the forum for episode topics for Season Five, character topics and other places for show-related talk.

[Madness]

My ranking of the seasons :

Season 1

Season 2

Season 3

Season 5

Season 4

Edited May 14, 2014 by Madness

[Kalliste]

I think I might be the odd one out because mine rank 1 - 5, that is how disappointed I was in season 5.

[Madness]

I didn't hate season four I just personally preferred season five to it. I know not many people like season four but I didn't think it was that bad. Definitely nowhere close to the first three seasons.

[cleo]

I just watched 3.2 Geography of Global Conflict for the second time. I really like this ep. Love the bit with Britta and Change with the Lionel Ritchie song.

 

The stuff with Annie and Jeff- I have no opinion either way with them, but when Jeff talks at the end about how he has been treating her as a kid, it seems weird and doesn't fit to me.  Maybe I don't remember the earlier seasons where this happens. I don't know Annie just seems like an adult to me. All of them do, just weird adults. But I don't remember a lot from season to season so maybe I am forgetting stuff.

 

I caught this time the professor's name Cligoris and Jeff asks him about the pronunciation. So random, I can't believe they actually included it.

 

Britta was funny but also more annoying than I remembered.

 

Sorry if I shouldn't be talking specific eps here. I'm rewatching S.3. Other seasons- it's hard to rewatch a bit knowing how bad (imo) it gets later on. S4 has some tolerable eps, I couldn't watch S5 at all- I did try off and on. So 1-3 are my favourites. 

[DrSpaceman]

Anyway you rank them I think there is a distinct fall off between season 3 and 4/5. You can pretty well divide them up between first three seasons, however you rank those, then the last two seasons, both worse than the first three, whichever order you put them in.

[romantic idiot]

Actually for me it would be Seasons 1&2, then 3,4,5 were of distinctively lower quality. Or perhaps no lower quality, but of lower enjoyment for me. Season 3 had way too many special episodes for my liking, and IMO Remedial Chaos Theory does not make up for the rest. 

[arc]

I like season 3 a lot.  For me, it's not just RCT.  The run it had near the end was great. There's "Intermediate Documentary Filmmaking" and "Virtual Systems Analysis" and "Basic Lupine Urology" ... basically I really loved the last seven or eight episodes of S3. (OK, fine, parts of the emperor Chang plot weren't so great, esp in "Course Listing Unavailable".)

 

And besides that, there's "Regional Holiday Music", where they backed up the smack talk of that Glee crack from the first paintball ep ("write some original songs!").  There's "Documentary Filmmaking Redux", which is even more dizzyingly self-referential than "Messianic Myths and Ancient Peoples" or "Celebrity Pharmacology".

 

S3 was a great season of TV for me.

[JayKay]

The main problem for me with season three was the occasional jarring silence. I probably would rank it right up there with one and two if not for the amateurish/dull music editing in most episodes. The jingles and audio beats were some of the more charming parts of Community to me, and season three half-assed it. Sometimes it was more like watching a stage play of Community.

I know it's a minute thing to quibble over but it's the little things that make Community what it is, not just the in-your-face theme episodes.

[FurryFury]

I'd actually rate 2 and 3 as my favorites. Season 1 only started to get on track somewhere around "Football, Feminism and You" (IIRC, I may be confusing the title with something else). And s3 has my favorite episode ever, "Virtual Systems Analysis". 

[Kalliste]

I initially watched S1 a few episodes in and thought it was the strangest show ever and who would ever watch it! When I got to see it again from episode 1 though it made a lot more sense and I wonder who wouldn't want to watch it.

 

One of my favourite episodes ever is S1E17 Physical Education because of Abed's vampire as well as his Don Draper. 

[amensisterfriend]

Season 2 remains one of my favorite seasons of any show ever. Accounting for Lawyers, The Psychology of Letting Go and Advanced Dungeons and Dragons are easily among my all-time favorite episodes of any sitcom. (I also love Anthropology 101, Cooperative Calligraphy, Conspiracy Theories and Interior Design,  Celebrity Pharmacology, Critical Film Studies, Competitive Wine Tasting...have I mentioned that I REALLY love this season of TV?!)  I totally agree that Season 3 improves with a second (and third...and fourth!) viewing, and I've grown to like it as much or even more than S1. Sadly, S4 and S5 haven't improved for me even now that more time has passed. 

Edited October 26, 2014 by amensisterfriend

[amensisterfriend]

---What would you guys name as your favorite episodes of the series? Least favorites? 

 

While S2 is by far my favorite season, I'm surprised by how many S3 episodes have become favorites of mine. S3 has lower lows than S1, but also higher highs. (IMO, obviously!) 

[amensisterfriend]

...I'll lamely answer my own question and hope that someone else stops by! 

 

Five Favorites from S1: Home Economics, Environmental Science, Comparative Religion, Beginner Pottery, The Science of Illusion (I love Annie and Shirley as security guards so very much!) ...And, yes, I'm that one Community fan who doesn't get too psyched about the paintball episodes :) 

 

Five Favorites from S2 (gah---it's hard to narrow down!): Accounting for Lawyers, The Psychology of Letting Go, Conspiracy Theories and Interior Design, Critical Film Studies and Competitive Eine Tasting (I can't even begin to defend why I adore this one!) It's funny, but Advanced Dungeons and Dragons has slowly fallen out of my top five. I still love it, but it hasn't held up for me with multiple rewatches quite as much as I'd hoped. 

 

Five Favorites from S3: Remedial Chaos Theory (I suspect many of us would include this one!), Studies in Modern Movement, Regional Holiday Music, Basic Lupine Urology, Curriculum Unavailable (There are definitely some S3 episodes I'll happily skip, but I love these favorites A LOT---maybe even more than my favorites from S2, which is really saying something!) 

[Lady Calypso]

Ok, so I'm a very, very new fan to Community. And by new, I mean I started the series 48 hours ago and have finished the first two seasons and am on the fifth episode of the third. I'll have to give my two cents a little bit later, once I figure out what are my favourite episodes but I will say both season 1 and 2 are strong for me. Season 3, however, seems to be disappointing me slightly. I get it's a different season, it's evolving and so are the characters, but I'm not getting a great vibe from what I've seen so far (Remedial Chaos Theory aside, which is easily in my top five). Britta and Jeff are definitely more quirky than they were in the first two seasons, but I'm not sure whether that's a good or bad thing yet. I think I'm in the minority who loves season 1 and 2 Britta, the straight woman who could hold up on her own in the humour department, just in a different way. I know I have a lot more to see in season 3, but I'm not thrilled that she's getting the weird subplots. Again, maybe it's just me but this is initial vibes. 

 

I also admit that I love Jeff/Annie but their writing in the debate episode in season 3 is incredibly sloppy. Since when does Jeff call her 'kiddo'? Sure, there's the return of the head pat, but it feels very contrived and....ok, that whole episode is easily in my other top five list, and it's not a list an episode wants to be on. Nonetheless, I'll probably finish season 3....slower than I did the first two seasons, which took me roughly a day for each season (breaks, life getting in the way) so I'll say about Sunday and then before I start in on season four, I might weigh in on other impressions, like Pierce's turn to villainry and Shirley's weird love triangle...thing. 

Edited December 20, 2014 by jessied112

[Zahdii]

I accidentally fell into watching Community when the CW channel started showing it late nights.  I tune into it when Jimmy Kimmel is a repeat or has on boring guests. 

 

Anyway, tonight one of the shows was "Curriculum Unavailable", where Abed has correctly deduced that the Dean has been kidnapped and an imposter has replaced him.  When Abed won't stay off campus as he tries to find evidence of the switch, the fake dean has him choose between visiting a therapist or getting arrested.  I suppose Chang thinks that setting Abed up to look insane is the way to keep anyone from actually investigating Abed's allegations. 

 

The whole gang goes to therapy with Abed, and while trying to proove that Abed isn't crazy, they only make him look crazier than previously suspected.  One line caused me to cringe.  Troy admits that Abed has changed:  "...You have to understand about Abed.  He's usually, you know, adorable weird, like Mork from Ork, but, since we got expelled, he's been creepy weird, like present-day Robin Williams."  Obviously, this line was written well before Robin committed suicide, it just shook me up a bit.

[Azaelia]

Ok, so I'm a very, very new fan to Community. And by new, I mean I started the series 48 hours ago and have finished the first two seasons and I think I'm in the minority who loves season 1 and 2 Britta, the straight woman who could hold up on her own in the humour department, just in a different way. I know I have a lot more to see in season 3, but I'm not thrilled that she's getting the weird subplots. Again, maybe it's just me but this is initial vibes. 

 

I liked seasons 1 and 2 Britta better myself. I mean, she wasn't without her flaws and serious hypocrisies, but it wasn't as cartoonish as I feel it became later on. If anything it rang true to me, as someone who knows a handful of Britta types - they really mean well, but they also aren't necessarily as progressive as they want to be. 

 

I'm of the unpopular opinion that season one was one of the best, with season three as a tie. I liked that season one - up until halfway through - had a lot of references to things, but wasn't as much of a meta parody as it would become. After the chicken episode, it got cartoonish. So while I like that the show makes fun of a lot of things (war movies, sci fi, rom coms, what have you), I also wonder what would've happened had they maintained the first half of S1's more subtle version of that. S3 also seemed more subtle, whereas the other seasons just went way past "suspension of disbelief"  for me.

 

 

Troy admits that Abed has changed:  "...You have to understand about Abed.  He's usually, you know, adorable weird, like Mork from Ork, but, since we got expelled, he's been creepy weird, like present-day Robin Williams."  Obviously, this line was written well before Robin committed suicide, it just shook me up a bit.

Ouch... yeah, there was another line too somewhere, I forget what episode but it was similar, possibly also about Robin Williams (but I don't think so).

Edited March 22, 2015 by Azaelia

[tennisgurl]

Just re-watched the Ass-Crack Bandit episode. It has yet to get old. The ending montage alone puts it in the top five. 

[azphoenician]

If Community takes place in Colorado, how come not once had it ever snowed?

[amensisterfriend]

I've been rewatching (and loving) the first season and am kind of astounded by just how much the show changed. On one hand, it's awesome that it was always striving to be creative and original and avoid stagnancy. On the other hand, part of me feels like by the end of S3 they deviated too far from what made this show so wonderful. There's something so cozy about returning to the glory of S1 which, while it doesn't have as many of my all-time favorites as S2 and S3, is pretty consistently great IMO. Even those slightly clunky beginning episodes, with Britta and even Troy's characters so very different (Britta has changed so radically and so many times that it makes my head spin!), have such wit and warmth.  I loved Duncan. And I have such a soft spot for S1 Annie!  

[amensisterfriend]

I've started a Community rewatch, and, sadly, I already know this will be among the only productive things I accomplish this summer :) I've gone back and forth over the years about how high I'd rank S1 on my list of favorites, but I am loving it so incredibly much right now. Maybe I'm viewing it through sentimental eyes, but I can't get over how many of the characters seem at their most lovable and relatable to me this first season. They're still very flawed, and poor Britta is already kind of ill-defined and all over the place, but characters like Annie, Abed and even Jeff are never more likable to me than they are in S1. Annie in particular is such a terrific character to me in this first season, Tracy Flick with more of a heart, and even though she's interested in guys throughout the season (Troy---remember that?!---Vaughn and Jeff), I love that that was just one aspect of who she was then while later on she seems so much more heavily defined by her 'innocent but naughty school girl' sexuality and would be/won't be thing with Jeff. And the show's overall tone is more relatable too---the show was already creative and quirky, but it didn't seem striving so self-consciously to be as weird and 'out there' as possible as a goal in and of itself. 

As much as I'm loving this first season, I'm just as excited to devour S2 for the millionth time (it's always been my favorite) and S3 (it's become my second favorite.) I like S4 more than nearly any other Community fan does (I can't even defend why!). The real challenge will be S5-S6---I'm hoping so much to like and appreciate them more this time around! 

Edited May 31, 2016 by amensisterfriend

[Amarsir]

I'm rewatching too. I loaded all 6 seasons on my phone for gym sessions and I'm at the beginning of S3.  

My problem with S2, despite a lot of great stuff, is how outright villainous Pierce becomes. I can't help but see it as Harmon being annoyed at Chevy and taking it out on his character. And Jeff as the protagonist becomes the voice against him, which ends up corrupting him up through S03E01. It drags the whole show down. I much prefer the season 1 Pierce where everyone rolled their eyes but seemed to genuinely like him.

Season 3 I recall as having way too much Chang. I just watched Competitive Ecology, which should really have been the peak of his craziness. (That's the one where he does a Film Noir style detective satire.) It's funny and Ken Jeong played it well. But at the end the dean makes him head of security and that sets us up for way too much of him.

S4 will be the challenge for me. With issues, I like S5 and S6 because I grant the show was dealt cards with characters leaving. Nobody loved Hickey episodes, but we also wouldn't have liked a smaller cast or a new regular with no development. So I grant those have to exist and judge around it.

[VCRTracking]

The GIF from "Remedial Chaos Theory" where Troy with the pizzas comes back to see the apartment on fire is a popular one online in Tumblr and Twitter. I only now realize since Community was a cult show that the millions of people who see it have no idea where it's from. Older tweets know it's Donald Glover/Troy in Community but recent ones:
 

Quote

 

6 DAYS!! ‏@selkietxt 1 Sep 2015

im that guy from that one gif who walks into the room w pizzas and the apartments on fire

 

Quote

 

Marco Diaz ‏@sonnygtg 16 Sep 2015

I just scrolled down the TL and I feel like that one gif where the guy comes back with pizzas and the room is on fire and someone was shot.

Other popular GIFs from shows with small but devoted audiences: Elisha Cuthbert in Happy Endings where she's in a movie theater crying saying "It's beautiful." and Tobias Funke crying in the shower from Arrested Development.

Edited June 27, 2016 by VCRTracking

[Ms Blue Jay]

I'm glad the show is on Netflix.  I'm getting back into it now.  I suddenly dropped off in Season 3, but the episodes are good and I'm enjoying them.  There are some real classics in S2 and S3 I've been watching.  I've been looking up a bunch of top 10 lists and just kind of going around the dial randomly.  

I find Pierce to be completely useless, and (Shirley?) annoying but I'm trying to just enjoy the show as a whole for what it is.  I think I appreciate Annie more this time around.  And Jeff.  (I used to only really like Troy and Abed and the Dean, John Oliver/Prof Duncan, and Chang.)  I really just gotta try to accept the whole.  It's funny because Pierce is always randomly in a wheelchair or something - that's the only odd thing about watching the episodes out of order.

My favourite episode was always The Clips Episode / Paradigms of Human Memory and I still think it's just so brilliant.  Such a great send up of the typical sitcom clip episodes, but instead of clips of old episodes everyone's already seen as an easy/lazy device to give the show's important stars a vacation week or whatever, it's clips of the group's history that nobody's ever seen before.  And I love the send-up of the shipper videos between Annie and Jeff.  I'm keeping an open mind to see if other episodes match that calibre.  So far, I loved Modern Warfare almost as much, and Remedial Chaos Theory obviously is great.  So far these are my top 3.  The bottle episode isn't as enjoyable for me and I have yet to get through the Western episodes/Paintball even though I am a huge fan of Josh Holloway.  The documentary episode and the Law and Order episode were cute so far.

Edited November 7, 2016 by Ms Blue Jay

[Ms Blue Jay]

Just got through the 2 paintball episodes.  They were pretty good.  Although it mostly seemed to be one huge showcase for Annie's body which probably explains why it was hard for me to get through at first.  I get that they were doing a Western and some of it was cool it was perhaps too light on the comedy for me.

[Amarsir]

On 11/7/2016 at 0:15 PM, Ms Blue Jay said:

Just got through the 2 paintball episodes.  They were pretty good.  Although it mostly seemed to be one huge showcase for Annie's body which probably explains why it was hard for me to get through at first.  

Yeah, the sentence "Annie's pretty young; we try not to sexualize her" became pretty hypocritical through a lot of the show. When characters were played straight she was pretty demure, but it seemed like every time they did an homage to something that's the direction her character went. The most egregious probably being her Betty Boop number during the Glee Club episode. (They knew what they were doing and they had Jeff hang a lantern on it, but still.)

[HotRats2112]

Pierce was always my favorite.  He said things others wouldn't.  That has merit. 

[Glory]

So, when the show moved to Yahoo I stopped watching - mostly because their streaming service sucked so hard it made it impossible to watch.

But now it's all on Hulu and I'm working on a re-watch. I'm on season 2 now and I'd forgotten how amazing this show is. So much love for all of it. 

[Amarsir]

Yeah that was a terrible player. The content of the last season starts a little weak too, although IMHO there's some really good episodes in the back half.