As some people know, Community is one of my favorite shows. I started watching it when I saw the “Advanced Dungeons and Dragons” episode on Hulu. I immediately thought, “Chevy Chase playing D&D? I gotta see this.” Since then, I’ve seen every single episode in all three seasons. I fell in love with the characters and the conflicts caused by their personalities in these absolutely ridiculous settings.
Now I have to stop myself before I give you any meaningless details like who my favorite character/line/scene/episode is, because I could go on for a while about them. I really wanted to give my thoughts on the changes between Seasons 3 and 4…
So, we’ve got some huge story changes. I’d say these are much bigger than the changes between the past few seasons…
SPOILERS AHEAD
We’ve got Troy not only in AC repair school, but basically running it as the “truest repairman”. Britta moved in with Troy, Abed, and Annie. She took the Dreamatorium, which has been reduced to a person-sized cardboard box in Abed’s blanket room. Chang has been revealed to be the psychopathic wannabe dictator that the group knew he was. His outcast will make him much more unpredictable and dangerous. Shirley finally got her sandwich shop, and Pierce has a brother now.
We’ve also got a lot of questions to be answered by the 4th season. Are Britta and Troy living together in the Dreamatorium? Will Pierce end up burning down the sandwich shop? What evil plot is Dean Spreck of City College hatching? Will Abed and Evil Abed have an epic battle that destroys the school? What ridiculous costumes will Dean Pelton come up with next? Will Jeff find his father? We’ll have to wait until next season to find out…
END SPOILERS
Aside from the story, a huge change came behind the scenes. The show’s creator and producer, Dan Harmon, has been booted from helping out with next season. He still gets producer credit and payment, but Sony wants him to stop having any kind of creative control over the show’s direction… What?!?! He created the show! He’s the one that gave us these great lovable characters and the hilarious stories that come along with them. How could Sony think it’s a good idea to keep him from running the show?
The cast tweeted about it, most of them seeming pretty upset over the decision. Harmon said on his tumblr that he was pretty much blindsided by the decision, but doesn’t mind the opportunity to sit at home and play Prototype 2… which I would definitely try if I had played the first one.
Feel free to call me a conspiracy theorist, but I think that Sony’s play may be to end the show earlier than “Six seasons and a movie”. It may be why they moved the show to Fridays for next season… because as we all know, the Friday night lineup is where shows go to die.
Now Sony may have their reasons for it and there may be no changing it, but it does suck. I’ve watched some of the group panel discussions with the cast of the show and they always talk about how great it is to work with Harmon and how he’s most of the reason why the show is so successful. I’m not saying the show is gonna suck without Harmon, but it is pretty sucky that he got the boot. But who knows… maybe they’ll give him a spinoff. The Starburns Show?