Community: Season 3 Review

Warning: Full spoilers for the season follow, naturally.

When Community: Season 3 began, many of us wondered if this would be the last year of the show. But now that the series has been renewed for 13 more episodes... many of us feel like this was the last year of Community. Of course, we didn't a week ago, when the three-episode season finale night aired. At that time, we were riding high on the news of the renewal for Season 4, excited about the possibility of 13 more episodes to send this series off with a bang - because, really, could we honestly get our hopes up for a Season 5?

But then news broke that Dan Harmon, creator, showrunner and all-around heart of Community, has effectively been fired. Community would be continuing, but without the driving force behind the show's unique sensibilities. This of course forces you to see this past season in a new light. We're now looking back on the end of the Dan Harmon Community. Three seasons and a firing. This will, of course, skew our viewpoint a bit, but it doesn't really change the fact that Community is a fantastic program, and this was a highly entertaining season.

Harmon had said that his intent with Season 3 was to have there be more continuity between the episodes, and this started with the very first episode of the season, "Biology 101." Here we were introduced to Vice Dean Laybourne who is in charge of the secretive and altogether weird air conditioning repair annex. What could have easily been a one-episode joke stuck with us the entire season and the effect was positive. Though the repair school's mysticism could often go just a bit too far, it was a nice antagonist to the study group, always threatening to somehow disrupt things by removing Troy from Greendale proper. John Goodman was great as Laybourne early on, though later in the season, his guest spots seemed to be more about exposition than anything else.

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The early episodes of the season were average, but entertaining. Along with Laybourne and the repair school we got to see Chang's transition into campus security - a change that would become a much larger story by season's end. But it wasn't until episode four that the season had its first truly classic half hour. In fact, "Remedial Chaos Theory" may well be the best episode of Community we'll ever get. The alternate realities explored in this episode were all enhanced by each other, with each timeline made more significant by all the other timelines. What could have succeeded simply as a fun, high-concept episode was in fact an outstanding character study and superbly told singular story of this group. This would have gotten an 11 if the IGN rating system went that high.

The next set of episodes continued to supply more character studies and continuity. We got to meet Pierce's father ("Advanced Gay") and see how hilariously messed up that relationship was. Annie moved in with Troy and Abed ("Studies in Modern Movement"), which put Abed and Troy's lifestyle under greater scrutiny. The growth of that pair's relationship would be a major focus for the remainder of the season. And the first half of the season ended with "Regional Holiday Music," a theme episode giving Glee what it had coming - and a great parody.

Then came an extended hiatus that left the future of Community uncertain. Many thought the series might not return, but it did, and it came back with some of the best episodes of the season. Though the first episode after the draught seemed a bit light ("Urban Matrimony and the Sandwich Arts"), it was followed by some stellar outings. "Contemporary Impressionists" was mostly silly fun, having the cast be celebrity impersonators for a night, all while Jeff was suffering from extreme narcissism. But the episode also started a rift between a maturing Troy and the always oddball Abed. This carried over into a competition of fort building that culminated in the fantastic Ken Burn's mockumentary "Pillows and Blankets." We gave this one a 10, the second perfect score of the season. But good things come in threes, and we got another perfect 10 scoring episode with "Basic Lupine Urology," a Law & Order riffing episode that succeeded both as a precise homage and a hilariously smart episode in its own right.

The last few episodes brought everything that came before them (Chang, air conditioning, sandwich shops) to a head in what could easily have doubled for a series ending string of episodes. The storytelling from episode to episode was a bit choppy, made worse by a standalone episode (the "I've decided it's better than originally rated it" video game episode "Digital Estate Planning"), but the episodes themselves were delightful to watch. "Introduction to Finality" was filmed and finished well before anyone knew whether there would be a Season 4 or not, so an ending montage set to the series' theme song was a fine backup plan in case this would, in fact, be the last episode. But now we can look at it as a last episode - Dan Harmon's last episode.

Many will likely always classify Seasons 1 through 3 as the true run of Community, regardless of the quality of work we may see in Season 4. And if you think of it that way, Season 3 was full of great stories, enjoyable character growth and some incredibly strong, memorable episodes. It feels good (to find some silver lining to what now feels like the slow, painful death of our beloved series) to have that montage of positivity and hope at the end of "Introduction to Finality." If Season 4 completely sucks the life out of Community, we'll be fine to ignore its very existence and fondly remember and rewatch Seasons 1 through 3. Like the first three Indiana Jones films. Or the original Star Wars trilogy. Heck, when you start making those comparisons, this situation almost feels pop culturally poetic.



Source : http://www.ign.com