NBC’s ‘Community’ season 4 finale review: The darkest timeline of the mind
“I’ve spent four years here growing and changing and making dioramas.”
The line above may be the greatest one in the history of this timeline. Strangely, there’s no better way to describe “Community.” Thursday night’s season 4 finale could be the last of the series we ever see, and for that reason, the writers decided that it would be best to make the show as weird as humanly possibly beforehand. If you imagine season 3’s “Remedial Chaos Theory” on some heavy drugs, that was this story. Jeff Winger was set to finally graduate from Greendale after going through more things than any normal person could imagine, but there was a problem: The darkest timeline. Somehow, Jeff began to quickly envision himself surrounded by the world of the darkest timeline, where he was trying to imagine that he was waging a war for his survival.
If you wanted to be super-critical about this, you could fire away at the show for re-hashing what was one of the best stories of the show’s third season, with a few assorted odds and ends thrown in. As entertaining as this was (and we do love Evil Jeff and his one arm), where was the fluidity with last week’s episode? Why did Chang suddenly go completely out of the picture? Finally, why in the world was the weird maniacal plan put into motion with City College by and large shelved? As easy as it is to like much of what “Community” did here, it was equally easy to scream out in frustration over the fact that the show really went nowhere at all with what it set out to do save for graduating Jeff. It felt obvious that it was filmed out of order, largely to accommodate the exit of Chevy Chase.
In looking back at “Community” season 4, this was the biggest mixed bag of the entire show’s run. Without Dan Harmon, some half-hours are the sort of thing that should fall into the TV abyss (where we sent “Whitney” earlier today).
We still hope that there is a “Community” season 5 down the road, mostly since we need something to geek out over even if there is no more Starburns (still) or Pierce. It may not be worship-worthy any more, but it’s still darn good. What was your take on “Community’s” closure, if you can call it that? As always, we do want to hear some of your thoughts below!
Photo: NBC
Matt Mills
May 11, 2013 @ 3:59 am
It was pretty awful. I think they should let Jim Rash write more episodes; his installment was the only thing this season that felt remotely like the Community I know and love.
Aaron Demke
May 10, 2013 @ 6:24 pm
Love the show. Brilliant. Even the bad episodes are better than anything else out there.
tyler
May 10, 2013 @ 4:13 pm
I’m still enjoying Community a lot. Would love to see it get another season.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart 187
May 10, 2013 @ 2:24 pm
I think the show jumped the shark behind the scenes when they got rid of Harmon.
NBC is stupid
May 10, 2013 @ 1:58 pm
I am a die hard Community fan and I have seen every episode of every season more than twice (including season 4). I think that NBC gave Community a raw deal by moving around the premier and the cutting season 4 in half. What was up with that? Seriously! Who was the idiot that said, “hey lets take this awesome show and sabotage it so we can make more room for ‘Whitney’.” Seriously NBC, Whitney? Really?? Don’t make another mistake NBC. KEEP COMMUNITY! #sixseasonsandamovie
Laurie Swenson
May 10, 2013 @ 7:27 am
I think this season has had the most heart in it of all the seasons. It followed the weirdest season (which I loved) and got back to more heart-touching storylines (although Jeff was oddly cranky, even for him, for much of the season). I would have liked to have had this season be weirder, but I really did appreciate the heart-warming moments, so I’m torn. I loved the puppet episode, the one where Troy and Abed change places, the one where Jeff meets his dad, Pierce’s study room, and the penultimate episode where Abed traces the origins of the study group. So I out-and-out loved six of 13 episodes. That seems about right for every season for me except perhaps season 3, where I probably loved more than half the episodes.
wavydave
May 10, 2013 @ 4:11 am
HIDEOUS! Cancel this thing already, put it out of its misery.
John
May 10, 2013 @ 3:05 am
If the point of being a fan of Community is to keep it on the air, why wouldn’t you say good things about Community? I like how they incorporated Paintball again. I liked the rehashing of the multiple timelines. I think that the season being cut in half did kill some of the other plot points like Abed’s girlfriend, Chang, and City College’s revenge. So was I a little frustrated with tonight’s episode? Yes, I was. But I’d be even more frustrated if Community didn’t get its fair shot to finish off in the right way. Happy October 19th everyone! #sixseasonsandamovie
George
May 10, 2013 @ 1:36 am
Put the senor back in Chang. SIX SEASONS AND A MOVIE!
N
May 10, 2013 @ 1:09 am
I wish Season 4 hadn’t been cut in half so we could have seen where the writers would have gone with 13 or so extra episodes. We probably would have seen some kind of conclusion to City College’s evil plot, more Professor Cornwallis, and more development into Abed’s new relationship that kind of just happened and wasn’t referenced again. Maybe its good that it was sliced though. 13 Harmon-less episodes may have been better than a full season of them. Over all this Season was my least favorite,but that being said I still watched every mediocre minute of it.
John
May 10, 2013 @ 12:55 am
I thought that Season 4 was honestly a mess. Don’t get me wrong, ‘m a HUGE fan of the show, but I think Season 3 was better.
The finale was really entertaining, and I feel like it was meant to close out the show. I mean where would they go with the series if it gets another season? Would Jeff become a teacher at Greendale or something?
I don’t know. I guess we’ll have to wait for the next few days to see what happens with NBC.
Aaron Demke
May 10, 2013 @ 6:06 pm
You may have an idea there, afterall Jeff did major in teaching and dean would do anything to keep Jeff around. I would love another season but maybe it is better to let the show die with dignity.
Arthur Fonzarelli
May 10, 2013 @ 12:48 am
Honestly, it was awful. This show used to have heart at the very least – even in poorer episodes – during season 1 and 2. Season 3 was not that great, and this season 4 has been downright uninspired. It has felt like a different show, with character developments through the first 3 seasons being ignored.
And Chang was only a worthy character when he was a Spanish teacher.