Community Season 5 is probably the most disappointing season of the series for me. With season 4 I understood that a different creative team was producing the show and naturally it would go in different directions from what Harmon might've had planned for a fourth season. But season 5 felt like Harmon had given up because he knew that NBC had already canceled the show and he was also busy working on Rick and Morty by this point so he had other priorities than just Community.
Aside from the 13 episode number count for the season, which doesn't do any show any good if it doesn't start out as a 13 episodes (or shorter) per season show, like a lot of streaming shows are these days, my biggest problem with this season is the addition of a pointless character, and the departure of another character. Not to mention the now tiresome trope of pretending to make Chang be a good guy for once, but then push him right back into the villain role that he's been playing since the third season. Especially after the Changnesia crap in season 4. As much as I love Ken Jeong, I think his character of Ben Chang has worn out his welcome and should've been written out after the Changnesia thing.
The new character/attempted Pierce replacement, Buzz Hickey had a lot of potential, but like Pierce by season 3, they didn't really give the character much to do. They also didn't really pair him up with another character, even though they tried to pair him up with Jeff early on in the season. That fell apart after only an episode, and they ended up pairing him up with a different character each episode but nothing stuck. Hickey also didn't really contribute anything to the group dynamic. Jonathan Banks, the actor who played Hickey, has been in numerous TV shows and movies since the '70s, including a bunch of them that I've seen. So that's cool. It's just his character didn't add anything this season.
Donald Glover's departure at the beginning of this season is also another reason I'm disappointed with this season. Troy was there from the beginning and his friendship with Abed is one of the reasons I fell in love with this show to begin with. While I understand Glover's reason for leaving the show, it just sucked that it ended up happening right after Chevy Chase left the show at the end of season 4 and that it broke up the best relationship on the show. On the other hand it did allow Abed to interact with the other characters more, and it also helped to develop the Annie and Abed friendship as well, sort of. Before Troy left Annie was usually off with Britta or Shirley or Jeff and aside from the late season 3 episode where Annie and Abed hung out in the Dreamatorium, they almost never had any subplots together. And when they did they were usually a C or D plot and never lasted an entire episode. I had to laugh when Abed and Annie have a scene together in the season finale, and they're talking, and Annie looks at Abed as if she realizes she has a crush on him or is about to kiss him, and Abed then reminds her that he has a girlfriend. Which the audience had probably forgotten about by this point since Brie Larson hadn't appeared since episode 9, which was the VCR board game episode.
Aside from Annie and Abed and the further development of their friendship, there are a few other things that I really enjoyed this season. Like Dean Pelton, played by the wonderful Jim Rash, really grew on me this season after being super obnoxious in previous seasons. I don't know, there's just a quality to the character that was missing in previous seasons. Maybe it's because the Dean isn't as over the top this season or maybe it's because he's an actual character this season instead of a caricature. Either way the Dean was amazing this season. He started to become cool towards the end of last season, but prior to that he just didn't work for me as a character that I could believe could be a real person.
Another thing I liked about this season is the way that Jeff was brought back to Greendale. It mirrors how he arrived there in the pilot episode, but it also progresses the character further. Which is nice because I felt like Jeff didn't have a whole lot to do in season 4 in comparison to other characters like Britta and Troy and Abed. I mean this season he also didn't have a whole lot to do, but he was a teacher which automatically gave him more to do.
My favourite episode this season is episode 10 "Advanced Advanced Dungeons & Dragons", the sequel to the season 2 episode "Advanced Dungeons & Dragons". I've never played Dungeons & Dragons before, so that aspect of those two episodes didn't appeal to me so much as seeing the group do something all together was. In season 2 it was to prevent Neil from feeling bad about himself, due to everyone calling him Fat Neil, and in this season it was to help Buzz reconnect with his son, played by David Cross.
Final Thoughts and Rating: Overall season 5 of Community didn't completely gel for me like previous seasons did. It was okay and was definitely better than season 4, but the smaller episode count, plus the fact that NBC had already canceled the series kind of made this season weaker. It also had the worst season finale of the entire show so far. I'm giving Community season 5 5/10 stars for trying but just falling short due to many different factors involved with the season's production.
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