COMMUNITY Gets A Sixth Season — Three Maybe Four Good Seasons and a Movie?
Sony Pictures TV has announced that Community is closer to fulfilling its mantra of #SixSeasonsAndaMovie. The sixth season of the cult sitcom will consist of 13 new episodes, which will be available exclusively on Yahoo Screen.
I desperately want to root for the cast and creative team behind Community, but the show itself is a ghost of its former self. The first 3 seasons were superb, groundbreaking television. Creator and showrunner Dan Harmon tapped into the spirit and souls of geeks, whereas shows like The Big Bang Theory only scratch at the surface and play on stereotypes. But everything went south after NBC fired Harmon. The fourth season suffered greatly from his absence and played like a cheap parody of past seasons. Harmon made a welcome return for the fifth season, but the departure of two main cast members (Donald Glover and Chevy Chase) would ultimately overshadow the season’s promising soft reboot. Despite the dedicated online following, low ratings prompted NBC to pull the plug on the show earlier this year.
Perhaps Yahoo and the freedom of the Internet is just what the show needs. Community pushed the envelope, and maybe it just outgrew the confines of network television. Harmon is optimistic for this new frontier, saying:
“I am very pleased that Community will be returning for its predestined sixth season on Yahoo. I look forward to bringing our beloved NBC sitcom to a larger audience by moving it online. I vow to dominate our new competition. Rest easy, Big Bang Theory. Look out, Bang Bus!”
The show’s star, Joel McHale also teased the greater freedom of the format, stating:
“‘The reports of our cancellation have been greatly exaggerated.’ —Mark Twain (The other version of this quote has been wrong for years) # SixSeasonsAndaMovie is real. Thank you Sony. Thank you Yahoo. Thank you Dan Harmon. And thank you to the greatest f%$#ing fans in the history of the human race. It’s the internet. We can swear now.”
I’d like to think Community’s best days are ahead of it, but I’d be lying if I said that I’ll be anxiously awaiting for the new season to pop up. I’ll likely do some binge watching though at some point, so I can buy my ticket to the Community movie, provided it gets a proper theatrical release. Source: Variety