COMMUNITY Is Back, But Is That A Good Thing?

When Community was cancelled by NBC, fans thought they had entered the darkest timeline. Dan Harmon's meta sitcom was always on the brink of cancellation because of its ratings, but "six seasons and a movie" went from a joke to a rallying cry as the show managed to, against all odds, be saved by Yahoo Screen on the final day before the actors' contracts expired. Now the first two episodes are available to watch (with a new episode coming every Tuesday until the season ends), and the results are...pretty mixed so far.

The first episode, "Ladders," wasn't an instant classic or anything, but I thought it did a solid job of re-establishing the status quo and introducing the character of Frankie, played by Paget Brewster. The show's cast members have been dropping like flies over the past couple of years, and it was no small feat to find a new addition to the group. I thought her personality fit well with the gang, exemplified by when she burst into their makeshift speakeasy accompanied by guys dressed up like Prohibition-era policemen (and one carrot, because they ran out of cop costumes). It was a fun, if familiar, dynamic: she's the straight woman trying to bring some sense of normality to the ridiculous whimsy of the group.

But the second episode...yikes. It's a known fact in the show's universe that Britta is the worst, but do her episodes have to be the worst, too? I was excited about this episode during the opening credits, because I saw that Nat Faxon and Jim Rash (who also plays Dean Pelton) were directing, and they helmed one of the best movies of the past few years, The Way Way Back. But they were saddled with a pretty lackluster script, and while I don't expect every episode of a show to be brilliant, Community has set a higher bar for quality in my mind because even its mediocre episodes are often better than this. I dug the introduction of Keith David's character, and the virtual reality gag was amusing enough, but the rest of it? Man, I could not have been less into it if I tried - and this is one of my favorite shows of all time!

So my answer to the question posed in the headline? Yes, I think it's a good thing Community has returned. I still love Greendale and the characters we've gotten to know over the past few years, and when Harmon and the writing staff are at the top of their game, the show reaches legendary status for me. I know they have some good stuff planned (another paintball episode is on the way), so I'm hoping that they just hit a bit of a rough start and will continue to improve as the series progresses.

What did you think of the first two episodes of season six? Do you think it should have returned, or would you have rather seen it go out earlier?