So it looks like we weren't living in the darkest timeline after all. Community, the sitcom about a group of misfits finding friendship in a down-on-its-luck community college (but really about a whole lot more than that), has been dangling off the precipice of cancellation almost from the start. It was shunted around the schedules, had episode orders slashed and - perhaps worst of all - had its creator and guiding light, Dan Harmon, kicked out of the captain's seat following a third go-around that was substantially more successful critically than commercially. "The gas leak year" of season four was easily the show at its lowest ebb, a bad cover version of what made the first few seasons so unique. Everything felt weird, awkward, with an knock-off feel to the characterisation and a misunderstanding of the "weirdness" that fuelled the show and it's pop cultural lexicon. Not that any season had been totally perfect - Harmon, lest we forget, was in charge during the production of "Advanced Gay" and "Urban Matrimony and the Sandwich Arts" - but you know what? This season got close. Season 5 of Community was, in many ways, the best yet. That's despite losing two members of the principal cast, yet another truncated number of episodes and the now-traditional ending that could either be a season or a series finale. Let's not think about that, though; let's think about how cool it was. Cool cool cool.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
