Or, well, the Harmon/McKenna factor. And everything that represents. A lot of people were resistant to the criticisms of season four on the grounds that it was the firing of creator/showrunner Dan Harmon and departure of prolific writer Chris McKenna that made it, well, so easy to write off as a "gas leak year". But when you see how much of a change their return has made to the show this season, it gets a lot harder to argue that it's the Harmon/McKenna factor that makes the show what it is. That could be for any number of reasons. It could be because of Harmon's slavish devotion to story structure, ensuring that even the silliest episodes follow a plot line that's been used since the days of Greek myths. It could be that McKenna's more "out there" ideas, including the award-winning "Remedial Chaos Theory" couldn't be done by anyone else. It could be that the characters don't feel as "true" without Harmon at the helm, as he's mentioned on numerous occasions that the study group are essentially all different facets of his own personality. Television is changing. Back in the day nobody had a clue who the showrunner of The Dick Van Dyke show was, and it didn't matter. Nowadays, the likes of Dan Harmon, Vince Gilligan, Matthew Weiner and David Simon are as integral to their respective shows as anybody else, and their shows are personal in a way you would never expect a TV show to be. They're not quite auteurs - that would both diminish the part the cast, writers, and everyone else play, and ignore the mistakes they sometimes make - but they're important. That's why Community has the sort of following that those other creators' shows have, despite being the only one that's a network sitcom. It's hilarious, it's bizarre, it's touching, and that all starts from the mind of one man. Who seems like a bit of an ass himself, but still. So fingers crossed we get that sixth season, and maybe a movie. Otherwise it could mean that we've all been wiped out by an asteroid. That's canon.
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/
