Community: The 10 Most Hated Episodes
We promise that there's more on this list than just every season four episode.
There are good sitcoms and then there are great sitcoms. And then there are sitcoms that define the genre and doom everything that comes after it to fall short by comparison. Community is that third kind.
Initially premiering on NBC in 2009, Dan Harmon’s quirky tale about a gang of outcasts forming a community college study group took certain sections of the internet by storm. With full episode homages to specific film genres and Dan Harmon’s love of meta commentary, this was a show that was proud to be weird in a sea of ordinary.
But for as many amazing episodes that this show has put out, there’s more than a few that aren’t so well regarded. In fact, a few of them are downright hated, both by critics and the fanbase. These are the episodes that even the most diehard Greendale devotee will skip on a rewatch.
Did your most reviled half hour make it onto the list? Or maybe you’re about to find out that you’re the only one who actually likes your favourite episode? You’ll have to read on to find out…
10. Lawnmower Maintenance And Postnatal Care (Season 6, Episode 2)
The main problem that plagued Community’s later seasons was losing members of the original study group left, right and centre. By season six, Donald Glover, Chevy Chase and Yvette Nicole Brown had all departed the show, taking their beloved characters with them. Instead of just making do with the original cast members that they had left, Dan Harmon and his writing team decided to create all new main characters to plug the gaps.
The problem is that, while Keith David and Paget Brewster do their best with what they’re given, nobody can ever replace Troy, Pierce, and Shirley. And so we get this episode where these subpar replacements take centre stage and the main plot is quite simply dragged out for too long, following Dean Pelton as he becomes obsessed with a new VR computer system.
It’s the kind of plot that might have been something incredible back in Community’s golden years but in the post season 3 slump, it just ends up being somewhat of a chore to sit through.
The out of left field subplot involving Britta’s parents also fails to really go anywhere and it all ends up as an episode that you’ll completely forget about once the credits roll.