What’s Worth Watching: Community’s New Course

Community Episode 1 Season 6
Trae Patton/Yahoo/Sony Pictures Television
Community Episode 1 Season 6

Community, “Ladders” and “Lawnmower Maintenance and Postnatal Care” (Tuesday, March 17, Yahoo Screen)

The motto at Greendale Community College might as well be “Never Say Die,” given the remarkable history of this studiously zany cult sitcom. Its niche ratings kept the show “on the bubble” for five against-the-odds seasons—including one where the show’s creator, the mercurial Dan Harmon, was fired (and eventually rehired)—until NBC finally sent Community to cancellation purgatory. Enter Yahoo, seeking a property to generate buzz for its streaming service, and a rare TV miracle was born. Community gets its sixth season (if not yet a movie) after all. And while the show is minus a few old friends—Chang (Ken Jeong), naturally, suspects a conspiracy against minorities—the rapid-fire jokes and self-referential surrealism are largely and merrily unabated.

A welcome addition to the campus: deadpan Paget Brewster as a frostily efficient, seemingly humorless consultant hired to put the school back on course. Naturally, she’s not exactly welcomed by Jeff Winger (Joel McHale) and his anarchic gang. “How much can you improve Greendale before it stops being Greendale?” he wonders. Not to worry. With a lunatic like Dean Pelton (Jim Rash) still calling the shots, when he’s not immersed in a virtual-reality bubble, achievement isn’t exactly on this institution’s agenda. Oddly, even by this show’s standards, Abed (Danny Pudi) greets the newcomer with an open, if curious, mind: “I can’t determine if you have any specific purpose, flaw, quirk, or point of view that makes you a creative addition to the group.” Ah, Greendale, how we would have missed you!

Check out all of our Community Q&As:

Dan Harmon & Chris McKenna
Dan Harmon &
Chris McKenna
Ken Jeong
Ken Jeong
Allison Brie
Alison Brie
Gillain Jacobs
Gillian Jacobs
Keith David & Paget Brewster
Keith David &
Paget Brewster
Jim Rash
Jim Rash
Joel McHale
Danny Pudi
Joel McHale
Joel McHale

MORE COMMUNITY:

The Inside Scoop on Community‘s Long Road to Yahoo (and What It Means for Season 6)

Community‘s Writers Share Their Most Memorable Scenes

Community Selfies: On Set With Joel McHale (PHOTOS)

How to Watch Community on Yahoo

Community Season 6 Trailer Released

Video: Joel McHale on Season 6 and playing Either/Or