At last, he speaks.
Sure, Dan Harmon has chimed in here and there about the sacrilege that was Season 4 of Community, joking that he’d like to supply audio commentary for the DVD special features. But up until now, even following the announcement that the sitcom’s creator had been brought back to run the show for its upcoming fifth year, we haven’t heard much Harmon himself. It’s not that he had nothing to say — far from it.
In fact, we think he’s just been taking time to assemble his words delicately. To articulate with the utmost sophistication his feelings on the quality of the show under the reign of replacement show runners David Guarascio and Moses Port.
And thus, we have this poetry: “It’s like flipping through Instagrams and watching your girlfriend just blow a million [other guys].” Oh Harmon. How we missed you.
Even under Harmon’s reign, we’re apprehensive about a fifth season of the show, but we take odd comfort in one simple fact: so is he. The ingenious writer expressed his qualms with Season 4, his worries about Season 5, and a few diatribes in gratitude of his father during the latest episode of his L.A.-based public podcast, Harmontown. Check it out below:
Harmon jumped right in with hooks embedded in the subject of Guarascio and Port’s Community, stating, “I watched season four,” before a long, louder-than-words pause. The writer would go on to admonish the antic as “obviously not somebody doing what they do and trying very hard to make people happy. It is very much like an impression, and an unflattering one,” spawned admittedly from “the most admirable kind of impulse.”
From Harmon’s perspective, Guarascio and Port were just two guys who “went to Comic-Con, saw what was going on: people dressed as spacemen and bananas and shit; people going, ‘Holy shit, I cut myself every night and watch Community,’ … [and] tried their best.” But of course, what came was little more than a handful of hokey film and TV references.
One Season 4 episode to which Harmon took particular offense was the introduction of Jeff’s father (played by James Brolin), a character who he always envisioned with the casting of Bill Murray in mind. Suggesting that it was not only the casting but the machinations of the storyline that perturbed him, Harmon likened the ordeal to “being held down and watching your family get raped on a beach.” Again, poetry.
Of course, we hope for majesty from Season 5, even with our reservations. “I don’t feel confident in my ability to slam dunk anything,” Harmon said. “The basket is always going to be one inch higher than I can jump.” Still, Harmon assured the masses that we will “feel my love and kisses, but it won’t be in the form of a f**king Matrix spoof.” Are we ready to believe that the dark cloud of Season 4 can be eradicated completely? Perhaps not. But listening to Harmon chatter on passionately for an hour gives us faith. Our Community is coming back.
Follow Michael Arbeiter on Twitter @MichaelArbeiter | Follow hollywood.com on Twitter @hollywood_com
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