Friday, April 12, 2013

The opening credits of Community (and puppet disappointment)

Sometimes TV shows change their opening credits after a few seasons or when there's a major shift in the direction of the show. I thought Community might have changed its credits this year since Dan Harmon is no longer the showrunner. But no, the credits are the same and at the end we see this:


Dan Harmon's name etched onto a desk. In the real world, that etching would be a permanent thing but since Dan Harmon is no longer working on Community, we just have a weekly reminder that he made this incredible show that doesn't know how to be incredible anymore.

I've been trying to stay positive this season. I loved last week's episode, but "Intro to Felt Surrogacy" felt messy.

(Spoilers ahead.)

The puppets were a cool idea but the episode didn't have a good story to go along with the change in format. Each character shared a "dark" secret, but that was it. There were good moments but overall, this episode felt like fluff. I didn't expect that because 1) Community has fewer episodes this year so why would they waste any of their time with filler? and 2) Past Big Episodes have had excellent stories to go with them (paintball and "Abed's Uncontrollable Christmas," for example).

I didn't hate the episode, but I didn't like it either. Community is still better than most of television, but it doesn't compare to what it used to be. I'm not sure if that's because Harmon isn't there anymore or if it's simply the show aging and transitioning.

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