Community is a show that's long existed on the fringes of network television. Despite respectable ratings and a dedicated fan following, it's spent much of its five seasons in perpetual near-cancellation, only to be pulled from the brink by eleventh-hour renewals. This spring NBC finally cancelled it. Now there are whispers it could go to Hulu for a sixth season. But is that really the best idea?
Season 5 was supposed to be the triumphant return of showrunner Dan Harmon, who'd been unceremoniously fired on the eve of Season 4, but despite the respectable ratings bump that came with Harmon's return, the season was kneecapped by the mid-season departure of Donald Glover (aka Troy) and aired to radically mixed reviews. Cancellation wasn't inevitable, but it was likely enough that the final episode included a fourth-wall-busting assurance that if the show didn't return, it was because a meteor had wiped out all life on Earth—followed by a post-credits tag pitching a set of increasingly ridiculous probable replacements.
The hammer finally fell earlier this month, when NBC declined to renew Community for a sixth—and likely final—season. Fans were distraught. #Darkesttimeline, a reference to the Season 3 episode "Remedial Chaos Theory," trended worldwide on Twitter. Rumors flew briefly and furiously: that the show's studio Sony Pictures Television was in talks with other networks, that Netflix would be picking up the show as it had with Arrested Development, etc. Meanwhile Harmon himself was pessimistic about the show's chances—and seemed lukewarm about the idea of a revival.
Then, a glimmer of hope: earlier this week, reports surfaced that Sony was in talks with Hulu to produce the sixth season of Community as a streaming-exclusive series.
First off, let's be clear: this is a long way from a done deal. So far there's just a lot of talk of "talks" between Sony and Hulu. Nothing more. It makes as much sense as any other option—Community is a high performer for the streaming service, and Hulu has been looking to expand their original content—but then, if sense were a defining factor in television choices, NBC would have let Community play out its last season. A show making a direct jump from a network to streaming-only is fairly unprecedented, but with the momentum Community has online, it could be a successful move.
But the other question—the one everyone is skirting around—is whether there should be a sixth season of Community. My answer is an unambiguous "yes," but I'm also the kind of Community fan who binge-watches seasons in a blanket fort. Objectively, however, the show never really regained its footing after Harmon's departure: Season 4 was generally lackluster, and Season 5 was interesting but also badly uneven. A sixth season—especially without Glover, whose departure radically redefined the dynamics of the show—would be a gamble.
But then, Community is a show about an uneven, difficult, damaged bunch of misfits cleaning up their messes and learning to make good. It would be nice to see the show itself get that same chance.
