Here's a small but indicative example of how Community, seasons 1 to 3, has made my life better: at an after-work drinks a few months ago, when in passing I used the phrase 'the darkest timeline', a colleague picked up the reference - which made me both feel that small warm glow of a shared connection with her and, later as I was walking home, came back into my mind and reminded me of the odd (and, in the particular case of Community, apt) way that tv show characters can, in some respects, come to feel like friends.
Season 4 isn't as good - it doesn't have the freewheeling inventiveness of the three that came before it, feeling more like it's re-treading familiar ground (in terms of situation, characters and devices) or its deftness in at once subverting and using our expectations of the form, which may have something to do with the inevitable difficulties of sustaining such a flow and perhaps more to do with show creator Dan Harmon's absence from the season. Still, even as an approximation of the magic of the first three seasons, it ain't too bad either.
Season 4 isn't as good - it doesn't have the freewheeling inventiveness of the three that came before it, feeling more like it's re-treading familiar ground (in terms of situation, characters and devices) or its deftness in at once subverting and using our expectations of the form, which may have something to do with the inevitable difficulties of sustaining such a flow and perhaps more to do with show creator Dan Harmon's absence from the season. Still, even as an approximation of the magic of the first three seasons, it ain't too bad either.
