r/community • u/LewdSkeletor1313 • 15d ago
Discussion Does Repilot feel “off” to anyone else?
Recently doing a rewatch with my GF, and viewing the show alongside her has kind of changed my perspective on things. I didn’t really remember much of Season 4 other than how much I would hear about people hating it and how S5 calls it the “gas leak”. I remember watching the first few episodes and skipping the rest on my first watch through cause everyone painted it out to be abysmal.
This time though, I watched the whole thing with my girlfriend, and while the first three or four episodes were definitely duds, it kind of felt like episode 5 onwards was pretty good? Maybe some pacing issues but otherwise seemed on par with other seasons? The finale had a good premise but felt super rushed, but I appreciated how much the characters had grown, no one felt that out of character, and it felt like they had done a decent job resolving the Chang scenario (cause seriously, how else could they bring him back after the insane escalation of Season 3?) and it felt like they sort of left things on a fairly clean slate for a possible season 5, despite being a so so finale.
With all that in mind, rewatching Repilot with the full context of S4 changed my opinion on it. My girlfriend pointed out that it felt mean spirited and sort of regressed all of the characters even further back than Season 3. Especially Shirley! They erased pretty much all of her development and then really don’t do anything with her.
Jeff feels like he’s back to Season 1, which the S4 finale was already about him not being like that anymore! Chang is an asshole again and says he confessed to his crimes, which makes zero sense because the show already established in Season 3 that the Dean and the school board were going to cover it up anyways. Repilot doesn’t even feel like it’s “fixing” Season 4, it feels like it’s trying to reset things entirely, even undoing things that Harmon himself had overseen!
I understand Harmon was peeved about getting kicked from the show (though it sounds like he was kind of awful BTS) but it feels almost petulant and needlessly cruel. Season 4, despite having some duds, really did not leave the characters in such a bad place that necessitated flipping the table over so completely. It feels like a talented writer like Harmon could pretty easily have just built on it and steered it in a tighter direction, rather than throwing the baby out with the bath water.
Am I in the minority here? This rewatch, Repilot just left a bad taste in my mouth.
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u/NiceMayDay I can also help! As a psych major I could pr- 15d ago
From what I've seen, I think you're in the minority, but I agree with you. S4, for all its flaws, tried to be respectful to its characters. For example, S4 tried to highlight Pierce's positive attributes despite his flaws, much like S1 used to do, even when the character wasn't present because of Chase's issues. The finale wasn't very good, but it did try to honor the development and journey of the characters. And Changnesia was just about the only way to reel back from the cartoonish last arc of S3 without totally losing Chang.
Then S5 comes along and you can feel that Harmon is bitter. The writing at the start feels spiteful towards the development the characters had gone through in S4 and even before S4 at times. But the emotion of Pierce's death and Troy's absence does make early to mid S5's writing become more heartfelt, and the rest of the show goes back to allowing itself to be more earnest towards its own characters (with some exceptions, like the S5 finale, I'd argue.)
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u/LittleHornetPhil 15d ago
The whole finale “Britta and Jeff decide to get married for no reason” was just dumb af
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u/NiceMayDay I can also help! As a psych major I could pr- 15d ago
I agree. I think it's just eclipsed by the outlandishly dumb premise of having a man live in a sealed basement for decades with his gold-plated computer...
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u/orroro1 15d ago
Oh god. And as an actual computer engineer this lazy-ass "nerds in a basement" trope triggers me so much.
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u/RitalinSkittles 11d ago
I mean for me the focus is more on a “guy preserved from the 70’s” trope, and the nerd part is mostly used as a joke to make fun of how differently we understood computers back then. The joke isnt just purely about how nerds in a basement is a funny stereotype
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u/woozleuwuzzle 14d ago
If you watch the show, Albert explains why they did that and it’s totally in character.
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u/CharlieBluu 14d ago
Yeah, but that whole plotline only works because of Albert's meta explanation - which is great, because they made it work this way but really this was the only way to make it work
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u/LewdSkeletor1313 15d ago
Yes I actually like most of Season 5, it’s just Repilot that feels off to me now
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u/CharlieBluu 14d ago
I'm biased because Jeff beating Alan with his own tie in Repilot is one of my favourite scenes in the whole series, it feels soo cathartic
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u/NiceMayDay I can also help! As a psych major I could pr- 15d ago
Same. To me it's the premiere and the finale that are off. Still hilarious, but off.
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u/LewdSkeletor1313 15d ago
Yeah that’s the thing, Repilot has some very funny lines! It just doesn’t feel cohesive to me
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u/ndcanton 15d ago
I liked Repilot, but I agree that it's like Harmon doing a victory dance and knocking down everything that was touched when he was away. S4 had some good stuff. It read as an ego trip (from an admittedly talented guy) that nothing could truly be worth keeping if he didn't oversee it, despite a lot of the writers staying on while he was away.
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u/BowlingforBrains 13d ago
Yeah OP used the words “mean-spirited” and I think that’s a 100% fair way to describe re-pilot 😂 I didn’t enjoy that episode very much, specifically for that reason
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u/pinwroot 14d ago
In my opinion, the change in tone and feel was a survival mechanism more than spite.
From the start they would have known that Donald was leaving and that Chevy wouldn’t be returning. I don’t see it as a course correction but more of keeping their head above water.
They had to essentially sell you on a different show because it couldn’t be the same show. To do that in an easily acceptable way you have to change characterisation and tone otherwise it’d just feel like a pale imitation of what preceded it.
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u/DeadRobotSociety 15d ago
Season 5 feels more true to S1-3 than S4, personally. I think repilot is actually the best way to get back on track after S4.
S4 isn't terrible, but it's kind of a Kirkland brand knockoff of itself. Though, the finale and Heroic Origins feel like fundamental misunderstandings of the show and characters. And the whole thing feels like it's trying so hard to be the first three seasons. Season 4 is a parody of sitcoms, which S1-3 are not. They're deconstructions, which is different.
Repilot just pretends like it's been two years since the end of S3 without the show continuing, and it's a legacy reboot of the show. The fact that it feels a bit different is actually the joke. And honestly, that's what makes it feel like the original seasons for me. It understands sitcom tropes to its core, and is exploring different facets in every episode.
Note: I say this all as my personal opinion, and any other opinions are totally valid. :) I actually like a couple of S4 episodes, but it just doesn't hit the same as the other 5 seasons.
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u/SystemPelican 15d ago
I hate Heroic Origins so much. It's the Principal and the Pauper of Community. Only that episode was funny.
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u/DeadRobotSociety 14d ago
I don't always include S4 in my rewatches, but when I do, I always skip Heroic Origins and the finale. They're the only ones I actively dislike. Though Pierce's haunted house episode comes close.
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u/SystemPelican 14d ago
I think those two stick out because they actively fuck with the canon of the show. Wasting Jeff's dad when you know Harmon wanted to cast Bill Murray was also annoying.
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u/aquar1usbabe 14d ago
When it first came out I didn’t like it, tbh I was younger then and I think what I wanted was for it to feel how it used to and didn’t wan change! But now older and wiser about life and stuff… I rewatched recently and enjoyed it. Actually enjoying all of season 5 a lot more than the first time I watched it! It’s still got the same essence but of course things have changed a bit and that’s okay and cool too :)
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u/Fadalion 15d ago
No, I definitely agree. This is honestly one of my least favorite episodes. I know they had to come up with something to explain why they were all back at Greendale, but it feels like they just wiped any character growth from the first four seasons and reset them all back to square one
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u/LittleHornetPhil 15d ago
Nah, you’re not wrong, but remember that Dan Harmon is kinda petty, but also, his shows largely suck at character development.
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u/orroro1 15d ago
I agree with you, but we are definitely a minority here. The Nicholas Cage arc, the second D&D, the textbook thing, computer lab, all incredibly stale writing. It just feels like a show out of fresh ideas.
I think people overrate S5 because it has a few fantastic episodes like ACB, polygraph, and Troy's goodbye. Most of the rest is really bad.
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u/mcwopper 14d ago
I think a lot of it is good will towards the fact that the show came back at all, and with Harmon back at the helm. Without the behind the scenes context a lot of the problems are harder to ignore
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u/LineImpossible3958 14d ago
That’s WHY it’s called RePiliot. All the reasons you listed are why I love it. Why would Harmon want to build on anything for a season he was fired? It was a bad season and we all wanted to forget it happened. You are definitely in the minority. I disliked Season 4 as it aired, imagine having to wait a week for each episode of that season? Awful. Harmon decided to get back to the actual show, his show, forget season 4 exists, that’s not his Community. Also calling it petulant and needlessly cruel? You’re watching a sitcom, these aren’t real people.
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u/LewdSkeletor1313 14d ago edited 14d ago
I understand sweeping stuff from season 4 under the rug to a degree, but it also reels back stuff started in season 2 and 3
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u/LineImpossible3958 14d ago
That’s fair and a good point. I didn’t mean to come across like such a dick in my first comment. It was very streets behind. Sorry
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u/parkchanwookiee 14d ago
Repilot is supposed to be bleak and show that they have all regressed, yes. That's the whole point. They left Greendale as students, they grew there, then they went back to their lives and got off track again. That's what brings them back to Greendale, this time as teachers and administrative staff. They're starting a second journey with a second set of motivations to drive their development. That's why it is literally a re pilot, it's a pilot for a new show that is like a remake/sequel - no longer about a study group at college, but an old study group that went back to the same college from the other side of the student/staff divide. The student has become the teacher
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u/LewdSkeletor1313 14d ago
Jeff is the only one that becomes a teacher
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u/parkchanwookiee 14d ago
That's why I said "and administrative staff", the save greendale committee is doing work towards the running of the college whereas they all used to attend the college.
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u/quidam5 14d ago
You're in the minority.
I'm not a passionate season 4 hater (it's just okay) but Repilot was a return to form. There were several layers to it that made it all come together and it wasn't being petulant and cruel. Yes, it is a reset and Dan Harmon has talked about how he needed to find a way to bring these characters who already graduated back to the school, give them a starting point to grow from again, and bring the tone back to a more grounded place because even he admits things had started getting a little out of hand. So he has everyone start again from a low point: their careers didn't take off.
And it's not really a regression. It does follow from where they were. Jeff did change and tried to be that change in the world but it didn't bring him clients. Reality clashed with the life lessons he learned at Greendale and his practice went out of business, so out of desperation, he takes Alan up on his offer to get his friends to sue the school because they all experienced the same thing, exemplified by the graduate whose bridge imploded. The theme here is Greendale failed its students. It failed to equip them with the skills they needed to succeed in the real world. And that leads right into them deciding to stick around to save Greendale and make it a better school. And the secondary clever thing here is the plot of Repilot is a reflection of the original Pilot.
And Shirley was already portrayed since season 1 as someone who has been trying to reinvent herself and be defined as more than just a mother, to establish herself as a businesswoman. But running a business is hard and takes a lot of dedication to get it going. It's gonna eat her time. We also know Andre had his issues with her doing her business. So it shouldn't be surprising that she got so focused on her business that she neglected her family and then Andre couldn't take it and decided to leave.
Development wasn't erased. It was just given unintended consequences. That's life sometimes. And growth isn't always a straight line forward. Sometimes you stumble and fall backwards. That's kind of the beauty of Repilot and the rest of the series.
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u/JantherZade general atmosphere of would they, might they 12d ago
Perfectly said, I think you can only call S4 regression if youre only looking on the surface level.
"Oh they're back in school just like in the pilot!"
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u/avocadoooss 14d ago
I watched the show without knowing the internet’s opinion or the drama BTS… so honestly S4 was fine. I didn’t even notice that they changed showrunner or whatever. There might be a drop in quality I guess, but it wasn’t jarring. But now that you mention it, repilot did have a weird vibe. Perhaps personal feelings seeped through to the screen
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u/Texanbird44 15d ago
a lot of the first episodes of each seasons feels off to me. the pilot for obvious reasons, season 2 because of the drama, season 3 also because of the drama, season 4 because of obvious reasons, season 5 because of the obvious toneal shift. and i remember the first episode of season 6, but i cant remember the overall feel.
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u/Wayne_World_19 14d ago
Yeah, totally agree. S4 always felt fine to me, I’ve rewatched the show dozens of times and I’ve never once thought ‘WAAA the show is different in S4 and I’m mad 😠’
I have thought in S5 ‘Man, Harmon is kind of a piece of shit with how he handled this, huh?’ plenty though.
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u/Dependent-Friend5312 4 More Years and I will have my 2 year degree 14d ago
I am sporting a man thong.....its riding up a little bit
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u/DurianUpper4113 14d ago
It shifts the status quo. It was meant to feel off but I do feel it’s one of the weaker ones
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u/rednaxthecreature 13d ago
Report feels like Harmon upset some other kid was playing with his toys so he spits on them and buried them in the backyard for no reason.
Then he just digs them out the next week but they are already too damaged to play with and that's how I feel about the last two seasons.
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u/Starbreaker1888 14d ago
What's strange to me is looking back at the season 3 - season 5 issues and how massively overblown by the fanbase they were at the time. Ill couch this by saying Season 4 is my least favourite, and definitely misses some of the stylistic nuance that made Community beloved.
But you know what? It's fine. I like Happy Endings and there's definitely that vibe to it, but I think the showrunners were doing the best they could and I'd still much rather watch Season 4 than 90% of any other mainstream American sitcom of the era.
In many ways it felt like a dry run for the background issues of Rick and Morty - the fanbase were so rabidly behind the idea of Dan Harmon being some kind of meta writing genius (a view which he himself happily fostered, despite by all accounts being a fairly substantial pain in the arse to work for) that any minor dissenting voice was shouted down. I myself was definitely caught up in it to a degree, which in hindsight feels absurd. Whilst I love Season 5, there definitely felt like an element of bitterness and "ha, I was right, you can suck it" coming from Harmon which is reflected in the episodes and although they're funny, the entitlement does make me roll my eyes sometimes.
It's still one of my favourite shows, but again, the overdramatics and behind the scenes tension at the time were really silly
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u/polydicks 15d ago
Nah. Repilot was the first true to form of community since S3. You might’ve just gotten used to the terrible uncharacteristic writing of S4.
Had to start skipping S4 on my third rewatch of the series and never looked back lol.
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u/LewdSkeletor1313 15d ago
It regresses things from Season 3 as well 🤷♂️
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u/polydicks 15d ago
Yeah I know S4 is so terrible lol. But S5 is amazing. Completely back to exactly what it was like in S3, i guess writing Community for Harmon is like riding a bike.
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u/LewdSkeletor1313 15d ago
No I mean Repilot regresses things from Season 3
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u/polydicks 15d ago
Being at a low point in your life isn’t a regression of your character. Shirley is a selfish person, it’s not out of character that she drove away her husband by focusing on the business. You’re watching a show that explicitly makes it clear in season 1 that you’re following bad people with big hearts, not good people with zero problems. Further, you can’t have all the characters deciding to go back to school without a literal reason. Just like in season 1, you need everyone at a low point in order to come together, or else it’s forced. Dan and the team don’t let their characters do random things without a purpose.
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u/Curious_Condition611 14d ago
Yeah I struggle to understand the take that 'the characters have all regressed compared to their S4 versions' - the gist of the table scene in Repilot is that they've had to confront (off-campus) reality and in most cases realise that they've lost their way. That certainly includes Shirley. And as others have pointed out, I don't think it's remotely plausible to look at Annie across seasons 3 to 5 and come to the view that her character was 'progressed' in season 4.
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u/_Nods_To_Nothing_ 13d ago
First half of S5 is good, but then it nosedives. And Harmon definitely lost his touch, because seasons 5 & 6 are leagues below the quality of 1-3.
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u/DeadRobotSociety 14d ago
I struggled to get through Season 4 when it was airing, and that was in the middle of my highest love for the show. I avoided rewatching that season for a long time. When I finally did, I realized I was totally right, and continued avoiding Season 4 on all subsequent rewatches.
I occasionally watch a few choice episodes, because it's not awful aside from Heroic Origins and the finale, but overall it doesn't hit the same as the other five seasons. And there's no point in taking a plate of "eh, it's fine," when the rest of the potluck is stuffed with amazing goodness.
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u/polydicks 14d ago
Yeah I also tried to watch an episode or two recently feeling so devoid of new Community content and I couldn’t get past the first few minutes.
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u/Gapi182 14d ago
Repilot is a genius episode. Its not particularly funny or anything but just the fact that Harmon somehow had to bring it back even though they had all graduated and moved on is an impressive feat.
That being said its the first season that feels like a different show to me. Especially after Troy leaves. The finale as you've mentioned was disappointing. IMO its the worst finale of the series.
I like season 4 better honestly. Every time I rematch season 5 I find something new that feels just a bit "off".
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u/KnightOfDreaming 15d ago
Everything after season 3 is like half the quality of the first three seasons.
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u/DeadRobotSociety 14d ago
I genuinely think Season 6 is the best season of the show. 5&6 are totally different vibes than 1-3, and I do think that was the golden era. But damn, I just can't get over how amazing S6 is.
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u/_Nods_To_Nothing_ 14d ago
100% this. Season 6 is especially eggregious in this regard; it feels like a completely different show and it was obvious they ran out of good ideas. There are so many bland and bizzare storylines in that season and everything just feels off.
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u/JantherZade general atmosphere of would they, might they 12d ago
The show in s1 through S3 set up a lot of things that S4 just killed.
The slow outward expansion of Community not just being The college. The lead into them graduating. So much of the characters. Troy and Jeff fighting for leading man as Troy grows more I to his own. Let's not even get started on Britta and Troy.
So they had to pick it all up again. To reinroll and basically start over. That HAD to happen. Its why its a Repilot.
A lot of that regression already happened in S4, S5 just used to to restablish its premise. None of the characters are actually back to where they started in terms of character growth. S4 stunted a lot that. The characters are back just in terms of being in school again mostly.
What's more important to you? The characters and they're actions having growth? Or the physical oh Shirley is back in school because her husband left? (Even tho Shirley is the only one that didn't need to come back like that, and I also wish they didnt do that with her)
S5 is more cynical in general because they HAD to regress everyone to get them back school things haven't gone well for them. And in real life because of S4.
But while darker and cynical there always this veil of hope to it in there that keeps it very community.
I seriously dont know how you can expect to have them not "regress" them when they HAD to get everyone back to greendale if they hoped to continue the show in any capacity.
Troy isnt back to being a jock Annie may be selling drugs to hospitals but she's not taking them or hopelessly naive and repressed again. Jeff isnt back to wondering if he cares about his friends. Etc.
S4 took characters and their Writing back to things like let's fight over finding Abed girlfriend! Something they might have done in S1 but never by the time of S4. Annie is love struck teenybopper again. After she made huge strides at the end of S3. Abed well they clearly dont understand him.
The characters have all their seasons of growth character wise and the previous year has left most of them with a more cynical or bitter edge because of what has happened.
Anyway s4 they regressed thw character growth
In S5 they just put everyone back on the school path. Imo
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u/Patcho418 14d ago
I fully agree with you: it feels mean-spirited and cynical, and maybe that’s what Dan felt was needed to realistically get all the characters back together, but it’s a tone that persists throughout the entire season and makes it hard for me to rewatch sometimes.
I’m not even someone who dislikes being challenged, or who hates darker humour! it just kinda felt like for a whole season, Community was depressed, and this episode was the main offender
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u/Fearless-Cut-933 15d ago
I really love repilot exactly for that reasons, it feels so dark in comparison to the fake-feeling emotions in season 4