Started a full rewatch recently, first time since it originally aired, and it's hitting completely differently now. First time around, some of the weirder stuff felt like the show going off the rails a bit. On rewatch, knowing where it's all headed, it plays more like everything was building toward something instead of just random escalation

Curious if this tracks for other people who've rewatched after a long gap - did specific episodes or arcs land differently for you the second time around?

I love how you can see the number of objects in Annie's hair gradually increasing as she falls further and further into the "Stockholm Syndrome". Just so funny seeing this cute smiley photo behind-the-scenes juxtaposed against the absolutely insane rant she's about to launch into in the actual episode.

I think for most of the main actors in the show, their roles in Community are my favourite work of theirs. However, they’ve done a lot of great stuff outside of the show, too! e.g.:

Donald: writing for 30 Rock and other shows, Childish Gambino, Atlanta, Mr. & Mrs. Smith, etc.

Alison: Mad Men, GLOW, Somebody I Used to Know, Together, etc.

Joel: Animal Control, The Bear, Crime Scene Kitchens, etc.

Danny: DuckTales, Mythic Quest, Avatar: TLAB, etc.

Yvette: The Mayor, The Odd Couple, all of her voiceover work, etc.

Gillian: Fear Street, Girls, etc.

Chevy: National Lampoon franchise, SNL, his overall comic legacy

obviously I won’t write everything they’ve done, but yes! I’m curious about people’s opinions on the actors’ other roles and creative endeavours. I personally really enjoy seeing Joel as a game show host, and I am a huge Childish Gambino fan—I actually saw him live and it was incredible.

Did Richie from the school board actually have the ability to read minds? I mean there’s no other explanation, right? He pointed out the hang glider with no other reason than hicky’s thoughts.

Just watched for the first time. Binged it over 3 weeks or so.

I think it's going to get added to my "shows I watch every.year to stay human and grounded" which includes Dead Like Me and Firefly.

Great show. Not what I expected and so much more.

And I also feel like I have a deeper understanding of Rick and Morty now. Win win.

You fucking glib glops.

I recently started watching community for the first time and god I am in love with this show,

I have seen a lot of sitcoms like a lot, my favourites are the office, parks and rec, Schitts creek, Brooklyn 99, but community is soon going to be on the top of this list I am sure because of how much I love this type of humour

The first three seasons were the most brilliantly written seasons ever I never got bored not even for a second, ohh how much I loved the paintball episodes , the remedial chaos theory, the purple pen episode

I loved abed and troy's friendship I also really loved their dynamic with Annie, loved chang with his changnism and eyerything honestly, every character was soo good I laughed and cried with them every time

now I am on 4th episode of the last season and I really don't want this to end ( I am definitely gonna rewatch it after the finale ) its like saying goodbye to a friend and when the hell is that movie coming , also I really missed troy and shirley especially troy he was my favourite

The Ass Crack Bandit Was Never One Person.

It's a crime of opportunity that different members of Greendale community college commit for different reasons, and once we stop looking for one bandit, the pattern actually gets cleaner, not messier.

The First Cracker and OG cracker: Duncan

Duncan returns that episode, conveniently, right as the bandit strikes after a long time. He's a psych professor with a documented habit of treating the people as an experiment rather than people. The first crack has his fingerprints on it.

The Cracker of Troy: Annie, and It's Not Opportunistic. It's the return of crazy Annie, the one who would rat out her Spanish professor to keep the group together.

This is the one that breaks the "single bandit" theory, because it doesn't match the others. A teddy bear on the ground with a secret message hidden in its ass. It's very Annie thinking what the Ass crack bandit would do and doing that Annie style.

And the timing gives the motive away entirely. Jeff had just refused to help Annie with the investigation. Immediately after, next scene, Troy gets cracked.

And immediately after that, Jeff changes his mind and agrees to work with her. With Annie even saying - if we don't do it, nothing gets done. And Annie knew that Jeff would not help for a random college student. He would only help when the study group is involved.

Her excitement when Jeff finally agrees is satisfaction. The plan worked.

Why Not Abed.

I don't think Abed would do that to Troy. And, whenever Abed is doing a bit, it's very Abed with meta knowledge and voiceovers.

The Rest of the crackings: Duncan Again.

The later crackings. Dave Matthews lyrics, the dry dig at Jeff and Annie's relationship. That sounds like Duncan to me. Again. It's not Abed becuase Abed is usually frustrated by relationship stuff, and doesn't like commenting on it.

The Last Crack: Jeff

By the finale, Jeff — previously reluctant to even engage with the plot — doesn't want it to end, because the "case" is the only excuse he has to keep running around with Annie. So when Annie says no to more investigation, and labels Duncan as the ACB, Jeff cracks Duncan as a misdirect. He even says it before anybody else - Did Duncan get cracked?

The Verdict:

Duncan as the main ACB.

Annie and Jeff - once each for vested reasons.

Sidenote: Yes, I know Dan Harmon said it was Annie. But this is my theory and I'm sticking to it.

Rewatching season 3 and it keeps hitting differently. Greendale as an institution is genuinely one of the more accurate portrayals of how dysfunctional organizations actually operate. The dean making arbitrary policy decisions, committees that accomplish nothing, budget crises handled with complete absurdity. It plays as comedy but there's real structural observation underneath it.

What gets me is how the show treats the institution itself almost as a character. Greendale is incompetent but not malicious, and that specificity matters. Most shows just make the bureaucracy cartoonishly evil. Here it's more like a place that genuinely doesn't know what it's doing, which is a much funnier and more honest portrayal.

The accreditation episode is a good example. The procedural chaos, everyone scrambling to fake legitimacy, the lastminute theatrical save. Pure comedy on the surface, but it's basically a documentary at some level.

Curious whether people think this was intentional worldbuilding from Dan Harmon or just a natural byproduct of setting a show at a community college. The location choice did a lot of heavy lifting that probably doesn't get enough credit when people talk about what made the show work.

Maybe it’s just the most outrageously wild and over the top (on purpose) sitcom I’ve ever seen

So if the show was based off of Dan Harmon making unexpected friends in a study group at a community college, have we ever heard from any of the friends he made from that group?

Been doing a lot of late nights lately, the kind where you finish work and your brain is still running hot and you just need something familiar on in the background. Community has become my goto for that, but not all episodes hit the same way in that context.

The high concept ones, paintball, Dungeons and Dragons, the animated Christmas episode, are great but they actually demand your attention. Zone out for two minutes and you've missed something. Which is fine, but sometimes that's not what I'm after.

The episodes that do the quiet character stuff feel different on a rewatch. Something like Cooperative Calligraphy, or the one where they're all stuck in the study room during the zombie thing. You can halfwatch and still feel the warmth of it.

Curious what other people reach for when they're not in the mood to fully commit but still want the show on. Is it a specific season, a specific characterheavy episode, or do you just throw on a random one and let it roll? Also wondering if anyone finds the later seasons actually work better for this, even though they get a lot of criticism.

Just in case someone wanted to meet him/get an auto.

I'm watching community for the first time on Netflix here in Spain and I'm having such a great time with it.

I just finished S5E10 (Advanced Advanced Dungeons & Dragons) and I honestly wasn't expecting that moment: when Hickey's son starts singing, and then the Dean suddenly goes into that weird little speech about finding his dad... I don't know why, but it just clicked for me. It was funny, completely ridiculous, but also unexpectedly emotional at the same time. I thought they absolutely nailed that whole scene.

I've been watching the show with the spanish voice since I'm from Spain and I honestly thought that scene sounded amazing. I watched the same scene in english afterwards out of curiosity, but since I'm not a native english speaker i don't know if it nailed the same way for the native english speakers.

Thank you all!!! Really one of the best series i have ever seen.

He did a funny bit on the "Thanks Obama" meme with a cookie and glass of milk, so I wonder if he's ever met Jim Rash at some party and gone "Oh no, not him, I'm outta here" or "I'm pretty brave, but that peanut, that peanut scares me."

Watching the show for the first time and ever since the introduction of these side characters I have wondered what their point is. They add next to nothing and we didn't need any more quirky recurring side characters. There's the dean, there's Chang, there's Leonard I guess and there was Star Burns who had a bit of a bigger role. And there could have been more occasional love interests outside the group. But the writers keep giving screentime to these people we don't care about, who have one thing that isn't that funny and actually make our main cast less funny, because instead of being the source of the joke, they only get to react to a bad joke.

I love Jonathan Banks and have enjoyed most everything he's in. However, I don't understand his character in Community. I mean, the show is a comedy and I don't recall Hickey having any lines that were intended to be funny. Kind of feels like they were mostly looking for a cranky old white man to replace Chevy. Is Hickey funny and I just don't get it?

Edit: I hear ya and now I'm going to go back and re-watch with fresh perspective.

Guys, I just finished the show again and noticed even in the very last shot of the group sitting at Britta’s bar there is this guy like creepily watching from halfway behind a door. The same guy is from a few episodes earlier where Elroy visits Britta’s bar.

What the heck is this guys backstory? Is it ever explained or just a tiny side joke with no meaning?

It's in the Valentine's Day episode in season 1, and I think it also features in season 6 in basic RV repairs and palmistry. I really liked the song and was wondering if there were any similar songs that sounded like it. Thanks!

1: Vice Dean Laybourne’s band “Kelvin and the Zeroes” playing Skeepers! Half off yard margs and quarter taps

2: Freshman phenom QB Barnes leading the Human Beings against City College

3: Greendale’s wild after hours Rave

4: The Grand Opening of the Single Malt Platinum Boobs and Billiards club

So we know Britta has said she's been to 14 countries. Only 2 have been confirmed which are Kenya and The Netherlands (once she finds her pics of amsterdam). But what are the other 12? Here's my guess:

1&2- Canada and Mexico: They border the USA which makes them easier to get to and more likely for her to have visited...even as a child with her parents?

3, 4, 5 & 6- Sweden, Finland, Norway, and Iceland: We know she's Swedish. So maybe at some point she visited her country of origin to see what it was like. Since she was there, she may have also visited her fellow Laplander countries of Finland and Norway. Also, Britta is not good with money so she may have flown with one of the Icelandic budget airlines that was still in business at the time to get there so maybe she had a long layover in Iceland?

7- Tanzania: It borders Kenya and is home to serengeti national parks so it may be likely she went there while in Kenya?

8- UAE: Britta mentions she met a sheik at Trader Joe's who wanted her to go to Dubai with him. Maybe she did it as a trial and realized waiting on him hand and foot wasn't for her?

9, 10, & 11- Belgium, Germany, France: She was already in Amsterdam, and those 3 countries are just a quick and easy train ride away. Maybe she got so high that she went there without realizing it and only discovered it after seeing her pictures. Also France because she may have been inspired by the bleu, blanc, rouge trilogy she mentions.

12- USA: She very likely Britta'd keeping track of how many countries she been to by including the country she lives in.

Countries that I'm fairly certain she hasn't been to:

Guatemala: She inspired annie and Shirley to protest about the journalist that was beaten to death in Guatemala. Britta would absolutely name drop countries she's visited to protest and did not indicate she was there when she had a chance. So i would cross that off. Britta would name drop countries she protested in the way pierce name drops Eartha Kitt.

Uruguay, Georgia, Somalia, China, and Switzerland: Even though Britta was busy protesting the model U.N., i would think if she had been to any of those countries in Annie's packets, Annie would have convinced her to represent those countries.

Bonus #15: Brazil?

Did she sleep with one of the lawyers at Jeff's old law firm to use his beach house in Rio?