It's been over for many years now, but after a recent watch-through of the final series I was reminded again of why Community is near-perfect television.

I think you'd be hard pressed to find a show with a more convoluted production mythology - and one that survived losing then regaining its core creator, actually being cancelled and also shedding several of its key cast members. This is Community though and it's far from a normal TV show.

Centered around a cynical man-child (based on Harmon himself) who learns to value friendship through a disparate study group in a community college, within its first season it quickly jumps the shark and becomes both about that whilst also becoming a remarkably strange existentialist and metatextual commentary on television and the nature storytelling itself. Around its peak in Seasons 2-3 it manages to juggle a vast array of different genres all whilst maintaining an incredibly consistent ensemble cast and some genuinely affecting character moments.

After this, the perpetual motion engine falters, there's a gas leak, two miracle resurrections and the aforementioned loss of core characters causes a stuttering and flawed, but sweetly re-Harmoned, final season. It ended, as it thrived, on its own terms. The reason that Community, certainly at its peak, is so great is that it's a tremendously well-cast and strange bit of American comedy but made entirely by people who love the form deeply and care about interesting and honest storytelling. It's recent Netflix debut, and the hype surrounding it, not to mention the eruption of joy for the Covid-19 tableread and the continued rumours of a movie is testament to its legacy.