Ladders

When Dean is announcing the "Study Group Members" individually, he DIDN'T mention Shirley.

Dean mentions that Abed wrote the announcements. So why is Abed shocked that Shirley isn't there anymore? Surely Abed would know that either Shirley: *Went away, which is why she wasn't announced *DIDNT go away, so there should have been a Shirley section in the announcement.

Why didn't Abed already know that she left?! How did he know already work it out by the omitted announcement?

well first thank god yahoo picked the show up and ordered 13 episode.. i think this would be the final season,, the ratings are not that high but the show deserves an ending in a best way.

This season premiered really weak ,, thou adding a new character "Frankie" is nice after "Shirley" has gone too.

The other characters still have their jaunty traditional lines and personalities.

the show is still good but not great ,, i always measure other episodes in here vs two Legendary episodes, "the one in Halloween where Abed saves the day as batman" and "first paintball war in Greendale".

After all i hope the show ends in a decent memorable way.

So I've been binging community from the beginning and have read a few things online declaring seasons 1-3 the best of the bunch, which I totally agree with.

I've also seen several commenters saying that season 4 is the weakest of the 6 - a view I have to say I don't share. I believe that (dis)honour should go to season 5.

Season 5 seemed desperate to reclaim the outlandish and bonkers atmosphere of the earlier seasons, but wound up being a bit of a pale immitation of earlier seasons.

I would also have to say that the loss of Troy really hampered one of the funniest elements of the community formula; Abed's meta humour. It felt as if Troy and Abed were effectively a single unit up to this point, and losing half of that unit (probably the best bit of the show) was definitely a blow that couldn't be easily recovered from. Also the loss of Pierce (irritating as he could be) and the conflict he embodied was also detrimental to the show's formula.

So, by the end of season 5 I was kind of wondering if there was any point "saving" Greendale for another season. Basically at this point I'm just watching to see how it ends.

I don't mean to criticise Community too harshly - it's still more entertaining than a lot of the other drab and formulaic sitcoms out there, but I guess that's the danger of setting the bar so high to begin with.

With that in mind, the first episode of the final season wasn't too bad. For such a good show that shouldn't be much of an accolade, but compared to season 5 it's pretty high praise in my opinion.

Abed is more entertaining in this episode and the new character brings a different dynamic to the group. Abed's montage fixation this episode had a fairly amusing payoff too.

To sum up: This is a country mile from being a classic community episode, and it's clear the show has about snuffed it. But, based on the season 5 set-up, this wasn't the chore to get through that I was expecting.

And for what's left of the study group, that's kind of a win. A conclusion that makes me die inside a little, but I guess that's the best I can hope for at this point.