'Community'

Let’s pretend last season never happened.

The fifth season of the NBC comedy “Community” is now underway. The show has been firing on all cylinders, and the writing has been superb thus far. The show’s brilliance is emphasized by the utter chaos and dysfunction of last year.

First, NBC fired Dan Harmon, the creator and head writer of “Community,” in spring 2013.

However, due to the show’s cult following and NBC’s inability to create hits, the show stayed on the air.

But firing the genius behind the show created trouble. He was replaced by new showrunners David Guarascio and Moses Port.They tried their best to match the wit and distinctiveness of previous seasons, but came up short.

The show became so far-fetched and rotten that even the biggest fans of “Community” could not bear to watch once-loved characters struggle through such absurd situations.

NBC had a choice to make.

They could stick with this crummy version, cancel the show completely or rescind their decision and allow Dan Harmon to come back.

Well, Harmon is back, and the ship has been righted.

“Community” will never be the ratings bonanza that NBC wants or the normal college-shenanigans sitcom that would give it a boost in popularity.

Instead, the show relies on callbacks, meta references and very detailed characters.

Also, “Community” never sticks to one format. Even though it is usually a multi-camera comedy, there have been episodes entirely in claymation, video-game graphics or a film-noir format.

All of these gimmicks are interesting and fun, but what makes the show really run are the characters.

The concept of the show began with a study group of seven people who are given community college stereotypes, such as jock or teacher’s pet, but are fleshed out over the course of the show.

A disbarred lawyer named Jeff Winger, played by Joel McHale, never finished school and needs to go back to community college to get a degree. He ends up creating a study group to try to impress a girl and, eventually, this eclectic unit becomes inseparable.

A common mantra for fans of the show is “six seasons and a movie.” Those dedicated fans have kept this little-show-that-could on the air.

It has gone through rough patches, but the comedy is back with the show in the right person’s hands.