Community: Season 4
  • Network: NBC
  • Series Premiere Date: Sep 17, 2009
  • Season #: 1 , 2 , 3 , 4
Metascore
69 out of 100

Generally favorable reviews - based on 18 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 12 out of 18
  2. Mixed: 6 out of 18
  3. Negative: 0 out of 18
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  1. TV Guide
    Reviewed by: Matt Roush
    Feb 7, 2013
    90
    Community is undimmed in its marvelously inventive wackiness. Trippy as ever as it continues to send up sitcom conventions with surreal zeal.
  2. Newsday
    Reviewed by: Verne Gay
    Feb 6, 2013
    91
    Still defiantly Community, still good and still uninterested in adding new viewers.
  3. The Huffington Post (formerly AOL TV)
    Reviewed by: Maureen Ryan
    Feb 6, 2013
    70
    In the two episodes NBC sent for review, Port and Guarascio are respectful to what came before--possibly too respectful, but the desire to not rock the boat is understandable.
  4. Hitfix
    Reviewed by: Alan Sepinwall
    Feb 7, 2013
    67
    It feels like Port, Guarascio and the other writers decided to reverse-engineer the Harmon version of Community, but couldn’t quite manage without the missing ingredient of Harmon himself.
  5. Philadelphia Daily News
    Reviewed by: Ellen Gray
    Feb 7, 2013
    70
    This feels very much like the show I've been watching all along.
  6. Boston Herald
    Reviewed by: Mark A. Perigard
    Feb 7, 2013
    83
    Community is still kicking, with more gas and laughs than just about any other NBC sitcom.
  7. San Francisco Chronicle
    Reviewed by: David Wiegand
    Feb 5, 2013
    75
    Fans were rightly worried when Harmon was canned, but at least the first two shows of the new season follow his crazy-quilt template.
  8. Time
    Reviewed by: James Poniewozik
    Feb 7, 2013
    60
    The new episodes don’t have the old complexity, messiness and poignance. They don’t inspire the wild excitement of having no idea what’s going to come on the screen next. They don’t have that electric sense of experimenting on the fly. And they don’t seem to do what Harmon had them do, what Community itself did, which is: grow.
  9. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: Mike Hale
    Feb 6, 2013
    40
    The show has been dumbed down, its humor broadened past recognition, and the two episodes provided for review have fewer laughs between them than a single good scene from the old Community.
  10. RedEye
    Reviewed by: Curt Wagner
    Feb 6, 2013
    88
    The quirky campus comedy is as clever and edgy as ever.
  11. New York Magazine (Vulture)
    Reviewed by: Matt Zoller Seitz
    Feb 22, 2013
    50
    It’s not a terrible show. But it’s missing that unharmonious Harmon-ian spark of madness, that smiling volatility that made the show exciting (for fans) even when a line or scene or whole episode wasn’t quite working.
  12. San Jose Mercury News/Contra Costa Times
    Reviewed by: Chuck Barney
    Feb 5, 2013
    75
    Community can be too consciously zany at times and occasionally misses more than it hits. But from the early looks of things, it seems to be holding up just fine.
  13. Salon
    Reviewed by: Willa Paskin
    Feb 7, 2013
    50
    The new episodes are such a good faith effort to continue Harmon’s legacy it’s a shame that they don’t really work at all.
  14. Entertainment Weekly
    Reviewed by: Clark Collis
    Feb 1, 2013
    83
    There are enough surreal, self-referential, and/or testicle-related jokes to have me signing up for at least a few more weeks of tutelage. [8 Feb 2013, p.69]
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  15. Slant Magazine
    Reviewed by: Mike Lechevallier
    Feb 5, 2013
    75
    Community has always been a series that wears its badge of snappy creativity proud, and it's fourth season doesn't shy away from that.
  16. The Daily Beast
    Reviewed by: Jace Lacob
    May 30, 2013
    70
    As for the two episodes themselves, they are good, if perhaps missing the same levels of confidence that Community exhibited during its run thus far
  17. PopMatters
    Reviewed by: Liz Medendorp
    Feb 7, 2013
    60
    If Community has been an underappreciated gem for the past three years, its fourth season premiere is sadly lackluster. But if the Dean’s episode-ending prediction isn’t entirely convincing, it could be that Guarascio and Port just need more time.
  18. Zap2it (Inside the Box)
    Reviewed by: Laurel Brown
    Feb 8, 2013
    60
    The writers of Community have done a good job with what they were given. The problem is, they needed Dan Harmon.

User Reviews

All reviews »
User Score
7.7 out of 10

Generally favorable reviews- based on 78 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 11 out of 14
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 14
  3. Negative: 2 out of 14
  1. Atr0s
    4
    Since I saw the announcement of Dan Harmon's dismissal, I became very worried for this show's future. I was willing to give it a chance though, since the writing department of the show is still the same and it has a grasp on what really moves this show. However, after seeing the first episode of the season 4, some of my worries turned out to be plausible.

    The show's old formula is still intact, full of cultural references like The Hunger Games, Muppet Babies, a spoof with laugh-track (which might got some people apprehensive at first sight) etc. However, the departure of Dan Harmon is very visible and now we know how important his work was, pushing everyone from the cast and staff to do what he thought it was good. His magic was to dump all sort of references in the episode and still manage to make it a cohesive story, taking liberty of squeezing out the best of every actor and actress there. All that seem lost in this episode. It felt like cobbled-up takes with the usual references but without anything to tie them together. The cast seemed lost, their talent unappreciated by the weak script they had to follow. Even Pierce, who's supposed to come up with a funny but outrageous bigotry every now and then was left out, his presence in the first episode being similar to a background prop.

    It hurts to see this show being so dull. When I heard we would have only 13 episodes I wished for more, now I'm seriously hoping it ends up fast enough. And if the show hits the bottom, I sincerely hope the new show runners David Guarascio and Moses Port never find a job in the TV again. You had it all, you could've even begged for Harmon's enlightenment but you tried and ruined it.    … Full Review »
  2. python2000
    9
    Although Community Season 4 will certainly not be as good as Seasons 1 and 2, I'm sure it will still be an outstanding piece of television, and be superior to many other current TV programmes.… Full Review »
  3. bl_nk
    6
    I should preface this review by mentioning that I'm a longtime Community viewer who's seen every season up to this point, and I was nervous about about NBC dismissing series creator Dan Harmon. After watching the first episode, it would seem that my nervousness was justified. NBC screwed up. The characters seem different and the humor never rises to the standards set by the previous seasons. It feels as if a group of strangers watched a bunch of Community episodes and then did their best approximation of every character's mannerisms and typical episode scenarios-- like a cheap knockoff of the Community I know and love. That isn't to say that this new Community is horrible, it's not. I laughed a couple of times during the first episode. It's merely passably good whereas the old Community was one of the all time greats. Maybe it will get better as the season progresses, can't say I'm optimistic though. As of this moment, the show just feels off.… Full Review »
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