After a lackluster season four, NBC’s Community is gearing up to premiere its fifth season next month, and all is right with the world. Though the fourth season was an undeniably poor outing for the cult meta-comedy, Dan Harmon is back in the saddle as showrunner, so the likelihood of Community returning to the same level of quality for which it has become renowned is quite high.
Today, NBC has revealed a concept trailer for the fifth season, focusing on protagonist Jeff Winger (Joel McHale), who finally graduated from Greendale Community College at the end of last season.
Check it out below:
It looks like Jeff is taking a page out of Breaking Bad lawyer Saul Goodman’s book, doing his best to snare customers with cheesy advertisements for his personal injury practice. However, judging by the look of those movers, it does not seem that life after Greendale has been all wine and roses for Jeff.
Luckily, Dan Harmon appears to be taking some much needed course correction after the poorly-received plot advances made by season four showrunners David Guarascio and Moses Port. Jeff comes back to Greendale as a professor, a move that, though obvious, should work to repair the dynamic of the show a little.
In the spirit of Community, the clip also features the Dean feeling a little too overjoyed by Jeff’s return, Leonard roaming the halls of Greendale, Abed providing gleeful meta commentary and some terrifically nutty costumes. Those with sharp eyes will also spot Ken Jeong’s Chang hovering in the background, new addition Jonathan Banks (Breaking Bad) as a shady criminology professor and fake show title Mr. Winger.
Though the trailer’s commitment to setting Jeff up as a teacher is understandable, I hope that this is just the start of a barrage of advertisements for Community, including ones that will hopefully feature the show’s actual title more prominently. We do want six seasons and a movie, after all, so getting fans to tune in for the premiere is key.
Will you be re-enrolling at Greendale next month? What do you think of Jeff’s new role on campus as professor? Let us know in the comments section!
Community returns to NBC on January 2nd for an one-hour premiere from 8-9 p.m.
