Community is a tricky thing, both fictitious and real.  Just ask the makers of NBC-now-Yahoo’s Community, starting its sixth season today with Yahoo’s Screen service.  If it happened to still be on NBC, it would be the final remnant of it’s Thursday night comedy block (at times with The Office, Parks and Recreation, and 30 Rock).  The show has basically been cancelled twice, lost its show-runner once, and had to deal with losing three original cast members.  Somehow, though, it has survived to have a season six (could a movie be next?).  The first two episodes are available now for free (and legally) here.  The show is still good, slightly crazed and meta.  We’ve got two new characters (“this is the new Shirley”), who might just be different enough to fit in well (and Abed’s take on that possibility is enjoyable to watch).  Both episodes hit the 25-minute mark, which is nice but could work against it, as the show works best when it is punchy.  Here’s the opening scene from the episode:

As always, Andy Greenwald has written a great piece about the new season.  He’s been a fan of the show for a long time and always brings a good critical eye to things.  You can check out his article here. And if you want to see how far the show has come (or gone astray, depending on your perspective), here’s a great scene from the show’s very first episode.  Like too much of life, when the clip goes too long, things just fall apart, the profound moment digresses into crass reality.