Opinions on the Dan Harmon news?

[katewrites]

Well, flist? Opinions on the Dan Harmon/Community news? I find tumblr to be a place of increasingly scary tinhattery.

Comments

[tassosss]

In wait and see mode. I don't like it, and I'm worried about how it will affect the show I love, but not willing to abandon Community yet.

[wakeupnew]

I think Harmon's unprofessional and a jerk, from what I've read about the guy/have seen him say on Twitter, and I really haven't enjoyed this last season of Community at all, so -- while the way that Sony went about this is UTTER SHIT -- I'm honestly fine with it. The guys they hired to replace him are from Happy Endings, which I love, and Aliens in America, which has a great reputation, so I'm pleased. I'm actually more likely to tune in in September now that I know there's a different creative team in charge, just to check it out.

[katewrites]

Yeah, that's me. I mean, I appreciate how much Dan Harmon contributes and that he really is the driving force behind the show, but a tv show is automatically a collaboration. So, I'm wait and see as well.

[katewrites]

YES. I think that the whole "Dan Harmon is our god" thing is a little undeserved. For all of his flaws, Joss never publicly ranted/derided a cast member. I think that there's a difference between being friendly with fans and airing dirty laundry in public, which is something I think that more often than not Harmon errs on the wrong side of that (and NOT just with Chevy Chase, but with Sarah Silverman and countless other instances).

Sony is definitely in "bag of dicks" territory for going about it this way, but it's their property.

Is Happy Endings good? I've been meaning to watch, mostly because of gifs I see on tumblr (I think from your blog, lol).

[wakeupnew]

Yeah, Harmon is known for being a dick to his cast and crew and for being impossible to work with, and just watching him blog/write shit on Twitter tends to seriously rub me the wrong way. And he was such a fuckface when people criticized the genocide jokes that Community did in that one episode; I think I've rage blacked out his response, because I can't remember what he said/did, but I just remember being SO ANGRY. So while the way that Song treated him is reprehensible, I also just don't feel that bad for the guy. I don't get the intensity of the "Harmon is our god" responses, especially when Community isn't the same show it was a few seasons ago.

I love Happy Endings; it never fails to make me laugh and it rarely makes me mad and the love that the characters have for each other is really fabulous and lovely without being saccharine or eye-rolly. Plus, Brad and Jane are the #1 best couple on TV. It's one of those shows where it started off decent and then has seriously grown into itself.

[katewrites]

YES and YES to the Harmon thing. I'm not saying that they're perfect, but when I think about showrunners I love that have a huge impact on their shows - Tina Fey, Matt Nix, Joss Whedon, Josh Freidman - you think about how CLASSY they are. Like, they know their fans are a big deal, but they're also aware that getting involved with arguments on the internet is BAD BUSINESS.

Which is something I have never felt like Harmon got. TV/Movies are a business and like any business if you give yourself enough of a reputation of being too gossipy or too honest or just too "not good in the locker room" you stop getting people who want to work for you.

I feel like I'm bashing Harmon, but I guess I'm just frustrated because this kind of discomfort I've felt with his level of honesty, his trash talking actors, producers and networks has coalesced since reading his response to the news of his firing. I've seen classier responses and it just doesn't put me in his corner as much as a response like, "I can't wait to see what they bring to the table, I look forward to the new direction the show is going, etc" would.

I feel like he was short shrifted, and really done one over, but I can't believe his agent is so incompetent that after Community was renewed he wasn't on the phone with Sony trying to secure a new contract.