“Community” Put on Mid-Season Hiatus

It’s going to be a long winter.

It’s not cancelled, I repeat, PUT DOWN YOUR WEAPONS, IT’S NOT CANCELLED, but NBC’s best sitcom, Community, has been put on mid-season hiatus while NBC tries to bring up its abysmal ratings. Starting in January, its Thursday 8pm slot will be replaced with “30 Rock,” that tired old sitcom that a few people in a small room are still laughing at. Prime Suspect also got benched, while the much-reviled Whitney got moved to anchor Wednesday nights.

I’ll let you hyperventilate and put in your requisite “WHY GOD, WHY”s before we continue.

Fans of Community, which has always been a favorite of critics for its quirky and meta storytelling, quickly began referring to NBC’s decision as “the darkest timeline” — a reference to last month’s episode “Remedial Chaos Theory,” in which a rolled die presents seven different timelines to the characters (which I thought was pretty freaking brilliant, but who am I to argue with the powers that be at Rockefeller Plaza, the same dumb motherfuckers who put up a giant Christmas tree in the middle of a pedestrian space every year for fun?).

It is a travesty of justice, an outrage against civilization, a crime against television humanity that Community doesn’t get the credit it so enormously deserves. But to be fair, the darkest timeline would be NBC cutting the show right now. The network has promised that the remaining episodes of the season, which will make up a full 22 episodes, will all be broadcast. So we will get a full third season. The question is whether we get a fourth. Speculation on the internet is that either Parks and Rec or Community will get the ax this spring — if not both.

In other words, ladies and gentlemen, winter is coming. And it is going to suck.