'Community' review: Never fear, the gang's all here

Everyone is back for senior year, igniting a deep-seated separation anxiety in Abed (Danny Pudi), who is advised (or "therapized") by Britta (Gillian Jacobs) to go to a happier place in his mind. He does. Meanwhile, Jeff Winger (Joel McHale) is especially eager to graduate from Greendale Community; Dean Felton (Jim Rash) is especially anxious to have him stay. Annie (Alison Brie), Shirley (Yvette Nicole Brown), Pierce (Chevy Chase) and Troy (Donald Glover) are all wondering about life after Greendale, too. Leonard (Richard Erdman) is not. Fred Willard guests.

This should go a little way toward allaying fan fears that "Community" without Harmon has turned into "Friends." It has not, and could not even if it wanted to. If anything, new show runners David Guarascio and Moses Port have overcorrected. "Community" remains adamantly, defiantly disconnected from anything else on NBC, or on TV for that matter. Super hard-core fans may still hate it, if only because Harmon is gone. But they probably should know that some links to the past -- besides the entire cast -- remain. One of those includes British comedy director Tristram Shapeero, who is still with the show, and directs the Feb. 21 episode, "Conventions of Space and Time," about a visit to an Inspector Spacetime convention. Fans have gotta love that, right?

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