Troy and Abed sep-uh-raaaaating!
Well, this new piece of news about “Community” season 5 is not cool cool cool: as first reported by Vulture’s Joe Adalian, Donald Glover will only be appearing in 5 of next season’s 13 episodes of the NBC comedy.
Glover, it seems, wants to devote more time to his rapping alter ego Childish Gambino, and worked out a deal with Sony to limit his appearances in the fifth season. (This is also a budgetary win for Sony, which will only have to pay Glover for those five episodes, and not pay Chevy Chase at all.)
It’s disappointing not only because Glover is one of the funniest, most versatile performers on the show, but because creator Dan Harmon is coming back for this season, and will now have to work with a diminished study group, and with only occasional appearances of the show’s most reliable comic pairing in Troy and Abed. And while I like Glover as an MC, he’s much better – and more distinctive – as a comic actor. I can appreciate the desire to branch out, especially given the perpetually tenuous fate of “Community,” but I’m just going to have to watch this Troy Barnes crying supercut for a while in hopes it will eventually cheer me up.
What does everybody else think? How much is your enthusiasm for season 5 diminished knowing that Glover will be around less than half the time?