If you’ve been anywhere near Twitter in the past few days, you’ve probably come across hashtags like #sixseasonsandamovie, #savegreendale and, most interestingly, #netflixsavecommunity. This explosion of social media activity was sparked when NBC canceled cult comedy Community last week, undoubtedly due to its often low ratings. The grief cycle of fans across the ‘net has been fairly consistent. First, fury directed at NBC set in, with fans sending out angry (and mostly justified) messages about how the network never deserved a show of Community‘s caliber to begin with.
As a huge, vocal fan of the show, I definitely experienced a little bit of that, though not as much as others. After all, Community did manage to eke out renewals year after year, and cheating death became one of the show’s best running jokes. Despite all the critical acclaim, low ratings can usually kill an NBC show very quickly, but the fans just wouldn’t let Community go. Now that the axe has fallen, they still won’t.
Next, fans fell into sorrow, thanking show creator Dan Harmon and the cast for all the great memories but voicing their heartbreak that the six-season mark they had long lobbied for would not be reached, after all. With five seasons broadcast on NBC, the idea that a finale would be ordered seemed like common sense for most fans – until suddenly, with one announcement from the Peacock Network, those dreams were dashed against the rocks. Or were they?
As is the nature of Community‘s fans, the fight is far from over. Over the past few days, fans have been loudly lobbying for Community to find a new home with another network. TBS, FX, USA, Hulu, Crackle and Amazon have all been looped in, with fans tweeting out their support and sending in request after request to customer support reps. However, the network which has received the most influx of requests has undoubtedly been Netflix.