Nov 06 2009
Community Check-Up
Community, along with Glee, seems to be the new fall show that friends of mine have really latched on to. I’ve been enjoying it quite a bit (with such an awesome cast, how can you not), but I feel like the show hasn’t quite hit its stride yet.
Community focuses on the members of a small Spanish study group at a community college. Joel McHale plays the central character, Jeff, who previously worked as a lawyer until it was discovered that his degree wasn’t completely legit. So now, in order to get his life back, Jeff has to go back to school and he’s looking to put the least amount of effort in as possible. I love McHale but, so far, he writers seem to have Jeff in a sort of Groundhog Day-style loop. Every episode it seems like Jeff does something kind of stupid and insensitive and then, by it’s end, he learns a lesson about how wrong it was and makes amends. It makes sense for the first few episodes, but it’s already wearing a bit thin. I would also submit that I’m fairly uninterested in the manufactured will they/won’t they romance between and Jeff and Britta (Gillian Jacobs), the latter being probably the most uninteresting character in a very impressive ensemble.
Danny Pudi’s Abed is easily my favorite character in the show. This isn’t that surprising considering that he views the world through the lens film and television and, for a media nerd like me, it’s something I can relate to. It’s possible that at some point his terribly meta comments about “if this were a TV show” or “this is just like The Breakfast Club” will wear at some point, but right now they’re incredibly charming.
The rest of cast is also quite amusing. It goes without saying that having Chevy Chase appear weekly on my TV is a gift that keeps on giving. Alison Brie is just as charming here as she has been on Mad Men and I hope that she will continue to appear in the latter despite this new gig. Yvette Nicole Brown is just adorable, especially in the episode where she and Jeff bonded over trash talking Britta’s hippy boyfriend. Donald Glover kind of flies under the radar, until those fantastic end of episode moments that he shares with Pudi that involve the two doing something ridiculous and funny. And, of course, there’s Ken Jeong as Spanish teacher Senor Chang, who always manages to make everything that comes out of his mouth hilarious.
Much as The Office rarely leaves the walls of Dunder Mifflin, Community has, thus far, only shown us these characters as they exist on their college campus. It’ll be interesting to see how this is sustained over the long haul and how much we’ll actually get to see of their personal lives outside of school.
Community has shown a lot of promise, but it feels like it’s still waiting to be truly great.
