Community is a sitcom that ran from 2009 to 2015. It starred Joel McHale as Jeff Winger, a lawyer who was disbarred for obtaining a fraudulent law degree. He is forced to (for some reason) go back to community college to get an undergrad degree so he can restore his law degree. Of course, anyone with any knowledge of the legal profession knows that everything about that is totally preposterous, but in a goofy comedy, it works fine. Winger wants to get through school with the least amount of resistance possible, tries to find the easiest classes to take, and forms a study group with an interesting mix of students. The rest of the main cast included Allison Brie as Annie, a recent high-school graduate who was the classic over-achiever who popped Adderall, Danny Pudi as Abed, an aspiring film student who sees everything through a pop-culture movie or tv show lens, Gillian Jacobs as Britta, a mid-30s cynic trying to figure out what to do with her life, Donald Glover as Troy, an ex high-school football star who personifies the "dumb jock" persona, Yvette Nicole Brown as a middle-aged housewife going to school to put her life back together after a divorce, and Chevy Chase who plays Pierce, a rich, old racist who keeps enrolling in school for something to do. The recurring season one cast included Ken Jeong as Senor Chang, the Spanish teacher who could barely speak Spanish, Jim Rash as the very politically correct Dean of the school (who would become series regulars in subsequent seasons), and John Oliver and John Michael Higgins and professors at the school.
In the first season, the focus of the show was on character development and the school storylines, basically the weird mix of people you get at community college. The show hit home for me as I was, at the time, a lawyer going back to undergrad to get an engineering degree, and I started out by taking classes at a local community college, and there was definitely a weird mix of personalities around campus. The show is basically a story-of-the-week show that has some kind of theme either involving something in the lives of one or more of the characters, or something going on at the school. Toward the end of the season, we get the first of what would become a signature for the series, the paintball episode in which the winner of a school-wide game of paintball gets priority registration the next semester. Of course, the game gets totally out of hand, and the paintball episodes get crazier and crazier as the show went on.
For those who get the DVD set, the extras include audio commentary on every episode with series creator Dan Harmon and various members of the cast. There are also a couple of short mockumentary features, including cast evaluations in which Harmon evaluates the performance of each cast member. There are a few mini-episodes, deleted and alternate scenes, a season highlight reel, and an extended cut of the episode "Communication Studies". A lot of material for those who like watching the extras.
Overall, the show is very good. It is very well-written and well-acted, even if the main cast was made up of mostly unknown actors (aside from Chase; who if rumors about his on-set behavior are to be believed, thought he was better than everyone and treated everyone else like shit) and the guy who hosted "The Soup". While the main premise of the show is totally preposterous, the fact that much of the show was very tongue-in-cheek and did not take itself too seriously, it worked. While it did include some elements common to pretty much every sitcom, it was not a carbon copy of anything and had no problem making fun of pretty much any topic. So, if you have not seen the show and are trying to figure out if you should give it a chance, it is well worth watching.
In the first season, the focus of the show was on character development and the school storylines, basically the weird mix of people you get at community college. The show hit home for me as I was, at the time, a lawyer going back to undergrad to get an engineering degree, and I started out by taking classes at a local community college, and there was definitely a weird mix of personalities around campus. The show is basically a story-of-the-week show that has some kind of theme either involving something in the lives of one or more of the characters, or something going on at the school. Toward the end of the season, we get the first of what would become a signature for the series, the paintball episode in which the winner of a school-wide game of paintball gets priority registration the next semester. Of course, the game gets totally out of hand, and the paintball episodes get crazier and crazier as the show went on.
For those who get the DVD set, the extras include audio commentary on every episode with series creator Dan Harmon and various members of the cast. There are also a couple of short mockumentary features, including cast evaluations in which Harmon evaluates the performance of each cast member. There are a few mini-episodes, deleted and alternate scenes, a season highlight reel, and an extended cut of the episode "Communication Studies". A lot of material for those who like watching the extras.
Overall, the show is very good. It is very well-written and well-acted, even if the main cast was made up of mostly unknown actors (aside from Chase; who if rumors about his on-set behavior are to be believed, thought he was better than everyone and treated everyone else like shit) and the guy who hosted "The Soup". While the main premise of the show is totally preposterous, the fact that much of the show was very tongue-in-cheek and did not take itself too seriously, it worked. While it did include some elements common to pretty much every sitcom, it was not a carbon copy of anything and had no problem making fun of pretty much any topic. So, if you have not seen the show and are trying to figure out if you should give it a chance, it is well worth watching.
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