Monday, January 9, 2012

Community

(Image from NBC)
Community is my new favorite show! I have always seen an episode here and there on TV, but recently got season 2 on DVD, and I'm loving it.  You may recognize a few members of this awesome cast. Troy (Donald Glover) aka Childish Gambino, he is a rapper, writer for shows like 30 Rock, and he's probably my favorite character in this show.  Jeff (Joel McHale) is the main character, who is also the host of the show "Soup".  Abed is hillarious, he's the obligatory minority with a twist.  His character is super witty and dry.  Abed talks super monotone and lack of emotion, and he always points of the parallels of the "show" and a tv show.  Then you also have Chevy Chase and Ken Jeong who have both been in a handful of movies.
Shirley, Annie and Britta make the amigas of the show.  I kinda have a crush on Annie, but then again she is the most annoying character of the show, so it's a love/hate relationship in my mind.
The premise of the show is that all these guys form a study group at the local community college.  Every episode follows multiple engaging stories between the different characters.  For example the last episode I watched was about Jeff and Annie trying to figure out how they can make up fake classes to earn fake credits.  Jeff wants the free credits he made up from a night class he made up, while Annie tries to uncover his lie because she doesn't like his dishonesty.  Well that whole story quickly turns into an "inception-like" plan where each person is actually creating conspiracy theories to prove a point to the other person.  It's complicated by hilarious.  While on the other side of the episode Troy and Abed make a huge blanket fort.  They keep trying to make it bigger and better, and then it develops into a huge blanket fort city involving the entire dorm.
Rating Breakdown:
Characters 4/5  This show is very character driven.  They do not have a lot of depth, but they do have a lot of identity.  Each person has an important dynamic on the show, and adds to the comedy of each episode and situation.
Acting 5/5  My favorite part about this show is the acting.  Each line and facial expression delivers a joke.  It's so cheesy and has so many inside jokes from previous episodes that it adds another layer or intrigue if you watch more than one episode.  This isn't oscar quality acting, but it is perfect acting for a comedy in my opinion.
Plot - 3/5  The plot is not the strong part of this show.  Yes the episodes are funny and carry lots of parallels to real life school and friendships.  The main character is an ex-lawyer who got disbarred because he made up his bar test results.  So he's going back to school to get a real education to go back to his career.  Not the best story line there, but then again, you don't really watch comedy for its plot.

Overall Rating 4/5  I was close to giving in 5/5 but the story lines make it so you can only handle an episode or two at a time.  It's not one of those shows where you want to keep watching episode after episode to see how the plot develops.  The episodes are hilarious and the messages it delivers rival that of a grown up "Full House" sitcom.  I'd recommend this show to those that enjoy shows such as Big Bang Theory, SNL, The Office and Soup.  It is not a show for everyone though.  It's jokes are quick and witty, which are hard for some to really grasp.  There is also a lot of sarcasm and pop culture references.

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