Ahhh, juco, probably where I belong right now. After hearing some good things about Community, I decided to try it out. I haven't seen much American comedy lately so not sure how this stacks up against what's already out there. The show is about some community college students who bond over a Spanish study group. It's an eclectic bunch, as is required for every sitcom, with Joel McHale of Talk Soup fame heading the group. He plays Jeff, a newly disbarred lawyer who fudged his college diploma (turns out Colombia has an extra 'o') so enrolls in a local college to finish his degree.
Jeff picks up a few friends along the way, most of whom cannot be described as normal. The characters are so zany that you kind of have to take the show as is. Britta, Jeff's love interest and one of the more lucid personalities here, accuses him of being arrogant and selfish, which he is. He trusts that his talent for lying, cheating, and general deception will carry him through his classes just as it did his career. In the first episode, he tries to enlist a former client and teacher at the college, played by one John Oliver, to give him all the answers to every test. Fail. His inadequacy, however, is more than matched by his new friends, including a moist-towelette tycoon, an ex-high school jock and the nerdy nut who sat behind him, a black single mother with a sharp tongue, and an Asian Muslim kid with dad issues (hmmm, no typecasting there). Throw in Ken Jeong being a Ken Jeong character, this time in the form of Senor Chang the Spanish teacher, and you have the making of a fantastically epileptic show. Half the laughs are well earned and come from straight witty writing while the other half is the type that gets squeezed out of uncomfortable absurdity - a teacher who thinks Robin Williams' Dead Poets antics actually work, John Oliver flipping out because his psychology experiment doesn't pan out. I understand some of it is tongue and cheek, as when two students protest the lack of press freedom in Guatemala because they want to bake brownies for a cause and tape their mouths during a candlelight vigil. Of course I could just have issues with Ken Jeong who is a veritable bottle of Ritalin that needs a better childproof cap. Overall though, the show's a good pickup. Community college dares us to hope, so NBC would have us believe. All these guys are pathetic, which is exactly what makes them endearing.
(Kudos to whoever penned the Degrassi nod in episode 4. Treat.)
Abed (the Asian) and Troy (the jock) rocking the Spanish.
Krumping in the study room because that's the place to do it.
