Community

The promos for this series really turned me off. Another dreary, predictable story about the uncaring horny guy pursuing the lovely stand-offish female? Wow was I wrong! These characters are refreshingly complex and give us lots of surprises in an all too short half-hour. The concept of a bunch of mismatched community college students bumbling through life is rich with possibilities and, speaking as a former community college student, has the ring of truth all the way through. All the actors are wonderful -- especially Gillian Jacobs and Alison Brie. The cherry on top is the amazing Chevy Chase, so oft-criticized for being the self-indulgent ham, who delivers as nuanced and compelling ensemble-sensitive performance as you are ever going to see. My sense is that this show has got some serious legs!

Ever find yourself flipping through your channel listings over and over and over again, throwing your remote at your dog, and complaining about the lack of quality television programs to your Twitter followers? Well, odds are you just haven't given the shows that are actually worth watching a chance. I made the mistake of avoiding the hidden gem that is Community for nearly two years. The often unappreciated NBC comedy follows the antics of a study group consisting of seven Greendale Community College students from all different walks of life: the egotistical and recently disbarred lawyer Jeff Winger (Joel McHale), the outspoken liberal Britta Perry (Gillian Jacobs), the dynamic/inseparable nerd duo of socially awkward Abed Nadir (Danny Pudi) and former high school jock Troy Barnes (Donald Glover), the pill-head turned sweetheart Annie "Adderall" Edison (Alison Brie), the morally driven Shirley Bennett (Yvette Nicole Brown), and the oldest, most inappropriate member of the group desperately trying to stay hip Pierce Hawthorne (Chevy Chase). The cast teamed with the incredibly talented writing staff will have you chortling by yourself at the witty jokes and fresh comical situations. Community's ability to develop such intricate relationships between the characters in such a short amount of time is what separates the award winner from the competition. In between the laughs, the show has a lot of heart, allowing viewers to build an emotional bond with the odd group of characters who, despite all of their differences, share a sort of symbiotic relationship. The show is simply in a league of its own. Community has the perfect mixture of comedy, emotion, and storyline, not to mention an incredible amount of action packed into a few paintball episodes. Like Fox's Arrested Development, Community, likely entering its last season, will go down as one of the most under-appreciated shows of all time.

Community is one of the smartest and most endearing sitcoms ever created. Despite its ups and downs, its creative lacks, the behind the scenes drama, I still would recommend it to anyone who considers themselves a fan of movies or tv shows, or anyone who's just a bit trope-savvy and enjoys cleverness and absurd humor. The comforting nature of the show comes from its setting: a school, a community college of dubious prestige where "lesser people" find each other and find value in their own messy existence. They have adventures and discoveries in the setting of the school, they fight, they fall in love. It takes the very concept of a teen sitcom and adds an extremely important factor: the playfulness. The playfulness of living a boring day of school, a boring event, like a life-changing movie-like adventure. That's how being in school feels like, and it's weird that the only show that captures it is a show about adults: every mystery turns into a true-crime fiction, every paint-ball game into a western/star wars fantasy war, every discovery into something magical. The show is not just "parodying" these stories, the show is the characters basically reenacting, living their lives as these stories. There's a kind of childish joy in seeing a blanket fort turn into a crazy underground city, or an investigation into a dead yam turn into a law&order episode. Rather, there's a joy in watching the characters basically pretending that this is the case, themselves playing characters, creating a make-believe world out of a trivial day of school, thrilling and fun but also ultimately safe and comforting. You can feel Harmon's joy of the creative process through the characters, and I'm willing to bet a lot of the actors in the cast had a blast. The 4th season (the one everyone hates) is not as bad as people say, it's just a pointless and functional imitation of the previous seasons. Pierce was probably one of the most interesting characters to put in the main cast of a show like this, shame for all that's happened. The later seasons feel a bit tired, but you can't deny that there's a lot of great moments in seasons 5 and 6, as short-lived and unlucky they were. It's amazing on first watch and still holds up on the third.

Community is absolutely one of my favorite sitcoms of all-time. I know people say this about a lot of shows but this is absolutely one of the most underrated comedies in the history of television. It's on most best comedies of all-time lists I've ever seen. Every character on the show is hilarious, there's not a weak link among them. There's literally not a bad character on the entire show. It's also one of the rare shows where every season is just as hilarious as the one's before it. Every episode of every season is terrific. The only exception is the last season isn't quite as good after Donald Glover leaves the show. It's still worth watching, it's just not as good without Glover. This show also has an endless supply of cameos throughout the series that are all fantastic. If you're looking for a show that will actually are you laugh out loud then give this a try. You won't be disappointed.

Finally, after a long dry-spell, I have found a live-action TV show that actually makes me laugh again.

Watching this show made me burst out laughing so many times. The script is wonderfully written and the actors have excellent comedic timing to match it. Sure, there are a few less-than-funny parts about it, but then again, it's not sketch comedy, so it can't be funny all the time.

McHale leads nicely, but both he and Gillian Jacobs do a weird 180 degree turn in character after a couple of episodes. It was supposed to be a step meant to make them seem more human and vulnerable, rather than absurd, comedic characters, but ends up making you a bit uneasy. A special kudos goes to Ken Jeong, for portraying one of the funnier characters portrayed on screen as of late.