Community is on Netflix! Here's why you should watch it

A great show rejoins the fray! “Community” could be exactly what the world needs.

The watch culture around shows such as “The Office” or “Parks and Recreation” has been

fueled for many years by streaming services like Netflix that keep them in a reliable

place for us to consume.

In the middle of this 2020 quarantine, people are sure to be running out of the

usual shows to watch; so my pick for what to binge is NBC’s “Community.” 

Community is a comedy tv series created by Dan Harmon (co-creator of Rick and Morty).

The show takes a diverse and charming cast through community college and all the wild

adventures that occur during it. It was a launching pad for many amazing actors who

really show their talent in this six season series that's now streaming on Netflix.

Our cast consists of actors such as:  Gillian Jacobs who starred in Netflix’s

“Love”, Yvette Nicole Brown who had a recurring role on “Drake and Josh”, Alison

Brie from Netflix’s “GLOW”, and others including Donald Glover, Joel McHale, and

Danny Pudi, who all have expansive careers beyond this show! 

Dan Harmon explained why he thought the show worked so well on Larry King's interview

show. He explained that it was the sincerity of the show which made it work. Harmon elaborates

by saying how the ‘norm’ of tv production is that most creators ( around the shows release of 2009 )

saw show creation as ‘just a job’. Dan expresses that, “I was obsessed with that show as any

viewer could have been”. 

Harmon is humble when giving praise to his show but im not, Community does a lot of

things right and a big one is how they handle their characters. The writers remember!

Community is an episodic show, where each episode is a largely self contained story but

the actions/ consequences of the previous character arcs always come into play in the

most interesting ways with every new episode. The show is clever and it really keeps you

on your toes.

Community is a show that debuted in 2009, making it pretty aged in terms of media lifespan.

This piece of video comes at the cost of some outdated ideas about gender roles. There are

many jokes and storylines that focus on misogynistic ideals. However these are always

presented in a manner that you are not to agree with, through characters like Pierce who

is a doddering old white man that will more so than not, say the wrong thing. This subtracts

very little from the show's humor and in many ways has a positive effect when you take a

moment to realize how far and how positively we have come as a culture in the acceptance

and inclusion of all peoples into our media. 

I've just started season two of the show and it's already blowing my mind. I talked with

friends who are as big of fans of the show as I am and they’ve praised it for how buckwild

it gets. As an example, continuing the show's spoofing of other events/ genres, there is a fake

race to the moon style episode in season two that mocks our own worlds pride driven race to be the first in space. The episode in question is Season two: Episode four, “Basic Rocket Science” where the college the show is based in wants to be the first school to have a virtual astronaut training class. So of course the dean finds a decommissioned KFC space camp truck that our main cast is in charge of getting in working order; the insanity only escalates from there.

In talking about the shows beginnings, here's a quote from actress Gillian Jacobs
( who played Britta ). This is pulled from a live full cast interview and Dan Harmon
just gave praise to what Brittas character becomes over the course of the show.
Jacobs begins with, “I had never gotten to do a pilot that was that well written” she continues,
“I was just blown away by the extraordinary talent of the cast, which the world has
since discovered.” Many shows have a gem in the rough type beginnings where their pilot
episodes are less than great, but “Community” was a hit from the start.

Quarantine is far from the easiest thing to endure, but with shows new and old as awesome

and enthralling as this one, I have hope we’ll get through it.

At a Glance
Community
Starring: Joel McHale, Gillian Jacobs, Donald Glover,
Yvette Nicole Brown, Alison Brie, Chevy Chase, Danny Pudi
Summary: comedy tv series created by Dan Harmon
Rated: TV 14
Showing On: Netflix
Distributor: NBC
Rating: *****

Links:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-HvpKCMe5U
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNBT6qovEow

My Quarantine ( and its rays of sunlight )

In this time of turmoil, when tensions are high and the world has to stay away from itself, not many things are easy or pretty. However, that doesn't mean that beauty has left our world. This is my perspective from quarantine, showing what I'm seeing the world do. 

Just like everyone else, I am staying inside, reading, doing school work, and longing to see my friends again. I live at home with my family, which is extremely nice, as it gives me a small patch of people to communicate with

( especially when the paranoia creeps in ). 

My animals are around me, acting as a comfortable buffer to the news terribly displayed on our kitchen’s Alexa device. I'm very fortunate and I cannot imagine what some of the true isolation might be like for others. I have a friend who has scarcely looked out his only window for over two weeks.

My mother has been extremely caring, and as I was in the planning stages of moving into my own place before the quarantine began, she has said on a few occasions (either verbally, through glances or with tight squeezing hugs ) how she's glad that we’re all together for this pandemic. 

My immediate family consists of my mother, father, younger brother, smooth collie dog, and two very fluffy cats. We get along awesomely normally and even though together we have been pressed thin attempting to keep each other sane, somehow we’re getting through it.

I have been actively doing everything in my power to bring as much joy into the lives of those around me as I possibly can. Completing every task I can muster to shield them from the wave of frenzied paranoia that could overtake even the strongest of minds. Producing as much positivity as possible.

Recently I completed a large chromatic portrait drawn in colored pencil for a friend. The portrait is of a black cat named Gary that roams their neighborhood and our friend group loves quite a bit. I made this because I wanted to give my friend something to look forward to when we can return to our world. 

While I have been doing everything I can in this period of isolation to bring joy to the hearts of those I care for, I seem to have forgotten the outside world a little bit. I have only ventured out into the world a few smatterings of times throughout this event (only to go to the grocery store or on an isolated hike ) and I am continually amazed at how the world is continuing. 

I know that my community here in Corvallis, Oregon is far from the center of the epidemic, but in my mind I was viewing the outer world as a solitude-filled wasteland. Sure there are much fewer people in the streets and the buildings have regulated amounts of people in them, but the world is continuing.

This shows me the resiliency of the human race. How we understand that the world is aflame with no one to blame, yet we continue. We find comfort where we can and with our bootstraps tied high we march forward. Hoping beyond hope that there's a new light awaiting not too far away. 

( p.s. I bet there is )

On Writing Reactions

"Good stories seem to come quite literally from nowhere -- two previously unrelated ideas come together and make something new under the sun. Your job isn't to find these ideas but to recognize them when they show up" (p. 25)

That quote was pulled from Stephen Kings book, "On Writing" in his book is a chronological series of memories beginning with his first, as he shows us how the world he lived in built him to become a writer.

This next quote in particular pairs excellently with our earlier line, "We are writers, and we never ask one another where we get our ideas; we know we don't know".

I take notes about everything im thinking about, especially when its related to what I plan to write on. All of my notes are stored away in my phone on my notes app. organized into folder after folder, some focusing on certain topics, others on specific themes and how I could/ others have invoke(d) them. If I were to lose my phone without a backed up version of those notes, well needless to say I would be in a bit of tizzy.

One idea might spark extra bright whenever you're looking at it 10 years down the line. and as a creative and healthy mind will pump out or hear so many ideas a day that you don't know what to do with them, so store them for later in your idea freezer and when you're stumped in your writing come pick one out of the pack.

Great ideas are everywhere, you just have to build yourself the tools to catch them.

Evenin' Folks

This is the first post for this blog and it is an About Me:

My name is Tiernan Patrick Towey, Tiernan is

an extremely irish name that means little knight.
currently as I am writing this post I am at the end of my second year of college, pursuing my associates degree in Psychology.

With the world being relatively shut down as it is currently during this pandemic, I think posting updates to this blog will be a great way to keep a semblance of sanity, as otherwise I find myself catching up on shows I've been meaning to watch, completing online homework assignments, and creating as much art as I have the inspiration for.
I signed up for this Journalism class in hopes to define what I want to do in this lifetime, as journalism is one of the options in my mind, I hope that this class will solidify if that's a path I wish to pursue.

As a forward to what this term will provide, I hope that I..

1. Discover if Journalism is a new passion of mine
2. Publish at least one truly awesome piece in a reputable paper ( like the commuter )
3. Make as many people happy as I can.