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This piece of video comes at the cost of some outdated ideas about gender roles.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.
( 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: *****
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