‘Community’ – NBC’s Singular Bit of Brilliance
“Community”, the half-hour comedy show on NBC, has demonstrated a fact that has long been questioned within the realm of television: is modern NBC capable of producing enjoyable, unique, and longterm viable programs? The answer, since the show has been renewed and continues to escalate in both quality and hilarity, appears to be yes.
A show starring a cocky celebrity personality from E!, old man Chevy Chase, creepy actor Jim Rash, self-desribed “crazy asian” Ken Jeong, and various no-name individuals with no noticeable acting credentials sounds like the call sheet for a C-list National Lampoon movie – except that it works surprisingly well. Even more surprising is that it exists on a network known for holding on to executive favorites and killing shows that have massive fan support. Jeff Zucker is not known for being competent.
The show’s unexpected brilliance and hilarious writing came through more clearly than usual in the most recent episode, “Modern Warfare”. For a show that is usually filled with pop culture references, self-referential jokes, random asides, and a demonstrated lack of self-seriousness, Dan Harmon and his writers outdid themselves with their homages to action movies, video games, and horror movies – all of which surrounded a very thin plot of a paintball game. As icing on their television cake, an entire scene was devoted to the comedic deconstruction of their network television sibling “Glee”, while giants like “Resident Evil” and “Die Hard” made their own silver-screen appearances.
Even though the show’s already been renewed for a second season, it remains to be seen whether or not the programming genius that is Jeff Zucker will deign to allow such uniquely original, and successful, comedy to remain on his network without hampering it significantly. Given the recent years of disastrous and questionable decisions by Zucker, statistics do not favor the continued freedom and existence of “Community”, but audiences, especially those with Internet-tendencies, can always hope.
Kyle can be found on his blog, on Facebook, via email, or on Twitter.
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If Tina Fey had gone to a community college, Liz Lemmon would find her place struggling in Spanish class with the rest of the group. The “accuracy” of its depiction of Community College life is no more an issue than the truthful depiction of medical school under “Scrubs”. But it is a brilliant mechanism to bring together diverse characters in bizarre situations, week after week. I don’t know how long the series can last, though- it’s a 2-year school.
This episode is sitting on my DVR, but I’m looking forward to watching it this weekend!
I don’t really think they’re trying to really depict community college, since most of them are insanely boring, but they’re just using it as a plot device like you said.
They managed to stretch Scrubs out for years, even after school was over, so we can hope! If they pretend each season is a semester, even though they’ve already ruined that, then we could get 4-6 seasons out of it, depending on if you include Summer.
–Kyle
In response to another comment. See in context »“various no-name individuals with no noticeable acting credentials”
Um… Not quite… Alison Brie (Annie) was on “Mad Men” and Donald Glover is a member of one of the more prominent independent comedy groups of recent memory (Derrick Comedy), wrote for “30 Rock” and has a nice little feature in the New York Times, all at the tender age of 26.
Leor,
I know of Donald Glover’s background, but I didn’t of Alison Brie. My point, excepting Brie now, was that none of them have been featured, star actors/actresses in anything – Glover may be funny and has written for “30 Rock”, but he hasn’t been in front of the camera before, as far as the majority of America is concerned.
Point conceded about Alison Brie though – “Mad Men” is large enough, I think.
–Kyle
In response to another comment. See in context »I understand that – and I hope you don’t think I’m berating you – but YouTube videos are every bit as big as “Mad Men.” Derrick Comedy videos hit some consistently impressive numbers (upper millions), whereas “Made Men” premiers hit the 2-3 million. Obviously, Nielsen numbers don’t count those who see the episodes later on DVD, and YouTube records every play… then again, people can play the same YouTube clip to dozens of others and it hardly makes any uptick in the count… Glover’s been on those videos, which got him the “30 Rock” job and folks outside of the industry thought he’d be on SNL… those rumors don’t just start themselves!
But I’m rambling… sorry to keep hitting on that!
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