TV | Community

When I was in college, I remember bonding with a group of people that I had really nothing in common with, yet we all eventually became friends and remain very good friends to this day. That's also what happened to many other people, including Dan Harmon, creator of the half-hour comedy series Community--he based the show's premise on his real-life experiences attending a community college, where he connected with a study group composed of people he had nothing in common with, yet ended up liking all of them.

In Community, the main character is Jeff Winger, a self-centered, egotistical lawyer who's disbarred and is forced to get additional credits from a community college. There, he unwittingly forms a study group that attracts several other people, most of them odd. There's Britta Perry, who's a former anarchist and is the group's buzzkill; Shirley Bennett, divorced mom of two and a devout Christian with rage and discriminatory issues; Annie Edison, the studious Jewish girl who's somewhat naive; Pierce Hawthorne, elderly rich guy who's rude and mostly offensive to everyone; Troy Barnes, ex-football jock and closet nerd; and Abed Nadir, the extremely strange pop culture junkie.

The cast of Community

Rounding up the unusual cast of characters are Ben Chang, a bizarre Chinese man who masqueraded as a Spanish professor and is currently head of campus security; and Dean Craig Pelton, who often wears women's clothing. Of all these characters, Abed is the most unique, as his pop culture references often breaks the fourth wall and uncannily relates everything happening to them on the show...as a TV show, LOL.

Community has been consistenly funny since its first season, with brilliantly written scripts and hilarious dialogue that's perfectly delivered with comic timing. It's also a good example of a show that benefits from a cast with excellent chemistry. Through the years it's poked fun at everything, from product placements to The Matrix, to the zombie apocalypse and animated Christmas specials, even mocking that detestable show, Glee, with its very own musical episode--but at least it had original songs, heh. There was even one episode where seven different alternate timelines were shown, an episode that clearly transcended pure awesomeness.

Unfortunately, shows like these don't do well with mainstream audiences, and ratings for the show have steadily declined in the three years it's been on the air. NBC, ever concerned with ratings, did a really shitty move by pulling Community out of its current midseason slot last December; it will return this year, but its future is uncertain. A campaign has been launched by fans to save the show, and I really hope that the show will return soon; I miss those guys already.