I wasn't originally planning on reviewing every season of Community, because I figured I wasn't going to have very much to say about the seasons and would have a lot to say about the show as a whole. But I finished the first season last night before I went to bed and I decided that yeah, I did have a lot to say about the first season.
Community is a show that I've never watched before. When it initially started in 2009 I was still in college, having started my third year and I didn't have much time to watch TV except for maybe The Big Bang Theory, How I Met Your Mother and Castle, and even then being able to watch an episode of one of those shows would depend on how much homework I had and what my actual class schedule was like during a semester. As a result I didn't have time to watch a brand new show about what was basically my life at that point in time. I think I saw bits and pieces of the show at some point since How I Met Your Mother was on CityTV at that time, and I think they were on the same night, right after the other, or I just saw commercials for Community during How I Met Your Mother. Eitherway I was aware of Community but never got the chance to watch it.
Even after the series ended, I never had the opportunity to watch it because it wasn't available anywhere and I don't own any of it on DVD. But then it was put up on Netflix almost two months ago, and with everything still on lockdown I figured now was the perfect opportunity to watch it. I wasn't sure about it at first, but by episode 3 or 4 I was hooked.
The writing on this show is absolutely stellar. I'm not usually able to get into sitcoms like this as many of them are workplace related and those are difficult for me to relate to, or they just aren't funny to me, with nothing else to offer me in terms of entertainment. The Goldbergs was actually the first sitcom of this type that I fell in love with because of the heart that Adam F. Goldberg puts into it. Schooled is the same way. I fell in love with Community because Dan Harmon puts the same amount of heart into the writing and the development of the characters and storylines. I'm able to relate to the people on the show because of that.
Harmon really did an amazing job when he cast this show. Joel McHale, who plays Jeff on the show does an amazing job as that character. I actually knew guys like Jeff when I was in college, except, unlike Jeff, those guys didn't end up growing as people in the short time that I knew them, but still, I knew guys like Jeff. Because of how likable most of these characters are, it's really hard to pick a favourite. I love Britta, Jeff, Troy, and Shirley, and I love to dislike Pierce and Senor Chang. So if I had to pick a favourite character, it would have to be a tie between Abed, played by Danny Pudi, and Annie, played by Alison Brie.
Abed is basically me. He has some sort of psychological disorder, possibly Autism, which makes it difficult for him to understand others, except through movies and TV shows. I'm autistic and I often find myself making comparisons between my friends and characters on TV or in movies. Those references are what helps me relate to the world and people around me, much like it does for Abed. And unlike Jim Parsons on The Big Bang Theory, Danny Pudi isn't trying to be funny as Abed. He just is that funny. He's funny without trying to be over the top, which is something I appreciate on shows like this and is one of the problems I have with Sheldon and with Barry Goldberg in some of the earlier seasons of The Goldbergs. This is something I noticed with Danny's character of Teddy on the short-lived DC Comics based comedy, Powerless too.
Probably the best source of comedy on this show is the duo of Abed and Troy, played by Donald Glover. The two of them together are absolutely hilarious and they have just the best chemistry together. This is basically what Chuck Lorre tried to do with Howard and Raj on The Big Bang Theory early on, but they just ended up being intolerably obnoxious and hard to watch on screen. So far Troy and Abed have avoided that unfortunate fate. I still have five seasons to go though, so it might actually turn out that they will end up with that fate as the show goes on.
My other favourite character on Community so far is Annie, played by Alison Brie. While none of the girls I hung out with in high school and college were as innocent and naive as Annie is on the show, that's the primary reason I like her. The way she's written is great because she's the youngest member of the study group, but she's not annoying like many "youngest" characters are on shows like this (The Goldbergs and Schooled being the exception). Sure, she has things to prove to the others, but the writers don't let it ruin the character like the writers of a certain comic book based TV show did to a certain character on that show. Alison Brie is a great actress, though this is the only thing I've actually seen her in. She was a great choice to play Annie. She just lends that character the charming girl next door vibe to the role, which works well for the character. I also think that Annie is the nicest of all of the characters on the show. Shirley is condescending at times, Britta is mean, Pierce is a racist and sexist, and the others are neither nice nor mean, and simply do whatever they feel like, though Abed is a pretty nice guy.
There wasn't an actual bad episode in this season. However my favourite episode would have to be S01E23, "Modern Warfare" where the gang participates in a school wide paintball fight. This isn't an action show by any means, but they shot it the way an episode of Arrow or a Netflix series like Daybreak might be shot. Which gives it a different flavour than what a typical episode of Community might be like. Which is great because it shows that the producers were willing to experiment with this show instead of doing the same old thing every single episode like a lot of other sitcoms weren't willing to do. Especially at the time, they were afraid to break from their established formula, which inevitably led to the shows becoming stale and boring once they got into a ninth, tenth or eleventh season. And while the episode led to Jeff and Britta finally engaging in sexual activity, what it didn't do was lead them to become an actual couple. Which is kind of where I thought it was headed from the Valentine's Day episode up to this one.
Final Thoughts and Rating: Overall season 1 of Community was an amazing season of Television. I don't remember laughing outloud like that when watching a TV show in a really long time. I mean DC's Legends of Tomorrow is a silly show, but it's not something I laugh outloud to when I'm wearing headphones. Same with The Goldbergs and Schooled. I smile at some of the jokes, but I don't laugh outloud. I also haven't binged an entire season of TV in less than a week since last year when I binged the entire first season of Sabrina the Teenage Witch in four days after I picked it up on DVD during one of Brad's and my visits to Kingston. Community is that good though. If you haven't seen it I would highly recommend it if you're into this kind of show. It's funny, it's charming and it's fun to watch. I'm giving season 1 of Community 10/10 stars.
Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community_(season_1)
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