People watch sitcoms for different reasons. Some people just want to be entertained at all costs. Some look for deep character development. Some look for a strong sense of continuity. Unfortunately, some people watch because of musical performances (you know what show I’m talking about). Hell, some people watch just because the actors are good looking. My favorite sitcom on television, Community, has set itself apart from the rest with its massive ambition while demonstrating all of the above in spades.
“Ambition” isn’t necessarily a word associated with half-hour sitcoms. The genre has generally sat in the comfortable and proven formula of the ad hoc family getting through their lives by virtue of their affinity for each other. Some shows have strayed outside this format, but very few have actually used this format to stretch the conventions of the genre— Community is one of those few shows.
Like seemingly every other comedy cult favorite of recent years, Community is a very low-rated show. It occupies a tough time slot — Thursday at 8 p.m. — on NBC, facing off against comedy juggernaut The Big Bang Theory. Perhaps because of this, Community really hasn’t taken off yet. Despite low ratings, the show has found a strong cult audience and thankfully has been renewed for a third season.
For those who haven’t seen Community, the show centers around disbarred lawyer Jeff Winger (The Soup’s Joel McHale), who attends Greendale Community College to earn a degree so he can get back to practicing law. In his Spanish class at Greendale, Jeff meets and eventually befriends his study group, consisting of jaded high school dropout Britta (Gillian Jacobs), pop-culture obsessed Abed (Danny Pudi), high school jock-turned dork Troy (Donald Glover), anal-retentive teenager Annie (Alison Brie), and the Christian mom with a mean streak Shirley (Yvette Nicole Brown).
The premise of the show, like all great sitcoms, is simple. The study group has to make its way through school, each member dealing with their respective problems. Nothing new about that premise. Community creator and genius comedy writer Dan Harmon (The Sarah Silverman Show, Heat Vision and Jack) purposefully made the premise simple so that he could use that sitcom genre to create something special. Along with former Arrested Development directors Joe and Anthony Russo, Harmon has used his community college setting to completely blow up the conventions of the sitcom genre.
Case in point: an episode from season one, “Modern Warfare,” is essentially a full action movie in the span of a standard 22-minute sitcom. After an announcement from the Dean that Greendale would have a game of paintball assassin to win the prize of priority registration, Greendale’s campus became a warzone, complete with rival factions, references to 28 Days Later, Die Hard, Terminator, the films of John Woo, and countless others. The episode is very high concept. It throws all its characters into a situation one would not expect to see at a community college, but it works because the characters are so strongly established. Throughout the craziness that a paintball war brings to campus, each and every character stays true to his or her motivations and quirks. It is only the energy with which they demonstrate their character that adheres to the aesthetic of the genre they may be referencing at the time.
At Community’s 2010 Paley Center Panel, Harmon said, “[Greendale’s] a crazy place where crazy stuff can happen because it’s sort of a purgatory like in Midsummer Night’s Dream or As You Like It. Like ‘the woods are magical!’ but the people are real.”
Community’s commitment to consistency of character has made it a cult favorite. Along with “Modern Warfare,” Community has had full conceptual episodes referencing mob movies, mockumentary style shows, Apollo 13-type movies set in space, zombie movies, Pulp Fiction, Dungeons and Dragons, and even a full-on stop-motion animated Christmas special. The reason I love Community is because it is fearless. What Harmon and company have done with the conventions of the sitcom is admirable.
Fans of Community are in for a treat these next two weeks. Starting this Thursday, Community will air part one of its two-part finale. An episode entitled “A Fistful of Paintballs,” a Sergio Leone Western themed sequel to last years paintball episode, will air this Thursday, guest starring LOST’s Josh Holloway. Then in next week’s season finale, they will drop the western theme and go for a more futuristic, Star Wars-type theme according to Harmon in an interview with Entertainment Weekly.
For anyone looking for a new comedy fix on TV, please consider Community. I promise you will not be sorry. And if you are sorry, I say to you, in the words of Troy, “have fun eating fiber and watching The Mentalist.”
You sorta forgot to mention Chevy Chase’s involvement, but apart from that completely agree; stop watching formulaic comedies and get onto Community, America!