More and more TV networks are relying on the internet to promote their new shows. While Comic-Con was the first place to see such shows as Lost, The Cleveland Show and Flash Forward, NBC has turned to social networking sites to show off their new single camera comedy, Community. Although the episode is not due to broadcast until mid September, you can already sign up to be a fan and watch the first episode on Facebook (kind of funny to me is that you have to become a fan before you can see the episode).
While the show stars E!’s “The Soup” host Joel McHale, British audiences will be more likely to gravitate towards former SNL player and star of countless 80s comedies Chevy Chase who plays an aging student. So Community is set in an American Community college and focuses specifically the mix bag of students in attendance, in the pilot we see how they all come together to create a mini community of their own.
So the plot goes like this Jeff (Joel McHale), a disbarred lawyer has to return to college since a degree from Columbia does count if it was from the country and came as an e-mail attachment. But, this fast talking, say anything to get everything guy has other things on his mind, so he asks a tutor and old friends for all the test answers so he can avoid studying in lessons and instead study the hot blonde chick in Spanish class. He sets up a study group to get to know her better and is soon joined by an uninvited mix bag group of students, including the high school sports star who failed to get a scholarship, middle aged divorcee, the old guy looking for a way to fill his days and the asperges kid who is able to deliver on the nose exposition at an amazing rate. “hey, this is like the Breakfast Club, I’m sure we all have an issue balled up in side that would make us cry if we talked about it.” See they are three dimensional! Obviously this all goes very wrong and everyone starts fighting, but Jeff uses his lawyer speak to smooth everything over. Of course when they find out he is a fraud and knows very little Spanish all that work is undone, more so when he checks his package of answer sheets to find they are all blank. Realising he now has to study he returns to the group where they will face their future at community college together.
Just because this is a better than average pilot, it doesn’t mean it is good. It is easy watching, predictable and safe. The casting is a by the number check box, old, young, man, woman, black, white, Middle Eastern, straight, gay (well not gay yet, but I give it till episode 2). Although Chevy Chase is in the mix, in the pilot he is very much a background character, getting an odd one liner, but not really affecting the plot. Not as funny as 30 Rock, but not as crappy and Surviving Suburbia, I expect this series to run for more than one season.
Written by: Dan Harmon
Directed by: Anthony Russo
Starring: Joel McHale, Chevy Chase, Danny Pudi, Alison Brie, Gillian Jacobs, Yvette Nicole Brown, John Oliver, Donald Glover
Date premièred: 11 August 2009 (on Facebook), 17th September 2009 (on NBC)
UK Details: None available.
Tags: Chevy Chase, Community, Dan Harmon, Facebook, Joel McHale, NBC
