Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Community: An Assessment

Well, not really. I'm sure my love for the McHale has been mentioned once or twice on this blog (via my love of The Soup), and that is entirely the reason why I started watching this show; given how few new programmes I take on board per year, I do need a push to choose one over the others. And McHale was the only factor, really, that I considered, given that I really hadn't watched anything with the other actors in other than Chevy Chase, about whom I wasn't fussed either way.

After getting through over half this first season, I really do believe it's my favourite thing currently - and by that, I mean broadcasting right now - on network tv.* It's currently much better than 30 Rock, and although I have grown to very much like How I Met Your Mother, I think the latter suffers a great deal in comparison with Community. HIMYM is funny and warm and cosy, but lacks a lot that Community has. Community acknowledges and tests racial differences, but manages to offer the characters of colour roles far greater than a foil to the whiteness of the others. I think that's a rare achievement on tv; apparently Men of a Certain Age does something similar with Andre Braugher's character, and that's another reason I've set the dvr for that this week. But, moreover, I laugh out loud at Community in a way that I just don't at almost anything else. It's just much, much funnier than anything else right now.

And hot damn, if Alyssa hasn't written a much more thorough, in-depth and articulate assessment of why Community rocks so much. I recommend going to the link, if just to see one of my favourite exchanges between Jeff and Troy (who is definitely my favourite character thus far).

* This handily means I don't have to rate it higher than The Daily Show or It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, my two favourite things on tv, full stop.

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