Did anyone happen to catch NBC’s new comedy “Community” last week? If not, you can watch it on Hulu (or probably on the NBC site, but that’s way overbusy to navigate). If so, what did you think?
As a former college teacher, of course, I’m predisposed to like any show in an academic setting, but that personal prejudice aside, I thought it was fairly good. Pilot episodes are always difficult, because it’s tricky to get all the exposition across and set up the lines of character development and conflict in a way that doesn’t seem horribly forced and unnatural. (The only show I’ve ever seen that didn’t do this, that had a remarkably naturalistic pilot and yet still left the viewer with a really strong sense of who was who and what was going on, was “Friday Night Lights.” Of which I watched exactly one episode. So maybe it wasn’t such a great pilot after all.)
“Community” handled that fairly well by creating a first-day-of-school setting in which the getting-to-know-you scenes seemed more or less appropriate. The fact that they did the entire first episode as a riff on, and ultimately, you discover, a tribute to John Hughes’s “The Breakfast Club” didn’t exactly hurt as far as I was concerned, either.
I’m delighted to see John Oliver from “The Daily Show” as a psychology professor, because he is hilarious and adorable. I was less thrilled with Chevy Chase as a retired businessman doing continuing-ed to keep sharp. Mr. Chase did a fine job, but I simply couldn’t turn off the fact that he was Chevy Chase. Mr. Oliver, despite the fact that his character is not unlike his TDS persona, still seemed like a professor to me; Mr. Chase seemed like Chevy Chase doing an SNL skit. He’s just too big. He’s been around too long.
Abed, a Palestinian-American student with … interesting social skills, will probably be the breakout character. Because everyone on the show talks incredibly fast, I’m not sure if the main character (an unethical lawyer played by Joel McHale from “The Soup”) is really calling him “Op-ed” or not. If so, I have to admit — the “white person can’t get brown person’s name right” is a tired and offensive joke. But dang, if you’re going to go to there, calling a Palestinian “Op-ed” is pretty funny, given the amount of newspaper ink that gets spilled over the Israel/Palestine conflict.
Again, though, I’m not even sure if this was a joke that was being made, or one I was just hearing. Maybe they were trying to get as high a joke-per-minute rate as they could for the pilot, but these people talk fast. I bet a transcript of the pilot episode would be at least two pages longer than a transcript for any other half-hour sitcom. If you’re hard of hearing or if English isn’t your native language, put closed-caption on for this one.
A final criticism is that the entire premise of the show is flawed. Jeff Winger, the lawyer, never got an undergraduate degree, and has to get one in order to avoid being disbarred, which is why he is at a community college with all the “losers.” But you can’t get a bachelor’s degree at a community college. They give two-year associate’s degrees.
Am I a big academic geek for being bothered by that? It’s okay if the answer is “yes.” (You know the rule: don’t ask questions you don’t want the answers to.) I’m very willing to suspend disbelief to a certain degree (no pun intended, and why we make unintended puns is a topic for another post) but the invention of an institution that doesn’t exist, outside of actual science fiction, bugs me. Okay, sure, a doofus of the magnitude of Michael Scott would probably not run the best branch in all of Dunder Mifflin. But there are medium-sized paper companies. Dunder Mifflin itself could exist, even though it doesn’t. But a community college from which one can earn a bachelor’s doesn’t.
Bugs me.
What did you think of the show? If you’d like to opine on the season premiere of “The Office,” I’d like to hear your thoughts on that, as well. (My favorite bit of dialogue from that one: “I’m so glad you’re eating again.” “Me too!” So much of it is in Mindy Kaling’s delivery.)
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10 Comments to 'Television: beginnings'
September 22, 2009
I work at a community college so I was worried about how they were going to be portrayed. Community colleges educate 1/2 of all college students in the US, so it’s truly unfair to call it “loser” college. Anyway, there were two points in the show that bothered me:1. When Joel Hale’s characters said “If I wanted to learn anything I wouldn’t have come to community college” and 2. the scene with the dean calling out all the stereotypical students. The redeeming scene was when Joel Hale opened the packet with all the answers and the pages were blank, so I think there’s hope for this show. I’m not sold on it yet, but I’ll give it a few more episodes to see where it goes.
September 22, 2009
Jess, I hope it’s clear that I wasn’t insulting community colleges, but only referring to the stereotype that the show itself is exploiting. I think the bottom line for both of us is going to be, will this show ultimately endorse the stereotypes (of all kinds of things), or subvert them?
And that’s not just a question of political correctness, either — it’s about actually doing some damn work as an artist, versus lazily taking advantage of the cliches your culture hands you.
I liked Jeff’s throwaway line to the black cafeteria worker about how television has taught him that all older black women are spiritual mentors. Deconstructing the “magical Negro” on prime-time TV? Bring it. And the hair-touching scene with Chevy Chase did not go where I thought it was going to.
September 22, 2009
The “you can’t get a bachelor’s at a community college” thing bugged me, too! I work at a university, though, so I’m a big academic geek as well. When I complained about that point to the friend I watched the premiere with she fanwanked that Jeff needed to enroll right away and the community college was the only place that was possible.
In addition to the way they handled the Magical Negro and hairtouching/harassment, I loved that Britta called Jeff out on his douchiness and was not charmed by him in the end.
September 22, 2009
I watched “Community” and have zero thoughts – so either I wasn’t paying attention or it left no impression on me or maybe I was A because of B. I don’t know.
I will say, of the Office premier, that I thought the Pam and Jim revealing the pregnancy to cover for Stanley was FANTASTIC. How great are they?? And then when they were like, “It’s pretty obvious why we didn’t want everyone to know…” or whatever they said along those lines – aaahhh! Love. As per usual, a portion of the show had to be muted because I can only take so much Michael Scott ridiculousness before I want to crawl in the hole for him. He is both the reason I love the show and a reason I will miss portions of or entire episodes. Steve Carrell is a genius for being able to pull that off. I might never be able to do any of those lines with a straight face.
September 22, 2009
Robin, I knew you weren’t insulting cc students. They referred to it as “loser” college in the episode. But you’re right, it’s an interesting way to discuss stereotypes in society! Now that I think about it that way, I’m looking forward to it.
Also, did you notice that the neurotic pill popper student was Trudie Campbell from Mad Men?!
September 22, 2009
I only knew that because I’d read it, Jess. I sure wouldn’t have otherwise. That woman is a fine actress!
September 22, 2009
Here’s thumbs up for (the first two seasons of) Friday Night Lights, by the way, though I don’t watch any of your shows to compare it with, and I know that life is short. I found the characters familiar, but from real life, not from tv.
September 22, 2009
I’m an academic twice-over (PhD/former adjunct and now librarian), and the premise that Joel McHale’s character needs a BA but is at a community college didn’t bother me a whit.
1) Some community colleges do grant BAs. See http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2008/06/16/florida
2) His character could easily not know the difference between an AA and a BA. Or has some plans to bamboozle the bar into accepting one for the other.
3) Or, most likely, he’s just at the cc to get his first two years cheaply and then transfer to another institution for the BA – very common nowadays, especially in California.
All in all, I thought it was a great pilot, and I’m really looking forward to the rest of the season.
September 23, 2009
Thanks for that link, Laura–I didn’t know about that, obviously. I think #3 is the most likely scenario.
September 23, 2009
I thought it was awful and stopped watching halfway through. Couldn’t even get through a full episode and won’t be watching again. I couldn’t find one appealing thing about that show.
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