TV Review: Community

     Community is part of NBC’s Thursday night comedy juggernaut that includes The Office and 30 Rock. Unfortunately, watching Community in the same line-up as the critically acclaimed The Office and 30 Rock only makes the show’s weak writing seem that much worse.

     It is a situation-comedy about a group of older adults enrolled in junior college. This is played for laughs. We’re supposed to regard them as losers for going back to school in middle-age. As someone who returned to Ju-Co at age 29, I was not amused by this premise.

     Personal objections aside, the show stars Chevy Chase as Pierce Hawthorne, a ne’er-do-well scion of a wealthy family and Joel McHale as Jeff Winger, a disgraced ex-lawyer who had no law degree or license. They are surrounded by a collection of quirky, kooky, fellow students that exist to provide fodder for insults and one-liners from McHale and Chase.

     Of the ancillary characters, Abed Nadir, played by Danny Pudi, and Troy Barnes, played by Donald Glover, are notable because they act as "zanys." In the classical Italian street theater Commedia Dell’Arte, the Clown mocked the main characters in the story and the Zany mocked the Clown. Similarly, the subplots involving Abed and Troy are, ironically, comic relief in a comedy. Abed and Troy segments are also usually surrealistic flights of fancy that parallel the main story.

     In last Thursday’s episode, "Advanced Gay," Pierce and Troy each struggle to emerge from the shadows of their respective overbearing fathers. The main plot is about Pierce altering the family business to cater to the gay community (hence the show’s title) despite his bigoted father’s objections. The subplot involved Troy being forced to choose between following in his father’s footsteps to become a plumber or pursuing his talent for repairing air conditioners.

     Chevy Chase seems to still be playing the role of his eponymous title character Fletch from the inexplicably popular movies. Even his jokes seem recycled from the Fletch flicks. When he is greeted by another character, he responds: "At your cervix." You know, like "at your service" but with a pun on a lady part! Somewhere in Hollywood, a writer received a paycheck for penning that line.

     The main story was a trite homily about rejecting bigotry. What was interesting about it was how many derogatory stereotypes about gays the writers managed to cram into story that is ostensibly about overcoming intolerance. For example, the gays are all depicted as mincing and feminine. Also, it is implied that the reason the gay community is into the products Pierce’s company produces (Handi-wipes, not that it matters to the plot) is because they have found a deviant sexual use for them.

     The Troy subplot was a dream-like story that imagined the building trades as being shadowy cults like the Freemasons. It featured John Goodman in a cameo as the head of the college’s air conditioning repair school. Goodman had some funny lines describing the origins of air conditioning technicians. "We started as slaves; fanning the pharaohs with palm fronds," was how he explained their beginnings. It was more interesting than the main plot but it was not original. The concept of renegade cabals of HVAC technicians goes back to the movie Brazil which came out in 1985.

     The main problem with the show however, is one that is common to many sitcoms. The characters have no distinct personalities, they exist soley to trade insults with the other characters. One character refers to Pierce’s trouble with his father as being "edible" in nature, later in the show, she demonstrates broad knowledge of psychological concepts. How can a person who didn’t know edible from oedipal suddenly channel Sigmund Freud? Easy, both times the character was simply setting up Joel McHale for a one liner, not speaking as a fully drawn character.

     Community is slightly weirder than other sitcoms but it relies on the same cliches and hacky jokes that a million other shows use. It is a clunker in NBC’s otherwise exceptional Thursday lineup.

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     On a related note, the producers of The Office and Parks and Recreation have reached a level of product placement that rivals Steven Spielberg. The last segment of Parks and Recreation featured two main characters driving off on a romantic road trip. The director made sure to include lots close ups of the VW logo on the car’s grille. As the last scene closed with the couple gazing out over the Grand Canyon, an ad for the Volkswagon Passat came on. Coincidence? Not when the last segment of The Office ends with a character playing with his iphone and referring to it as "the one everyone has," and the next commercial played is for the iphone. Is it too much to ask that the commercials be kept in the commercial breaks? Sitcoms are only about 22 minutes long as it is, there is not enough time to both be funny and fellate the advertisers.