The Soup Presents: College!

Comedies have kind of been letting me down lately (save for Better Off Ted), so when I saw that the promotional materials for NBC's new comedy Community actually looked promising, it was a very nice, rather funny change of pace. I just saw the full pilot the other day and am pleased to announce that it totally lived up to expectations--yet another nice change of pace for this particular industry...
My standards for half-hour comedies have diminished of late, but that should in no way devalue my appreciation for Community. Even though my disillusionment with The Office and disappointment with Parks and Recreation may have tempered me on the genre as a whole, I think my review of Community manages to be mostly unbiased.

Don't hate me, but The Office has lost a lot of its luster. The last several episodes of last season helped redeem the show to an extent, but there's still a lot of love lost between me and the show. I'm not going to beat a dead horse here, but I think it's pretty much accepted that the show just isn't as funny or fresh as it once was. I think a lot of the problem boils down to perspective and tone. The show kind of took a detour in terms of its goals and that made it fall a little flatter than it should. The banality of working in an office took a backseat to uber-wackiness and that's just not where the soul of the show started out. It's still enjoyable, and the last few episodes of last season were certainly an improvement, but even the most dead-pan and intentionally ordinary of characters have become caricatures. Anyway, long story short, and after the dead horse has been more than a little tenderized, I still enjoy the show, but it's not appointment TV for me anymore. I'm also less than thrilled with the prospect of Jim and Pam getting married and fairly mortified by the prospect of them having a baby. Blah. I've said it before and I'll say it again, babies ruin everything. Words to live by.

In related disappointment news, although I could appreciate that Parks and Recreation was funny, I just couldn't really get into it. I think there are a few fundamental flaws with the premise that make it a difficult series to write for and keep things moving along. I found myself bored with the park storyline after the second episode, but was faced with a season-long arc in that regard. I have heard that the writers are going to make a conscious effort to fix what was wrong and improve the show, so I'm hopeful season two works out better.

Until those shows prove themselves worthy of my approval again, my half-hour comedy yen might just be filled by Community. While not the most spectacularly funny show I've seen, it has a solid premise, a great cast, and a lot of potential for longevity.

With The Soup's Joel McHale at the helm, I was immediately ready to give the show a shot when I saw the first promos. What can I say? The Soup eases the pain after a long, painful week. Nothing soothes a weary soul quite like some chicken tetrazzini. :) Anyway, I've always found McHale to be entertaining and after seeing his brief acting appearances over the years, I was fairly confident he could pull this off. McHale plays a slick lawyer whose law degree isn't valid, landing him at a community college. Accustomed to not actually doing any work, ever, his character's approach to academia (and life, really) is to lie and cheat your way to the top. More words to live by.

School is an astoundingly common backdrop for shows, but with good reason. It's the kind of setting that everyone can relate to in one way or another and offers countless scenarios to be explored. Even with the glut of high school and college shows currently on the air, Community has a particular bent that keeps it from seeming hackneyed or overdone. The cast of characters who come together for a fictitious Spanish study group (Clippos Magnificos!)is entertaining from top to bottom and the dean of the school (community college's have deans, right?) is played by The Daily Show's John Oliver, so add that to the rest of the cast, crew, and set up and there was very little room for me not to enjoy the pilot.

The comedy is solid throughout the pilot and the comedic timing and pacing of the show kept me interested and laughing from start to finish. The comedy ranges from the more overt gags to subtler fare, but the jokes land consistently and while the pilot wasn't uproariously funny every second, it was funny, charming, and snicker-worthy often enough to bolster my confidence for the future of the series. I particularly enjoyed the layers of jokes. Some jokes were set up early on in the pilot and paid off later (Booyah! springs to mind--you'll understand when you see the pilot), others were peppered throughout with a more immediate pay off. It made for a nice blend of the nuanced and the obvious. Another aspect I appreciated was the lack of a soundtrack (which has thankfully become the norm these days). The show didn't make a point of highlighting, underlining, and pointing a big red arrow at jokes, but rather let them go by in a fairly organic way. There were a number that if you weren't paying attention, you'd simply miss them, and that's fine. The episode as a whole wouldn't suffer if you missed something here or there and more than benefitted from the consistent pace and lack of joke spotlight. And really, anytime John Oliver is associated with something, I'm probably going to be a fan. Although I have heard that he's only a guest/recurring star on the show, Joel and the rest of the cast seem plenty capable of carrying off the show on their own.

At the end of the day, it wasn't the most fabulous or funny pilot in the world, but definitely entertaining enough to get me invested in the show. It's not often that a comedy pilot really has me laughing, but Community certainly had its moments. It's got a strong cast and promising premise that I hope is allotted enough episodes that it can really blossom. I only have a handful of half-hour comedies in my current repertoire, so this should make for a nice addition. I have heard this McHale's obligations on Community shouldn't interfere too much with The Soup, so it's really a win-win.

Much like goose grease.

See, I'm still an Office fan at heart... :)