Community

This is probably the most underrated show on TV today, maybe ever. I really don’t know a lot of people who watch it. It stays on year after year so some must.

There are so many amazing episodes of Community I don’t know if I could say there’s a best. Based on a group of people that apparently are going to go to community college longer than the passengers of The Minnow were stranded on an island, like every other TV show, movie, or book it’s really all about the friendships, relationships, and issues between the people.

There are some even more amazing than others if that’s possible: Cooperative Calligraphy, Abed’s Uncontrollable Christmas, Modern Warfare, Intro To Knots, Anthropology 101, Analysis of Cork-Based Networking, A Fistful of Paintballs (Parts 1 & 2), Basic Human Anatomy, Comparative Religion, Conventions of Time and Space and of course, Pascal’s Triangle Revisited to name a few. App Development and Condiments with the Meow Meow Beenz test was so brilliant it almost hurt.

Amazing guest stars including: Betty White, John Oliver, Malcolm McDowell, Nathan Fillion, Taran Killam, Michael Ironside, Vince Gilligan, Chris Elliot, Tricia Helfer, Luke Perry, Jason Alexander, Luke Youngblood, French Stewart, Andy Dick, Giancarlo Esposito, John Goodman, LeVar Burton, Drew Carey, and Josh Holloway.

Who doesn’t wait to see what Abed (Danny Pudi) will say or do next? I don’t think they’ve ever specifically said he has Aspergers Syndrome, but it’s discussed and implied many times, kind of like Sheldon (Jim Parsons) from Big Bang Theory.

I miss Chevy Chase of course, always.

And Ken Jeong (Chang) is mind-bending.This show is so clever in so many ways it’s almost incomprehensibly clever. The dialogue, the plots, it should be ridiculous instead it’s ridiculously hilarious and thought-provoking. It has a particular niche I suppose, after all, the meta-jokes don’t stop, and it’s essentially a walking pop culture reference, a vehicle to toy with TV and movies clichés and truisms. Not like a ton of other shows don’t use tropes, meta-humour, and pop culture references: Family Guy, America Dad, South Park, Friends, X-Files, M*A*S*H, 30 Rock, Seinfeld, Night Court, SNL, Lost, Once Upon A Time, Buffy, Revolution and so many more. It’s a tried and true method of connecting with viewers of various ages. The tricky part becomes the squandering or gorging of those tools. I think Community has a good balance.

Laden with stereotypes this show is all about the links that we find with others and how strong or tenuous those links can be.

So I guess you either think this is one of the best shows ever or you haven’t seen it yet.