Post by Power NeXus on Dec 12, 2011 15:26:31 GMT -5
I noticed that we have sections for "TV chat" and "favorite shows", but nobody has done any TV show reviews yet. I figured I'd make one and see if it catches on.
This review will be on my favorite current TV show, Community.
Premise
Community, which started airing on NBC in 2009, is a comedy series centered around the members of a study group at a community college in the fictional city of Greendale, Colorado. This study group is very diverse in terms of the ethnicity, age, religious background, and character type, allowing for a great many stereotyping jokes that are almost offensive, but not quite. The seven primary characters (the study group) of this show include:
Jeff: A former lawyer who finds himself forced to attend community college when the bar finds out his degree was forged. While he tries to be cynical and sarcastic, his smooth talking and natural magnetism made him the default leader of the study group from the beginning.
Britta: A 20-something high school dropout who has spent most of her life attending peace rallies and protests and animal shelters. She is often overbearing with her 'judgemental hipster' ways, and is often labeled by the rest of the group as the "buzz-kill."
Abed: Truly the life of the show. Abed is an extremely quirky teenager with almost no social skills at all (it's assumed he has aspergers), but is genuinely caring and has the ability to see movie and TV references in any situation.
Troy: Troy started out as a typical egotistical former-highschool-quarterback in the beginning of the show, but has slowly evolved to become much more like Abed. Currently, in the 3rd season, there is no longer very much to his character beyond his BFF-ness with Abed.
Pierce: Pierce, the oldest member of the group by far, is a somewhat idiotic old man with more racist and sexist ideas than most people would care to know about. He is very immature for his age, often cracking junior high-level penis jokes, but has the surprising ability to give out some nuggets of real wisdom and insight in a pinch.
Shirley: I think every TV show has to have a 40-something, overweight, black woman. Shirley does a good job of staying true to the TV stereotypes of such a character. She is almost always very sweet and nice (though sometimes overbearing with her Christian ideals), but gets that fire-and-brimstone angry black woman attitude when sufficiently provoked.
Annie: I think we all knew someone like Annie in high school. You know that girl who was cheery and chipper in the morning, always raised her hand first when the teacher asked a question (and always had the answer right), and was taking notes before the lecture had even started? Now imagine that girl stressing out during her senior year, getting hooked on Adderol, having a near mental breakdown, checking into rehab for a little while, and then going to community college. That's Annie.
Over the three seasons that this show has been on the air, there have been many changes in the characters, many on-and-off relationships, and quite a few popular recurring characters, but the membership in the study group has never had any changes in status quo for any significant period of time.
Humor
As I stated before, the majority of the jokes in this show play off of the stereotypes in the main seven characters. The diversity between all the characters makes for a great many jokes in that area.
However, the type of humor in this show isn't for everyone. Much of it is somewhat subtle situational humor. There are no laugh tracks and not many quick jokes or witty one-liners. Imagine The Office with a little more raw slapstick.
Evolution
While I am still a huge fan of the show, I have to admit that the earliest episodes were the best. It started out as mostly situational humor with a little bit of slapstick, but is slowly getting more and more slapstick, and less and less situational humor. I can only assume this is due to the writers trying to change the nature of the show when critics gave it a sort of "meh" rating. I guess they think subtle comedy just doesn't really cut it anymore in today's TV. (Flark that.)
Overall rating.
While not as good as it originally was, it's still funnier and wittier than most other shows out there. The characters are endearing, the jokes are quotable, and most of the situations are believable (and those that aren't are still well-written).
Current rating - 7.5-8 out of 10
Season 1 rating - 9-9.5 out of 10.
This review will be on my favorite current TV show, Community.
Premise
Community, which started airing on NBC in 2009, is a comedy series centered around the members of a study group at a community college in the fictional city of Greendale, Colorado. This study group is very diverse in terms of the ethnicity, age, religious background, and character type, allowing for a great many stereotyping jokes that are almost offensive, but not quite. The seven primary characters (the study group) of this show include:
Jeff: A former lawyer who finds himself forced to attend community college when the bar finds out his degree was forged. While he tries to be cynical and sarcastic, his smooth talking and natural magnetism made him the default leader of the study group from the beginning.
Britta: A 20-something high school dropout who has spent most of her life attending peace rallies and protests and animal shelters. She is often overbearing with her 'judgemental hipster' ways, and is often labeled by the rest of the group as the "buzz-kill."
Abed: Truly the life of the show. Abed is an extremely quirky teenager with almost no social skills at all (it's assumed he has aspergers), but is genuinely caring and has the ability to see movie and TV references in any situation.
Troy: Troy started out as a typical egotistical former-highschool-quarterback in the beginning of the show, but has slowly evolved to become much more like Abed. Currently, in the 3rd season, there is no longer very much to his character beyond his BFF-ness with Abed.
Pierce: Pierce, the oldest member of the group by far, is a somewhat idiotic old man with more racist and sexist ideas than most people would care to know about. He is very immature for his age, often cracking junior high-level penis jokes, but has the surprising ability to give out some nuggets of real wisdom and insight in a pinch.
Shirley: I think every TV show has to have a 40-something, overweight, black woman. Shirley does a good job of staying true to the TV stereotypes of such a character. She is almost always very sweet and nice (though sometimes overbearing with her Christian ideals), but gets that fire-and-brimstone angry black woman attitude when sufficiently provoked.
Annie: I think we all knew someone like Annie in high school. You know that girl who was cheery and chipper in the morning, always raised her hand first when the teacher asked a question (and always had the answer right), and was taking notes before the lecture had even started? Now imagine that girl stressing out during her senior year, getting hooked on Adderol, having a near mental breakdown, checking into rehab for a little while, and then going to community college. That's Annie.
Over the three seasons that this show has been on the air, there have been many changes in the characters, many on-and-off relationships, and quite a few popular recurring characters, but the membership in the study group has never had any changes in status quo for any significant period of time.
Humor
As I stated before, the majority of the jokes in this show play off of the stereotypes in the main seven characters. The diversity between all the characters makes for a great many jokes in that area.
However, the type of humor in this show isn't for everyone. Much of it is somewhat subtle situational humor. There are no laugh tracks and not many quick jokes or witty one-liners. Imagine The Office with a little more raw slapstick.
Evolution
While I am still a huge fan of the show, I have to admit that the earliest episodes were the best. It started out as mostly situational humor with a little bit of slapstick, but is slowly getting more and more slapstick, and less and less situational humor. I can only assume this is due to the writers trying to change the nature of the show when critics gave it a sort of "meh" rating. I guess they think subtle comedy just doesn't really cut it anymore in today's TV. (Flark that.)
Overall rating.
While not as good as it originally was, it's still funnier and wittier than most other shows out there. The characters are endearing, the jokes are quotable, and most of the situations are believable (and those that aren't are still well-written).
Current rating - 7.5-8 out of 10
Season 1 rating - 9-9.5 out of 10.
