The production seems a muddled, idealistic attempt by to reinvent the multi-camera "ensemble" sitcom, run by an unemployed LA show runner who teaches "the art of the sitcom" at community college, means well, lets the students run the helm, and peeks in the classroom now and then while she or he badgers their agent during class and office hours via SMS.
What it is, I wish I knew so I could write it off, but I cannot.
The situation comedy remains in a coma. The genre's offspring exist usually as single camera ventures, and die regardless of quality. Either they are too good, or they stink. Multi-camera sitcoms, taped in front of a live audience are, I believe, rerun and DVD exclusive-only. Cartoon sitcoms are hit-or-miss, like the Simpsons. The Simpsons seems continually on an uphill climb, but it's a decade-long climb with the summit far from reach. If they pull off 10 great episodes this season, I will be ecstatic. The new Cleveland Show shows promise, but The Family Guy, from which the former is spun, is the only consistently funny cartoon comedy still in production.
Loius CK, a great comedian I think, tried a new take on the multi-camera sitcom with HBO, God bless them, but ruined it because nobody really likes to see a white bloated bald guy's flapping penis surrounded by red red red pubic hair--in a HORRIBLE sitcom. Maybe in a good one, but that one was so bad, I can't discuss it.
Occasionally we get luck and an intelligent and funny sitcom which appeals to the masses, like "The Office," and everybody's happy. Or we get "30 Rock" which suffers like "Community." and a lot are happy, including me (sometimes, and usually only when Tracy Moragn is involved."
This is where "Community" rears its heads. The show is a mess. But like a great pile of garbage, if one looks hard enough, some good stuff can be found. (This is actualy a reference to an episode of the Odd Couple, and interestingly enough, an episode from its first and only of five seasons done "multi-camera" ; the last four were in the words of Mr. C., "filmed live in front of a studio audience." ) There are obvious acting talents. And not. The production values are fine. There are some fantastic jokes. And not. It is plotted well. It is paced poorly.
Still, what's wrong with it specifically? And why will I watch it again, even though the first episode was better than its second? I don't know. But it's on thin ice, for sure, not only with me, but with whatever audiences are giving it a chance, maybe five camps who are waiting to see if it will settle into theirs. But if it doesn't, and soon, there will be a lot of unemployed people, many of whom either do or don't deserve to be.
I believe the captain of the ship "Community" is smoking pot in the teacher's lounge while the unpaid interns run the show, or there are various captains battling it out below decks, and it seems the suits are winning.
But don't despair! There is hope, because there is enough talent here to salvage this junk. Enough nautical reference for now.
This show is important because if it succeeds, and it could, it could herald in a new age for the ensemble sitcom. Or, rather, merely bring it back, one offspring awake from the coma. I'll take the sub genre single camera even though it deserves a live audience, various cameras, and theatrical overtones.
I do not agree that "The Office" is an ensemble show in the "Cheers" or "Taxi" vein. In fact the Office, while arguably an ensemle peice, cannot be so in the classic multi-camera sense, becasue it is single camera, and was built as such.
Its characters are part of an artificial large community but each remains loyal to a very small or specific sub-community. In fact it is this which makes the show work, gives it its tension; it is realistic and political, like a true office.
"Community's" faults are not hard to pin down. It's strengths are.
The faults are these:
It's trite. It's characters are mostly cutouts. Some of it's subplots and jabs at culture are as groan-inducing as the term "groan inducing." Iv'e seen this shit a lot. It's "hipness" is confusing; either it's making fun of things that were hip in the early 90s, which is in itself unhip, or it is genuinely making fun of things that have been made fun of ad nauseum and therefore is very uncool, or it is making fun of pop culture making fun of itself, which is in itself trite. The jokes are either brilliant, bad, or just so very old. Read that as many times as you need to. If I don't know what it's doing, then it doesn't work for me. I find myself laughing out loud (rare) and then hearing something that probably transparent and overdone to even most of the 80% . How can this be? If it is genius, I'm barking up the wrong tree. But I don't think so. yet I will watch at least three more episodes.
The strengths are these:
Chevy Chase is still alive. The actors are fine. The comic timing is fine. Some (only a few) of the jokes are top-notch, as in unpredictable and ironic on more than one level. The idea of doing an ensemble peice in the close-knit, non-office community is refreshing, and I see glimpses of what could be, in this show or another, which excite me.
"Community" walks the line between "The Office" and "Cheers" (or "Taxi"--which shared producers with "Cheers'")--On one hand we have a character is loyal to one or a few (as in "The Office") yet is loyal--or TRYING TO BE--to a whole (As in "Taxi" or "Cheers"). I hope it does succeed just enough on single-camera format if only to open the door a crack for stupid people with money to consider a return to the live audience art form or at the very least a true ensemble piece with a real "Community." You can't convince me it wasn't originally pitched by the 20% to the 80% as a "Taxi (or 'Cheers') for the New Century."
I'm at a loss. But I know it's an important show.
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