Study Break

I've rarely had much patience with American sitcoms. Seinfeld did nothing for me, neither did Frasier and the less said about Friends, the less likely I am to fly into homicidal rage. The big exception was always Cheers, of which I really need to pick up some box sets.

Thinking about it, I think the reason I've enjoyed the first series of Community is that it shares a central theme with Cheers - the cool guy thrown into a situation with a bunch of losers. Compare: Sam Malone, one time baseball star now runs a bar frequented by oddball alcoholics. In Community, Jeff Winger is a one-time hotshot lawyer attending community college, working in a study group with a bunch of oddballs from various ethnic groups.

Though like any sitcoms it has dud episodes, it works brilliantly. Winger, forced back to studentland after it was discovered his degree was not quite legit, is smart, handsome and knows it. Spotting an attractive fellow student, Britta, he decides to start a study group for their Spanish classes (taught by the unhinged Senor Chang) to get in her good books. Joining them, much to Jeff's surprise, are geek Abed, one-time school quarterback hero Troy, single mother Shirley, studious Annie and retired businessman Pierce.

The last of those is played by Chevy Chase, and a big part of Community's profile is down to him returning to form i.e. being funny again. He plays the role of guy bewildered by the modern world, prone to moments of incredible crassness (he assumes Troy and Shirley are related because they're both black) but also desperate to be liked by the rest of the group.

It's a fine ensemble cast that makes Community so watchable, even when the writing has an off-day, notably the whole Jeff/Britta will-they-won't-they angle that goes on too long. But even this is signposted when Shirley says they're like "Sam and Diane. I hated Sam and Diane". The character of Abed is one who lives his life entirely as if it's one big reference to various TV shows and films - chances are that like me, the TV Tropes website is one of his favourites. His growing friendship with Troy is one of the key arcs over the series, with some top notch comic turns.

To pick one moment over the series would be easy: the episode Modern Warfare was simply one of the best episodes of anything I've ever seen. Tipping it's hat to 28 Days Later, The Terminator and Die Hard among others, it was as good as the medium can get. Bring on season two.