It was a dull Thursday evening in the summer of '10, and I was flipping the channels late at night when I suddenly came across an interesting show on NBC. DirectTV said it was something called Community, about a lawyer who has to go back to college... Community College that is. We breeze through a very "Breakfeast Club" like pilot that brings together the study group (of main actors) which includes Jeff Winger (Joel McHale), the cool lawyer (who has his state bar license revoked at the series, Britta Perry (Gillian Jacobs) a young, very straightforward woman who seems to be the most knowledgeable on issues affecting the world today. Abed Nadir (Danny Pudi) is a Palestinian student with a very bizarre personality, often referencing pop culture in quite nearly every situation and blurring the lines between TV shows, movies, and reality. Shirley Bennett (Yvette Nicole Brown) is a single mother who is recently divorced, and the most religious member of the group. Annie Edison (Alison Brie) is a young recent high school dropout due to a bizarre psychological breakdown, though she is normally quite calm, cheerful, and the most responsible member of the group. Troy Barnes (Donald Glover) is the jock of the group, and was a football star at the high school he attended before being forced to drop out, and losing his football scholarship. Then there's Pierce Hawthorne (Chevy Chase) and Ben Chang (Ken Jeong), the first being a moist towelette tycoon and the latter being the somewhat insane Spanish teacher.
The first season focuses primarily on the various trials and tribulations of the self proclaimed "Spanish" study group, from introductions to the different classes that the group is taking (such as Spanish 101 with Senor Chang, or Anthropology 101) or some of the strange or bizarre projects that the members have been assigned, or taken upon themselves to do.
The best part of season one is the large amount of pure laugh out loud moments that are captured at least once or twice in each episode. Especially at the very end of the episode, when they have one or two minute "mini-sodes" usually involving Troy and Abed. Speaking of which, here are a few season one Community clips for your enjoyment!
Now we know why Senor Chang teaches Spanish... right?
An amusing little remix of several Senor Chang moments from Season One.
Troy and Abed's most famous rap.
For endless bliss, hit the left arrow on your keyboard over and over once the video ends.
Be on the lookout for another review coming soon from me, possibly on NBC's other hit show, Outsourced!
The Raving Reviews Blog is dedicated to the convergence of popular and critical review of the motion picture art - that and taking a sometimes irreverent view of popular culture.
