Wednesday, June 16, 2010

TV Meme: Day 3 - Favorite New Show From This Past Season

Unlike years past this was a pretty slow year for me in selecting new television programs to watch. I was just starting grad school when the Fall season got underway and I had been under extreme pressure from Mrs. Kano to drop some of the many shows I was already watching - so as shows were canceled and completed I didn't really jump on to too many new shows from this past season.

And, when things were coming together for this upcoming season I wasn't really too thrilled with many of the previews. The lone show that grasped my interest was FlashForward as Lost was ending and I was hoping to fill my nerd-void (that apparently didn't work). I was also somewhat interested in The Middle, which was a new comedy on ABC thanks to the inclusion of Neil Flynn (or the Janitor in Scrubs). That being said, I was also interested in Cougar Town the new brain child of Scrubs helmer Bill Lawrence.

Although I enjoyed all three of the above shows - and two of them actually will return for a second season (adios FlashForward) it was a show that I really had no intentions of watching that gets my pick for favorite new show of the season. And despite my search for another Lost this show just may help me as I grieve the loss of Scrubs.

My favorite new show from this past season is none other than: Community. And, like I said above, I had no real intent to even watch this show except for the fact that I was allowed to watch the very first episode wicked early on Facebook - which actually peeked my interest.

I was unsure if the premise of the show could actually work, but so far it has and it has surpassed my level of expectations and then some.

Jeff Winger (Joel McHale) is a lawyer who gets caught with a phony law degree. So, in order to get back to his cozy lifestyle and his former job, he is forced to enroll at a local community college and get an actual degree.

In the pilot he does his best to talk his way out of actually attending class or paying attention in an attempt to basically just get his degree handed to him - but that fails.

He meets a pretty girl in the cafeteria, Britta Perry (Gillian Jacobs) who is struggling with Spanish and, in an attempt to get in her pants, pretends to be a Spanish tutor and invites her to study with him. She accepts, but little does he know that she invites a handful of other students from her Spanish class to the study session - and this is the birth of an extremely funny comedy.


The rest of the cast rounds out amazingly, Pierce Hawthorne (Chevy Chase) is the old man of the group. In the past Chase has sort of become annoying, but he really hits it on all levels as a supporting character. Abed Nadir (Danny Pudi) is a film loving student that Jeff believes possibly has Aspergers. Abed compares everything that happens to a movie and has movie quotes that fit every situation. Troy Barnes (Donald Glover) is a former football star who misses out on a scholarship. Troy wasn't one of my favorite characters at the start of the show, but he has truly progressed into a great character and has some great one-liners. His relationship with Abed is one of the best in television. Annie Edison (Alison Brie) is a goodie-goodie brainiac who is only in community college because she became addicted to pills in high school. She is the young girl of the group and tries to keep everyone on task. Finally, Shirley Bennett (Yvette Nicole Brown) is the mother of two boys that recently divorced her husband. She is very religious and sometimes tosses her two-cents around.

One other character missing above is Senor Chang (Ken Jeong) who is the groups Spanish teacher and gets involved in a lot of their extra-curricular activities somehow. He is extremely over the top and hilarious in almost all of his scenes.

As I said, I was not looking for this show but it somehow found me and I couldn't be happier. Sure, it had some growing pains in its first season, but for the most part it was downright amazing and hilarious. I haven't laughed this hard during a show since - dare I say it - Scrubs.

And just because I think she is so cute - here is a picture of Alison Brie:

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