NBC invites us into it's Community

My faith in the sitcom format has recently been renewed, thanks to NBC’s Community. It stars the hilarious Joel McHale of The Soup fame, along with legend Chevy Chase, John Oliver (senior British correspondent for The Daily Show) and Ken Jeong (the Asian dude in The Hangover, Role Models and Pineapple Express). Focusing on Greendale Community College, Joe and Anthony Russo direct and executive produce the series. If they bring to it the cult-like fan devotion their Arrested Development garnered, this show will be a runaway hit.

In a bold marketing move that other networks are sure to imitate, NBC previewed the show on the Facebook, the most popular social networking site. American Facebook subscribers were jilted– the pilot was only viewable by users outside of the US. This was an attempt by the Peacock Network to get an unadulterated opinion on it’s new show.

The show focuses on McHale’s character, Jeff Crocker, a lawyer who discovers his undergraduate degree is not quite legit– it’s from Colombia, not Columbia. He’s forced to go to community college, and runs into Professor Ian Duncan (Oliver), a former client that he got off of a DUI charge. Crocker uses their relationship to his advantage, hoping to skate through college with Duncan providing him test answers. Of course Crocker falls for a fellow student, The Book of Daniel’s Gillian Jacobs as Britta (not like the water filter). He pretends to be a board certified Spanish tutor to insinuate himself into her graces and, eventually, pants.

From what I’ve seen, the cast is stocked with actors who are in their own right funny, but as an ensemble will prove to be blatter-bustingly so. If you can’t find a bootleg of the pilot online, you can at least see clips on NBC.com/community, and see the show's website at Greendalecommunitycollege.com.