Community

Channel: GO!
Day & time: Tuesday, 9.00 p.m.

Joel McHale is a guy whose star is on the rise. Best known in the US as the face of gossip show The Soup (screening here on the E! channel on pay-TV), he was recently seen on the big screen as an FBI agent in Steven Soderbergh's The Informant!. Now he has his own star vehicle in the form of GO!'s new comedy, Community.

[At this point, I pause to apologise for all the exclamation marks in the preceding paragraph. All of them are associated with official names - I'm not getting excited or anything.]

McHale can come off as a bit smug sometimes, so is therefore perfectly cast as Jeff Winger, an apparently talented lawyer whose licence has been suspended over some dodgy academic qualifications. ("I thought you had a bachelor's [degree] from Columbia?", he's asked. "Now," he replies, "I have to get one from America.") So for reasons perhaps not fully explained, he finds himself at a community college where he has to get as many credits as possible. That includes taking a Spanish class, and it's that class that basically forms the backbone of the show.

The allusions to John Hughes' film, The Breakfast Club, are made plain in the pilot episode - a bunch of stereotyped characters are thrown together by circumstance in an academic environment. There's the nerdy Abed (Danny Pudi); the jock-ish Troy (Donald Glover); and sassy older woman Shirley (Yvette Nicole Brown). Much of Jeff's time however is spent either duelling with the slightly unhinged Pierce Hawthorne (Chevy Chase) or trying to win the affections of the attractive Britta (Gillian Jacobs).

Since it's meant to be a comedy, the bottom line with Community is that it has to be funny. It certainly ticks a lot of boxes in that category, but still manages to be a little hit-and-miss. While the story arcs of the previewed episodes are punchy enough, there's that nagging feeling that some of the jokes could use a bit of work.

McHale however rides to the rescue more often than not. Despite his character's rather nasty streak, the actor manages to bring an amiable charm to Jeff that makes it difficult to really dislike him. If he's the Laurel of the show, then Chevy Chase is surely his Hardy. It's actually a bit difficult to imagine the show working without both of them. Their chemistry is hard to describe, but it makes the show hum along.

The rest of the cast are largely supports for the two main characters. Gillian Jacobs does a good job as the unattainable Britta, and the same can be said for the remainder of the cast members. I can't however overlook the sterling efforts of Ken Jeong as Senor Chang, the group's Spanish teacher. If you've seen any of Jeong's film work, you'll know he can be hilarious, and he doesn't disappoint here.

Although Community may miss the mark at times, there's enough here to keep me coming back. I find Tuesday nights a bit of a dead zone at the moment, so something even half decent will be a winner. That's not to say that this show is only half-decent - it's certainly better than that and worth a look.

Phil James