Creator: Doug Harmon
Starring: Chevy Chase, Joel McHale, Danny Pudi, Donald Glover, Gillian Jacobs, Yvette Nicol Brown, Alison Brie, Ken Jeong
Running Time: 7 hours 25 minutes
Certificate: 15
Extras: Cast and crew commentary on every episode, outtakes, deleted scenes, two all-new featurettes, storyboard animatics, in-process animatics, season two cast evaluations, DJ Steve Porter season one remix
NBC sitcom COMMUNITY does not garner the attention a show of its quality deserves. Stateside ratings are poor enough the show was ‘taken off schedule’ (it was reinstated after fan protests) and as such, is something of a niche in the UK – shown firstly on MTV spin-off Viva, then Sony Entertainment Television.
Season Two largely picks up where the previous one finished but with a few changes: Troy (Donald Glover) is living with Pierce (Chevy Chase) and has a hugely successful twitter feed which exploits Pierce’s, ahem, less than PC view of the world; Britta (Gillian Jacobs) is trying to get over her embarrassing declaration of love to Jeff (Joel McHale); and the gang are all studying anthropology rather than Spanish. No need to worry though – the crazy Spanish teacher formally known as Senior Chang (played expertly by the hilarious Ken Jeong) is still ever present.
What really sets COMMUNITY apart from most major network sitcoms is that whilst there is no season-long story arc, Dan Harmon, the show’s creator and head writer, is obviously a fan of continuity: there are many references to previous episodes that aren’t essential to the plot and may even fly over some viewer’s heads, but if they’ve been watching COMMUNITY for a while, they’ll feel suitably smug picking them out. Another bonus for viewers who watch TV shows multiple times is that throughout the season there are story lines that develop in the background; as an example, watch episode three, ‘The Psychology of Letting Go’, twice. During your second viewing keep an eye on Abed (Danny Pudi) in the background, and you will be rewarded for this attention to detail later in the season.
Although some episodes may seem formulaic, there is enough quality writing and excellent comic timing from the actors to make even the slower episodes worthwhile. The second season of COMMUNITY has plenty of pop culture references, borderline ridiculous story lines, and heart to cement its status as one of the finest comedies on TV.
Extras: The cast and crew commentaries on every episode give an insight into how much fun the show is to create. There are also some rather interesting stories from creator, Dan Harmon, on the logistics behind making the show work. Outtakes and deleted scenes are spread across the four disks, and show how much of a great improvisational comedian Donald Glover is. The two ‘Making of’ featurettes are definitely worth checking out and are pretty comprehensive. The only thing that lets the extras down are the ‘Cast Evaluations’ which were also included on the season one DVD. They weren’t funny the first time around and, again, this feature just seems like an ego trip for Dan Harmon. Overall though, a good package for fans.
COMMUNITY: SEASON 2 is released on DVD September 24th and can be purchased here
