Hello everyone and welcome to a new take on the discussion series that I will be trying out called five things from. This idea came about as I thought that I wanted to expand the range of shows that I cover but not all fit the current discussion/analysis approach. Therefore we are trying out this new format called Five Things From. I will select five moments from an episode to look at and highlight rather than it being an in-depth analysis which doesn’t work for all shows. They may be big events, a certain character, random references or little bits that make me chuckle. We are trialling this with Community: a US sitcom that I have been told is fun and charming. Plus it is directed by the Russo Brothers so it has to be at least decent right? We are learning and trying this out together so here we go.

The opening speech

They set up the premise early on an in a unique way with what seems to be a student body present or something similar going through who would attend the community collage. It shows many of the main characters as he gives a description fitting to them. The descriptions are of course not all that complementary but they made you smile early on. It was also a neat way to drop some exposition on who some of these guys are before they actually appear. That way you are not going in completely blind to them all later on as they all arrive together for the most part. Good idea Community!

Duncan

He is my favourite at the moment. The British Professor who is not pushed around as easily as you think grew on me through a nice subversion of expectations. You initial thought he was just going to be the guy who the (at the moment rather unlikeable) protagonist manipulates but they flip this twice. First with him getting Jeff to trade cars for the test answers and the second time not giving him the answers at all. Instead he decided to take the opportunity to teach a life lesson. Nice twist!

Chevy Chase

I didn’t know Clark Griswald was in this! Those films were staples of my childhood and it is weird to see him looking so old! His character seems to be a slightly misogynistic and slightly racist sex pest but he is still likeable in a really weird way. I’m not even sure if I am supposed to like the character but at the moment I do.

Untutorable

As a teacher this word is now officially added to my vocabulary and will be used on a regular basis.

Call Out

I don’t like Jeff. I would say that he is the only character I didn’t really warm too. Luckily this is show has a whole “community” of characters (I groaned at my own pun) but I want to like the lead. Hopefully he bucks his ideas up and becomes more likeable. I am so glad that he got called out on his awful ideas though and didn’t have him woo the girl as a result of his half baked attempt to clean up his own mess. This guy is going to have to earn my liking.

So there we have it…my Five Things From Community 1×1. Let me know what you think of this new spin-off style and any ways to improve it! Thanks for reading!