Community: reviews

Reviews are mostly positive for the new comedy with Joel McHale and Chevy Chase, Community -though there is some division on McHale’s inclusion.

Hollywood Reporter said:
“Community,” the only new scripted NBC show without gurneys or IV drips, gives an illusion of being shiny and fresh thanks to its unique setting: a community-college campus. It turns out that the setting is mostly irrelevant to the comedy; it’s about the characters, some of them stock sitcom types. The show owes far more to such sitcoms as “Night Court” or “Newsradio,” with their quirky supporting casts, than it does to, say, “A Different World,” which truly tried to incorporate the college experience into its comedy. But if creator/writer Dan Harmon earns only a “C” for the framework of his show, he gets higher grades for its brisk pace and clever writing. And some extra credit is in order for casting, as well.

Variety said:
Right after Joel McHale’s character delivers a rally-the-misfits speech reminiscent of “Stripes,” one of said misfits immediately compares his rousing address to “Stripes.” That’s indicative of the too-cute-by-half quality of “Community,” a series handicapped by the fact that its leading man — however skilled he might be at dropping wry one-liners in other venues — is also its weakest link. Barring some serious cramming, the show — which joins the still-unproven “Parks and Recreation” and the rightly admired “The Office” — could be NBC’s Thursday under-achiever.

NJ.com said:
It’s laugh-out-loud funny, early and often (Pudi is the early breakout star as Abed, who has no internal censor), yet there’s also an undercurrent of gentle emotion to the pilot that took a show like “The Office” a while to incorporate into the jokes. Jeff’s a self-interested hustler, but as he tries to con the rest of the study group into being better in order to seduce Britta, he’s inadvertently making himself better. That mix of sarcasm and sweetness wouldn’t be possible without an immensely likable lead performance by McHale. I’ve never watched enough of “The Soup” to have any residual affection for him going into this series. So I’m just responding to the charms he has to show off in the “Community” pilot — and they’re ample. Like former “My Name Is Earl” star Jason Lee, McHale has that boyish gift of becoming more appealing the worse he behaves, and “Community” creator Dan Harmon seems more willing to exploit that than the “Earl” writers usually were with Lee.