Rating: 4/5

Three-Word Summary: Meta College Show

Greendale Community College is far from a normal institution of higher learning.

The Greendale mascot is the Human Being. Their flag is a drawing of a (ahem) rectum. And their dean is a cross-dressing, pun-spinning bald man with an unhealthy infatuation with dalmations.

So it’s safe to say that characters are what make Greendale an interesting place and Community a worthwhile television show to watch.

The plot focuses around a study group of seven diverse individuals who form a tight-knit dysfunctional community filled with equal parts support and destruction.

Jeff. Britta. Annie. Abed. Troy. Shirley. And Pierce.

These favored few brave the trials and tribulations of Greendale Community College with a wide variety of backgrounds and skeleton-filled closets.

What makes these individuals all the more intriguing is their self-awareness. Abed, especially, does a convincing job of acting meta without resorting to the Jack Morris-style fourth wall breaks. That Saved by the Bell reference was one Abed, a fountain of pop culture knowledge, would have appreciated.

Through the first four seasons, the show remains light-hearted and moves through the changes, plot developments and romantic entanglements without being bogged down with minutia.

True to the best sitcom forms, anyone can watch, appreciate and understand a single, out of context episode. However, watching the episodes in sequence only allows for maximum appreciation.

Community and it’s array of unique characters are not relatable. They are not meant to be. It does not resemble a real community college, because it isn’t supposed to.

What Community is meant to resemble is a television program. Which it does, because it is.

And while this country has plenty of community colleges, what it lacks is enough funny, interesting, worth-while comedic TV shows. In Community, at least we have one more.