NBC's Community Brings Big Laughs

NBC's new show, Community, has some big shoes to fill. Executive producers for the show have previously worked on critically loved "Arrested Development" and the hit sitcom "Scrubs," and the main cast includes actors from both hit TV shows (Alison Brie from Mad Men) and hit movies (Ken Jeong from The Hangover and Chevy Chase from the National Lampoon Vacation movie series).

Two episodes into the season (and one show, The CW's The Beautiful Life, already cancelled after a mere two episodes), Community is making a strong case for itself. The series premiere garnered 7.89 million viewers (good for the 20^th spot on the Nielsen weekly ratings), and the second episode gathered a still strong 5.39 million (Zap2It.com), although a similar drop from episode two to three could spell trouble for such a new show.

The real question, however, is not whether or not Community is doing well, but rather, "Is it funny?" Humor is a fairly subjective thing, but those used to seeing The Office and 30 Rock on Thursday nights on NBC should have no trouble getting into Community. It features a mix of both the absurdly off-the-wall pop culture references that litter 30 Rock and the dry wit of The Office, and so far the cast seems perfectly assembled.

Joel McHale, anchor of the reality show lampooning The Soup, strikes gold as the fast-talking former lawyer who has to return to college after it's discovered that his original degree was less than legit. He manages to be arrogant and smarmy enough to get huge laughs, yet is able to hold back just enough that the audience doesn't hate him so much they can't watch. Chevy Chase, as the non-traditional (and ultra-creepy) Pierce, is able to show why he was popular back in the 1970s and '80s, and making the case that his career is not dead, but rather just fell asleep for about 20 years. Of the supporting actors, Ken Jeong and Danny Pudi have both held their own through the first two episodes, with only Gillian Jacobs, playing the socially conscious Britta, seeming out of place amongst the cast. Whether it's that she's miscast as an actress or simply poor writing for her character can't be determined this early in the show, but something definitely doesn't sit right with her character.

This isn't to say the show hasn't seemed rough at times. The pilot episode suffered from awkward timing and jokes that seemed to be trying a little too hard (the Breakfast Club jokes were mildly humorous but were buried in an otherwise stale "let's meet the entire cast" scene), and perhaps can be used to explain why the show lost over two million viewers between episodes one and two.

Fortunately, the show's second episode ("Spanish 101") was more confident and better constructed, and includes one of the funniest montage scenes I've seen in years. The episode starts off with Senor Chang (Ken Jeong's debut performance on the show) trying to explain to the students in Introduction to Spanish why an Asian-American man is teaching Spanish class. It easily eclipses anything present in the first episode as far as hilarity value goes, and the funniest two or three scenes in the show so far have happened in Senor Chang's classroom (as opposed to the common room where the "gang" meets for their study group).

Although I can't complain about the overall humor level of the show, it would be nice if it could reach a more balanced level of humor, instead of having moments of hilarity punctuated by moments of awkwardly failed jokes. Fans, however, should remember how unpolished both the first seasons of The Office and 30 Rock were (the latter even being close to cancellation early on) and continue to give Community a chance to thrive, even if it sometimes falters.

Watch Community on NBC, 9:30 p.m. Eastern, 8:30 Central.