There’s a few TV shows that really work for me over the years:
And Community
Here’s the things those shows have in common:
– Great creative cast who are left to improv and riff a bit
– Wheels off hilarious writing
– Quirky off-the-wall bits with music so times invoked without breaking into annoying musicals too often
– Art imitates life which in turn imitates art
— meaning you take everyday life and just turn up the absurdity knob on it for the shows and bam… TV gold right there
– and each of those shows deftly switches back and forth between what feels like real life moment of character development and comedy without missing a beat
So I left out two of the characters from the ensemble cast just because I find them too one-dimensional and kinda annoying. Chevy Chase plays an aging gent who is crotchety, lonely, kinda sad…. and just a tad bit racist. And it doesn’t help that the word on the streets is that Chase can be an A-hole in the extreme behind the scenes on set.
Yvette Nicole Brown plays Shirley Bennett, a divorced mother and vocal Christian going to school to start a brownie business. Shirley is a kind-hearted person with strong morals, but can be overbearing and often resorts to using guilt in her interactions with her friends. She’s soft-spoken which just comes off too nicey-nicey while turning manipulative to get people to believe the way she believes spiritually. Annoying. I’m sure the actress is a lovely person, I just don’t care for the character.
Since I’ve ran out of the energy and time for writing, here’s some stuff from the Wiki-Wiki-What about the show…
Community is an American television sitcom created by Dan Harmon. The series ran for 110 episodes over six seasons, with its first five seasons airing on NBC from September 17, 2009, to April 17, 2014, and its final season airing on Yahoo! Screen from March 17 to June 2, 2015.
Set at a community college in the fictional Colorado town of Greendale, the series stars an ensemble cast consisting of Joel McHale, Gillian Jacobs, Danny Pudi, Yvette Nicole Brown, Alison Brie, Donald Glover, Ken Jeong, Chevy Chase, and Jim Rash. It makes heavy use of meta-humor and pop culture references, often paying homage to film and television clichés and tropes.
And here’s myself at a Community College…
Now finally listen to Childish Gambino which the is raps pseudonym of Danny Glover.
*** Warning Graphic Scenes of Violence Included, maybe a bit of the “language.” Don’t watch if you don’t care for that kinda thing. ***
“Can’t we all just get along?” — Rodney King, 1992, Watts Riots
So Community, building bridges, wherever you are, that’s your community and start building it, along with some bridges that recognizes past wrongs, but moves forward with peace, kindness, and understanding. Cuz ain’t nothing funny about that…. but the show Community gets it. We can laugh about our racial issues in America while acknowledging it and finding a way, a better way to move forward.
Good things.
ZandMe's 999 Good Things 