In the former, Jeff Winger (The Soup's Joel McHale) is a wise-ass lawyer with an invalid undergrad diploma who's sent to Greendale Community College to retrain. Once enrolled, he hopes a British professor and former client (The Daily Show's John Oliver) will help him cheat his way through the semester, but that plan proves to be a dead-end. So, after taking a shine to flame-haired dropout Britta (Gillian Jacobs), whom he offers to help tutor in Spanish (despite the fact he only knows stock phrases), Jeff unwittingly finds himself anointed the leader of her misfit study group, comprised of: sassy divorcée Shirley (Yvette Nicole Brown), socially-awkward media junkie Abed (Danny Pudi), perfectionist Annie (Mad Men's Alison Brie), former-jock Troy (Donald Glover), and wise but dysfunctional Pierce Hawthorne (Chevy Chase).
Created by Dan Harmon (The Sarah Silverman Program) with a pilot directed by Joe and Anthony Russo (Arrested Development), Community's pedigree is first-rate and its cast likewise. Like all the best US sitcoms, it can spitball one-liners and spew "zingers" with great regularity, never mind the fact that so doing turns every one of its characters into gag-merchants instead of genuine, likeable people. For me, this is a common problem many US sitcoms encounter, and something that even infected NBC's remake of The Office (which repurposed the BBC classic from documentary vérité to merely a fun way of filming a sitcom.)
Still, the jokes are at least well-written in Community; well, the ones you manage to catch through the logorrhea, at any rate. Jeff rates humanity because "we're the only species on Earth that observes Shark Week" and, well, there are other quips to make you grin as they dissolve from your memory. It all amounts to an appreciation of the performances and the legerdemain of the scriptwriters, but the premise doesn't do much for me and I'm a little tired of rat-a-tat-tat line delivery from characters who all seem to hold diploma's in stand-up comedy.
What was most interesting about Community is its '80s crushes and influences: Britta's likeness is compared to Elisabeth Shue (despite the fact she's more the Anna Hathaway type), the set-up even reminds the characters of The Breakfast Club (a movie that itself gets quoted, along with Dirty Dancing), Jeff's shares a surname will Bill Murray's character from Stripes (who's name-checked along with Michael Douglas), the show of course stars '80s icon Chevy Chase, and the pilot is dedicated to late writer-director John Hughes. I hear the second episode is much better, and the "Pilot" is certainly not bad, but I can't muster much enthusiasm for it. -- Dan Harmon (writer) / Anthony & Joe Russo (directors) / Thursdays, NBC, 9.30pm
A more contemporary-feeling show exists in Glee, the first TV attempt to emulate High School Musical that isn't just a weak imitation on a shoestring budget. Will Schuester (Matthew Morrison), a real Spanish teacher this time, agrees to take-on William McKinley High School's "glee club" after its director (Stephen Tobolowsky) abandons it for a sideline dealing prescription marijuana. The twee-sounding club is essentially a performing arts revue where kids (mainly girls, mostly outcasts) sing and dance for inter-school competitions. Will himself is an ex-glee member and wants to reclaim the club's lost glory by leading the current members to victory. The close-knit group consists of talented singer Rachel (Lea Michele), who is bullied by the school's cheerleaders; Mercedes (Amber Riley), a stylish wannabe-diva; ostentatious Kurt (Chris Colfer), geeky paraplegic Artie (Kevin McHale) on electric guitar player; and Asian-American goth Tina (Jenna Ushkowitz).
The first episode concerns Will trying to instill confidence in his group, while blackmailing a football quarterback called Finn (Cory Monteith) into putting his impressive voice to good use in providing Rachel with an effective counterpoint. Inevitably, Finn joining the glee club causes some conflict with his friends, led by Noah "Puck" Puckerman (Mark Salling), a bigot whose nickname is amusingly that of a flamboyant fairy in A Midsummer Night's Dream.
We also meet Will's exasperating wife Terri (Jessalyn Gilsig), a nice person, but a woman who doesn't understand her husband's personality (she considering doing an American Gothic jigsaw as the perfect way to channel Will's "creative" side) and has the gall to complain about a three-day working week. Already, a love rival appears to have been introduced for Terri in mysophobic guidance counselor Emma Pillsbury (perky Jayma Mays), a doe-eyed colleague who is far more supportive and understanding of Will's ambitions.
There isn't much that's wholly original about Glee, which grabs high school archetypes and doesn't really offer many twists on our expectations -- there's the unenthused Principal Figgins (Iqbal Theba), a gruff football coach in Ken Tanaka (Patrick Gallagher), an austere cheerleader coach in Sue Sylvester (Jane Lynch), and readymade bullies are found in the bitchy "Cheerios" team and prejudiced jocks who can't fathom why one of their own would want to prance around on-stage. I'm not sure this is quite the stigma it used to be, given the mass popularity of talent shows like American Idol, but Glee is content to push the clichés.
For all its corniness, Glee has two secret weapons in its arsenal: the characters are extremely likeable and the song-n'-dance routines are irrefutably uplifting, fun and beautifully choreographed. The standout in the "Pilot" is a rival glee club's upbeat performance of Amy Winehouse's "Rehab" (given a show-tune flourish), but there's also an appealing performance of Journey's "Don't Stop Believing" from the glee club's own troupe, calling themselves "New Directions". If the show can keep up this level of quality in the songs it's covering, it will at least find success with a tie-in album.
My only concern with the idiosyncratic Glee is that creator Ryan Murphy originally conceived it as a feature-film, and I'm not convinced there's enough maneuverability in a continuing TV version, which risks losing its luster thanks to the rigors of producing 22 hours this season alone. It should really be a 12-part series to help maintain quality, but I'm nevertheless interested to see how Glee develops. With Broadway stars like John Lloyd Young, Kristin Chenoweth, Victor Garber, Josh Groban and Cheyenne Jackson confirmed as future guest stars, Glee already feels like the hot ticket for musical fans. -- Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk & Ian Brennan (writers) / Ryan Murphy (director) / Wednesdays, Fox, 9pm
