Community – Recap & Review – Pilot

photo: nbc

Community
Pilot

Original Air Date: 17 Sept 2009

Brittany – Staff Writer
brittany@thetwocentscorp.com

Welcome one and all to the series premiere of Community! Before we begin, did you check out our interview with Joel McHale and Dan Harmon? How about our quick interview with Yvette Nicole Brown? If you haven’t done that yet, go catch up and meet me back here for our first study group session of the season!

Enter Jeff Winger. He’s a hotshot lawyer who can talk anyone into anything good or bad. He’s been thrust into Greendale Community College after his bachelor’s degree from Columbia is revoked. And when I say Columbia, I mean Columbia the country. He asks a close friend, Ian Duncan who is a psychology professor, for every answer to every test Jeff will ever take. In exchange, Duncan will get the keys to Jeff’s Lexus for four years.

In the interim, Jeff meets Britta, a sharp witted (apparent Elisabeth Shue look alike) young woman who dropped out of high school to impress Radiohead. Wouldn’t you know that the first thing she tells Jeff is that she expects honesty from people, which of course has Jeff lying right off the bat. He has turned into a board certified Spanish teacher, and she just happens to need tutoring. It’s all just a ploy to get into Britta’s pants, and she’s one step ahead of him by inviting Abed to the study group. Abed is…well, Abed is a character to behold. He apparently has Asperger’s, and if you can catch them, he has some of the best lines.

Abed also invites some other people from Spanish class: We have Pierce who apparently has no idea what sexual harassment is, Shirley who is a middle aged single mother, Troy who clings to his high school popularity, and Annie (Hey, it’s Trudy from Mad Men!) who left high school early because she got hooked on pills. This group of very diverse students gets together and more than once Jeff tries to bolt. He tells Britta that the group will be ‘untutorable’ which she’s apt to believe, until she realizes he set her up for a date, and calls him out for setting up the group to fight just to get into her pants.

The group disbands, but eventually winds up gathered around Jeff on the steps to the library. It turns out that the answers Ian gave him were nothing but blank pieces of paper and now, Jeff has to really study. (This also forfeits Duncan getting the Lexus.)The group decides to forgive him and they all head back inside to get their actual learn on.

Quotes (to be honest, a lot of these would have been more hilarious had they not been splashed all over NBC for the entire summer.):

Get out of jail free card
Ian: I still cannot figure out how you got a jury to connect September 11th to my DUI. Let alone…why that helped.
Jeff: Well, 2002 was a simpler time.

We’ve all done it
Jeff: I was raised on t.v. and was conditioned to believe that every black woman over 50 was a cosmic mentor.

Let’s play word association!
Abed: Hey, this is kinda like The Breakfast Club.
Britta: We are in a library.
Abed: I’m sure we’ve each got an issue balled up inside of us that would make us cry if we talked about it.
Britta: Do you have something balled up inside of you?
Abed: Well I do have a doozie in the chamber if things get emotional.

Short hand these days
[A text from Ian to Jeff]
Con-4-s-8-tion on football field now!!

Seacrest, out!
Pierce: Are you the board certified tutor?
Troy: That means you do my homework, right Seacrest?

Oh hell to the naw
Shirley: Adults, they get respect, but they also get the back of their head grabbed and their face pushed through jukeboxes!

Stop mouthing words to each other
Abed: Can you guys hear me? Am I deaf??

Best nickname of the night:
Adderall Annie

Honorable mention for most over used phrase from the 90s making a comeback:
Booyah!

If I keep going with the quotes this recap will be ten pages long, so I’ll leave you with this homework: Did the show live up to your expectations or would you give the pilot a big fat ‘F’? Me, I’m leaning towards A- if only for the witty remarks and fast pace. I love a show that doesn’t dumb things down. Where can I sign up for Spanish tutoring at my local community college? Leave your TwoCents on how you felt about the premiere, and I’ll see you back here next week for study group!