12 Favorite Comedies of 2011: ‘Awkward.’ and ‘Community’
Continuing in alphabetical order, two more of my favorite comedies from 2011. Both shows deal with the travails and social landscapes of educational institutions.
Awkward.
I’m not sure what prefacing this by admitting that I still watch Teen Nick’s Degrassi will do for my credibility. But there you have it. Awkward., MTV’s half-hour soap, has a lot in common with Teen Nick’s bread and butter: it’s earnest, current, and refuses to talk down to its audience. Jenna’s journey through the halls of high school, however, seem better navigated with a self-deprecating sense of humor (and some wicked slang), whereas Degrassi is much more reliant on Taking It Seriously, and every installment is a Very Special Episode.
There are some intriguing mysteries running through Awkward.‘s first 12 episodes. Who wrote Jenna a harsh letter taking her to task for her worthless social stock? Will she end up with the guy she likes, who wants to keep her on the DL, or the guy who likes her, whose own girlfriend is not thrilled with his wandering eye? It sounds cliché, but the breezy season arc comes off as fresh, especially if you’re inclined to ignore some of the more cartoonish folks in Jenna’s world. If you’re looking for something light you can catch up with during the holidays, you could do much worse.
Community
Joel McHale in 'Community.' (Jordin Althaus/NBC)
I’m not above admitting that my initial interest in this show was an excuse to look at Joel McHale for 22 non-Soup minutes each week. Then my DVR got crowded a month into this show’s first season, and I threw it overboard. But it continued to generate enough buzz that I added it to my DVR last spring, in time to catch up on most of season 2 throughout the summer, and to devour each season 3 episode with anticipation. I’ll admit that it’s an acquired taste.
What Community has going for it is ambition. It sets a high bar for itself every week, taking creative approaches to storytelling, sometimes just for their own sake, but often in service of its characters. From the annual paintball showdowns to the transcendent “Remedial Chaos Theory,” which featured multiple alternate timelines of the same evening’s events, there are always plenty of layers to peel back.
And no matter what song and dance plays out for the first 20 minutes, it usually comes together in an unexpectedly affecting way. The thing about ambition is that it doesn’t always work out. Not every Community is a winner, but they’re swinging for the fences, and they’re connecting much more often than not. I can’t think of another show for which I would have willingly sat through an entire episode that was just a game of Dungeons and Dragons. Come back soon, Community.
