Community

While I haven't been able to get out and about much - certainly no theatre trips - I have had time for lots of reading, films and TV, so I thought I should share some of what I've been enjoying on here, starting with my latest TV binge: Community.

My dad put me on to Community after it recently won a TV Choice Award for Best Sitcom. It's horribly addictive and only 20 minutes per episode, so I've now already watched all three series (a fourth will start in October). Community is very, very silly, but if you get passed that it is a lot of fun and also very clever, especially if you're a film and TV buff. 

When it is discovered that his degree is fake, smooth-talking lawyer Jeff Winger (Joel McHale) finds himself at Greendale Community College, possibly the world's worst school. In an attempt to seduce wannabe political activist Britta Perry (Gillian Jacobs), he starts a Spanish study group, bringing together a diverse mix of characters that otherwise have nothing in common - straight-A student turned Adderral addict, Annie Eddison (Man Men's wonderful Alison Brie); ex-high school football star, Troy Barnes (Donald Glover); strongly Christian mum, Shirley Bennett (Yvette Nicole Brown); film & TV nerd, Abed Nadir (Danny Pudi) and retired businessman growing old disgracefully Pierce Hawthorne (Chevy Chase, basically playing himself). Surprisingly the group come together as a support system and eventually a very unconventional family, inspired by creator Dan Harmon's real-life experience at community college.

The characters start of as complete stereotypes, but they acknowledge that and the humour is completely self-aware. Through the three series, however, the characters evolve in surprising and rewarding ways, and you can't help but get sucked in to the web of relations between them. The most distinctive feature of Community though is how very meta it is - every episode is either pastiching a certain programme or genre, or stuffed full of pop culture references. This may annoy some viewers, but I really appreciated how the characters and setting adapted to everything from CSI to Lars Von Trier's Dogville. Equally, I loved the experimentation with form of certain episodes, from stop-motion animation to 80s video game.

So if you're stuck for something to fill a 20 minute gap in your viewing schedule, give Community a go. Just as the characters learn to embrace life at Greendale, if you give Community a chance you'll be very happy there.