Sitcoms are the best form of television (sorry, drama lovers, you know it to be true), but it’s increasingly difficult to find shows that combine clever writing with hilarious and heartwarming performances. Fortunately, the perfect sitcom (which launched multiple careers and ultimately transformed the Marvel Cinematic Universe) is available to stream. That show is Community (2009), and you can now stream this Emmy-winning college campus classic on Hulu.
The premise of Community is that a successful lawyer gets disbarred when his firm discovers that he doesn’t actually have a bachelor’s degree from Columbia University. To get his job back, he enrolls in Greendale Community College and quickly befriends a quirky assortment of characters who form a study group to keep their grades up. Soon, they become fast friends, but their bonds are frequently tested by everything from a conniving dean to a math professor with dreams of complete campus domination.
The Perfect Cast For the Perfect Sitcom
Community‘s tight scripts are brought to life by an insanely talented cast, including Alison Brie (best known for GLOW) as a neurotic student with a heart of gold. Donald Glover (best known outside this show for Atlanta and his musical career as Childish Gambino) plays a geeky athlete who strikes up an adorably unconventional friendship with an obsessive film freak played by Danny Pudi (best known outside this show for Mythic Quest). Gillian Jacobs (best known outside this show for Choke) plays a rebel without a clue, while Hollywood legend Chevy Chase (best known for ‘80s comedies like Caddyshack) plays a cranky and often villainous member of the study group.
Yvette Nicole Brown (best known outside this show for Repo Men) is great as a Christian mom who has trouble adjusting to her friendship with such young and secular students. Later, the show would be joined by cast members like Keith David (best known for They Live), Paget Brewster (best known for Criminal Minds), and Jonathan Banks (best known for Breaking Bad). Throughout its run, the show is anchored by some killer supporting stars, including Jim Rash (the Oscar-winning screenwriter best known for The Way Way Back) and Ken Jeong (best known for The Hangover movies).
A Lead Who Deserves Extra Credit
At the center of this dizzying fictional universe is Joel McHale (best known outside this show for The Happytime Murders) as the de facto leader of the weirdest students ever assembled onscreen. His character’s cynical zingers are at the heart of the show’s best punchlines, but McHale is at his best when he reveals how much his character actually cares for his freaky little found family. Over the course of six seasons, he is captivatingly convincing as someone who starts out learning to be a lawyer (again) and ends up learning something else entirely: how to be a better man.
Aside from its fourth season (the one where Dan Harmon was noticeably absent as showrunner after some behind-the-scenes drama), Community was a very critically acclaimed show. It has an 88 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, with critics praising how the show effortlessly skewers various sitcom tropes while providing emotionally resonant beats and entire arcs for its quirky characters. Critics also commended it as the gold standard of comedic television, one which has yet to be surpassed by any other sitcom over a decade and a half since we were first introduced to the delightfully deranged students of Greendale.
Like those students, Community was even more impressive than it appeared at first: for example, it was nominated for ten Critics’ Choice Television Awards (it won for Best Comedy Series) and six Satellite awards (winning for Best Television Release). Additionally, it was nominated for four Primetime Emmys and won one for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Animation (for “Abed’s Uncontrollable Christmas”), though the show’s legion of fans feels the series should have taken home more Emmys given its consistently high quality of writing, acting, and directing.
The Show That Saved the MCU
Speaking of directing, it’s worth noting that superstar Marvel directors the Russo brothers rose to prominence by directing episodes of Community. They had already won a Primetime Emmy for Arrested Development, but they landed on Kevin Feige’s radar because he was a huge fan of Community, a show where the Russos directed 34 episodes. They got the job to direct Captain America: The Winter Soldier (which had a cameo from fan favorite Community actor Danny Pudi), and its success led to them being arguably the most important architects of the MCU (they went on to direct Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame, and they are currently working on Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars) since Feige himself.
Personally, I think Community is the best sitcom in television history, one that has shaped my life in some profound ways…heck, this is the series that cemented my decision to become a community college professor! Showrunner Dan Harmon (otherwise best known for co-creating Rick and Morty) based Community on his own experiences of attending Glendale Community College, and he does a stellar job of capturing both the whimsical absurdities and the profound promise of everyday campus life. Furthermore, the show expertly emphasizes something that teachers don’t always like to admit: sometimes, you learn even more from your crazy friends than you could ever learn in the classroom.
Will you agree that Community is the greatest sitcom ever made, or would you rather go back to school than sit through this quirky Dan Harmon classic? You won’t know until you stream it on Hulu and experience the delightfully demented world of Greendale Community College for yourself. Afterward, you can join the rest of the fandom in counting down the days until we finally get to see the upcoming film (six seasons and a movie, baby!) on Peacock.
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