There was a time when most US TV comedies were a variation on this theme: Tony Danza standing in a beige living room, burping and farting to a canned laugh track and making lame jokes about modern life. But no more. Now they’re all quirky and self-referential, like Modern Family and Arrested Development. They have indie soundtracks and drop knowing pop culture references hither and thither, like 30 Rock and Scrubs.
Community, the latest US export of this type, gets its UK airing tonight at 9pm on the Viva channel, and you should really watch it*. Here’s why.
It’s set in an adult education (or, wait till you see what they did there, ‘community’) college, where Jeff Winger, a smart-alec lawyer and scarecrow (Joel McHale from fast-talking entertainment round-up The Scoop) is banished when his law degree is discovered to be fraudulent. There he meets blonde liberal Spaniel/woman Britta (Gillian Jacobs), and organises a study group purely in order to get into her pants.