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Thursday, 15 January 2015

Community

Also Known As:
Unknown
Year:
2009 -
Country:
United States…
Predominant Genre:
Comedy
Directors:
Directors…
Outstanding Performances:
Jack BLACK…
Ken JEONG…
Joel McHALE…
Jim RASH…
Lauren STAMILLE…
Premiss:
Lawyer is suspended when his false claim to have a bachelor’s degree is discovered, so he enrolls at a Community college.
Themes:
Alienation
Atheism
Christianity
Coming-of-age
Compassion
Communism
Courage
Destiny
Emotional repression
Empathy
Ethnicity
Family
Friendship
Identity
Loneliness
Loyalty
Materialism
Narcissism
Nostalgia
Personal change
Political Correctness
Self-expression
Sexism
Sexual Repression
Solipsism
Stereotyping
White culture
White guilt
White supremacy
Similar to:
Unknown
Review Format:
DVD

WHITE COMMUNITY

Summary: Light & superficial - like the culture that spawned it - yet wantonly-amusing.

Humorous sitcom with a lovable cast of stereotypes that, while funny, has nowhere to go - dramatically - because the characters remain stubbornly two-dimensional.

As with Whites in tv land, the characters do not develop (for fear of losing the only White friends they have); making this a very realistic look at Whites - albeit a comedy going around-and-around in ever-decreasing emotional circles.

However, the cast do OK with their limited characters: The racist, homophobe claiming not to realize how offensive he is (don’t they all?); the neurotic Jewish princess refusing to embrace her femininity; the bookish Asian nerd; the big Black momma; etc.

Joel McHALE is particularly fine as the immature and self-hating White know-it-all with an answer to everything - except his fear of treating women as serious and life-changing.

The light-skinned writers do not know how to invest their dark-skinned characters with an inner life, so resort to irony & sarcasm - rather than any substantive humor coming from real-life people in real-life situations. This is partly-disguised & ameliorated by the sheer absurdity of many of the situations the characters manage to get themselves into - as well as the undoubted energy the many performers bring to the show.


Copyright © 2015 Frank TALKER.
Permission granted to reproduce & distribute this posting in any way, shape or form; provided you mention this Blog.
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