Community

In the US: Tuesdays, 9pm Eastern/8pm Central, NBC. Starts September 11
In the UK: Not yet acquired

NBC. Comedy.

Funny how if you’d stuck those two words together in the 90s, you’d have got gold, thanks to Friends, and how if you stick them together now, despite Community and 30 Rock, you get lead. Certainly the viewers seem to think so, judging from the ratings.

Yes, that’s exactly how I started my review of The New Normal yesterday and I’m reusing it for three reasons: first, that if you’re still expecting an NBC comedy to be funny, you know that definition of madness and doing the same thing over and over again and expecting something different? That one? That’s you that is.

Secondly, you notice how I mentioned Friends, ‘ratings’ and ‘gold’ in the same paragraph there? Well, NBC has that etched on the walls of their comedy commissioning office and when the thought of Matthew Perry (Chandler in Friends) appearing in a new NBC sitcom created by one of the producers of Friends hit them, they came over all funny. Okay, Studio 60 wasn’t exactly a slam dunk, but that wasn’t a comedy. This is an actual sitcom.

Hence, the commissioning of Go On, which – and here’s my third point – can only be described as Community, one of NBC’s few critical comedy successes of recent years, even if it’s not a ratings success. However, instead of Joel McHale, you have Matthew Perry and instead of a community college study group, you have a community college support group. And instead of laughter, you have tears. No, really, because although laughs are pretty thin on the ground with Go On, I did actually weep buckets during it. And no, not for NBC’s doomed ratings and the sure and certain knowledge this is going to be cancelled within a season.

Here’s a trailer that contains literally all the jokes. And – be warned – all the bits that will make you cry.

Continue reading “Preview: Go On (NBC) 1×1”