Community – I’m in love with Abed

Look, NBC is still on my shit list for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is the cancellation of Life, and let’s not even talk about the entire 10:00 hour. However, I will say that the Thursday night lineup they have this season is the best one they’ve had in years. I’m in love with The Office, 30 Rock, and Parks and Recreation. Now, having only seen the first episode of Community, I have a good feeling about this show.

So what makes me love this episode so much? Well, the fact that Joel McHale wears track pants with a blazer certainly doesn’t hurt, nor does the fact that John Oliver from The Daily Show is in the cast, as is Pete Campbell’s wife. These things are all nice, but it’s Abed (Dani Pudi) who made me snort my soda.

I was concerned about Abed when we first met him: I was afraid that he was going to be one of those one-dimensional characters, whose only purpose is to provide an affliction that gets a laugh. Well, he is, kind of — Jeff (Joel McHale) accuses him of having Asperger’s — but I have a feeling that as the series goes on, we’ll be seeing more depth from Abed, whose father isn’t “Angry at America,” just angry because his wife left him … but she left him because he was angry at her all the time, and he was angry at her because she was American.

Between telling Britta that she looks like Elisabeth Shue completely out of nowhere (she does have a very Adventures in Babysitting vibe about her), and reciting Judd Nelson‘s speech from The Breakfast Club in a very passionate way, Abed started to become more than a background player. One of my favorite scenes in the entire episode is at the end, when Jeff is all depressed about not getting the test answers. In any other TV show, the characters would exchange knowing looks and invite Jeff back upstairs. But in this one, they actually had a very long and drawn-out silent argument, that led Abed to worry that he was deaf. It was amazing.

Abed has the potential to be an offensive character, but so far, the writers of Community have proven themselves deft enough to sidestep anything too awkward. He’s more than just a punch-line — he’s become an integral part of the cast, whether or not he has Asperger’s. Heh. Ass Burgers.

Clacked by Kona Gallagher
on Sep 17, 2009 @ 22:00 EST5EDT