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"Leonard, I know about your crooked wang." "No such thing as bad press...."
Sony / 468 Minutes / 2011-2012 / Unrated / Street Date: August 14, 2012
Defiantly, often brilliant odd, Community on this Complete Third Season set is compulsively enjoyable. Consistency is perhaps not the name of the game here - for every time the show nails it, it swings and misses a few - but Community couples a crazy narrative drive with refreshingly smart undercurrents: it may relish in its status as a dumbass show, but there seems to always be at least a handful of reasons behind its zany tacks.
I mean, you have Chevy Chase going full on idle, an always refreshing John Goodman who shows up as a particularly oddball staff member, and the magnificent chemistry between Yvette Nicole Brown and Joel McHale, who constantly exploit the push/pull of their warm yet prickly relationship to frequently hilarious extents. Then, of course, you have the BFFs at the side of the stage - Donald Glover and Danny Pudi - who careen the series off into even more pop-culture-referential and alternate-reality fun.
Is Community a show for everyone? Of course not. The series seems to have continued trouble merely staying on the air - as of now, it looks like there'll be one more half-season and then sayonara - but for the dedicated few who hang their hats on Community's singular out-there presence, The Complete Third Season will prove to be a watershed. It won't blow your mind every episode, but if you find yourself on the show's wavelength, you're guaranteed at least one good belly laugh per installment here, and in this current land of ho-hum television, that's high praise, indeed.