Ah, now this is more like it.

I was beginning to hate you, 2009 fall television season, what with your moderately entertaining musicals and comedy scourges who were supposed to go away, but with the series premiere of Community (NBC, debuts tonight at 9:30; moves to 8:00 on October 8), you’ve finally given me something I can enjoy. The schedule still has plenty of sitcom debuts left to air, but if any of them are funnier than Community, I’ll be pleasantly shocked.

The setup is pretty brilliant for a sitcom, and here it is: Jeff, an unctuous lawyer (Joel McHale), is disbarred when it’s discovered that he lied about his degree (Colombia, not Columbia), and in order to work his way back into the legal profession, he heads to community college — and immediately sets about trying to get test answers out of a professor (John Oliver) who happens to be one of his former clients. He also takes an immediate liking to a no-nonsense blonde named Britta (Gillian Jacobs, whose physical resemblance to Elisabeth Shue quickly turns into a running gag), going so far as to pretend to set up a Spanish study club so he can be alone with her. (more…)