In Which We Inaugurate Thoroughly Obsessed Thursday

So in light of a complete lack of contribution on your end, and a total blockage of brilliance of mine, I hereby dub The Weekly Regular Column to be Thoroughly Obsessed Thursday.

That is, until one of us has a better idea.

I'm totally obsessed with romance novels. Obviously. But I am more than a love-loving fool... I love plenty of other things too. And while this blog is ostensibly to talk about romance novels (or whatever the hell I am pretending to read this week), I have just officially hijacked it for Other Things as well.

I might be obsessed with a book or a character or a movie or a show or a site. It'll depend on my mood. So basically this is going to be a regular contribution of... what I talk about every week anyway. It's just happening on Thursday because that's my favorite day of the week, harkening back to the good old days of Must-See TV and Friends on NBC.

Speaking of, this week I am thoroughly obsessed with Community, that little-seen sparkly gem hiding at the beginning of the NBC Thursday lineup. It's not-so-much Must-See TV anymore, both because we're now in a different century and because reminding everyone of their previous Thursday night heyday is not the right move given NBC's current anemic ratings.

SO ANYWAY. Community. Last year I watched the pilot and the first few eps from Utah, but like so many things in the final months of 2009, it was lost to the chaos of Press Accreditation applications.

What I missed was a steadily growing and improving (perfecting?) ensemble comedy that is one of the finest I've seen since Liz Lemon and her gang first took to the small screen in 2006. The most interesting (and best) part of Community for me is that it is genuinely an ensemble effort. Sure, The Soup's Joel McHale is handsome and theoretically "the leading man," but Danny Pudi's Abed, Donald Glover's Troy, and Chevy Chase's Pierce are in no way his second bananas. Quite the contrary, I'm a little convinced that Abed himself is the true main character of the show.

And of course we must not forget the women, who are genuinely portrayed as... realistic women. They're flawed and can be bitchy, but there's no "slut," or "good girl." Well, Mad Men's Alison Brie plays Annie as an innocent who has to whisper the word "penis," but the girl evolves along with the rest to become a fully rounded and multi-dimensional character.

An aside: In watching the eps with commentary (and they ALL have commentary) there are a couple of comparisons here and there to Gilligan's Island, referenced by the creator and the writers. And ohholyhell is Community the 21st century Gilligan's Island. Jeff's the Captain. Abed's Gilligan. Troy's the Professor. Annie's Mary Ann, Britta's Ginger, and Shirley and Pierce are (albiet not at all married and/or romantic AT ALL) are Lovey and Thurston Howell. Watch it and you'll see. I'm not wrong.

Have I mentioned it's funny? No? Because it's hilarious. If you're going to skip the season marathon (which I don't recommend... not because you can't miss anything, but because you really won't want to) and pick selected episode's before diving in to the still-stellar second season, I recommend check out the Pilot, "Introduction to Statistics", "Debate 109", "Romantic Expressionism", "Physical Education", "Contemporary American Poultry", "Modern Warfare", and "Pascal's Triangle Revisited". All excellent, all worth a look, and all well-placed to give you a general overview of all of this awesomeness.

Well, there you go. The first Thoroughly Obsessed Thursday. Don't tell me you're not excited.