Skip to content
Link copied to clipboard

Ellen Gray: A plea for 'Community'

COMMUNITY. 8 tonight, Channel 10. PARKS AND RECREATION. 8:30 tonight, Channel 10. WHAT IS it with television and Halloween? It's a question Phillies fans likely won't be asking themselves tonight as two of NBC's newest comedies play dress-up opposite Game 2 of the World Series on the first night of the so-called November sweeps.

COMMUNITY. 8 tonight, Channel 10.

PARKS AND RECREATION. 8:30 tonight, Channel 10.

WHAT IS it with television and Halloween?

It's a question Phillies fans likely won't be asking themselves tonight as two of NBC's newest comedies play dress-up opposite Game 2 of the World Series on the first night of the so-called November sweeps.

But if you have room on your DVR, I'd like to make yet another plug for "Community," which last week got a full-season order from the network, along with "Parks and Recreation" and "Mercy."

Yes, there's a bad Halloween party - two, in fact - and, OK, the sight of Chevy Chase as the Beastmaster might cause some viewers to go blind.

But not even an obligatory holiday episode can trample the spirit of "Community," which, along with ABC's "Modern Family," offers the latest proof that TV comedy isn't actually dead.

If only I could say that about NBC's entire 8-9 p.m. hour.

But as much as I love Amy Poehler, I haven't yet climbed aboard the rapidly filling bandwagon for "Parks and Recreation," which most weeks leaves me just a little sad, for Poehler and her character, Leslie Knope.

But I do think I've figured out who Leslie is: Charlie Brown.

And though it's Linus, not Charlie Brown, who spends a futile night in a dark field in "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown," it's Leslie's essential Charlie Brown-ness that tonight has her on stakeout with her police officer boyfriend (Louie C.K.) as she tries to prevent a 16-year-old boy from defacing a local statue for Halloween.

Elsewhere in Pawnee, there's a predictably lame party thrown by Leslie's friend, Ann (Rashida Jones), whose link to the rest of the show's characters remains so tenuous they're actually trying to make a joke out of it.

All the costumes in the world can't mask the effort "P&R" is expending as it tries to deliver as much as its first-rate cast still seems to promise.

Not-so-sunny 'League'

FX would dearly love to find a Thursday night comedy to complement its outrageous darling, "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" (10 tonight, FX).

And while I'd like to think that's not "The League" (10:30 tonight, FX), a single-camera sitcom about guys in a fantasy football league whose cluelessness is only matched by their crudeness, I wouldn't bet against it.

Instead, I'll give thanks that I'm not, and never have been, in the target demo for shows like "The League," which try to lure men under 35 by telling them they're hopelessly stupid.

And unlike the abysmal ignorance displayed by the characters on "It's Always Sunny" (which, five seasons in, has worn me down to the point that I actually laugh out loud sometimes), it's just believable enough to be unfunny.

Women don't fare any better than men in "The League." With the exception of one wife, played by Katie Aselton, they're such whiny one-notes it's a wonder they've been given dialogue.

But then given the show's Neanderthal bent - and I'm not just saying that because "The League's" Nick Kroll starred in ABC's "Cavemen" - we should be grateful the actors aren't communicating entirely in grunts.

A rose by any other name

Ever since it lost its sponsorship and ceased to be "Major Petroleum Company Masterpiece Theater," PBS' signature drama series has been a tear to rebrand itself.

The once-iconic hosts now seem to cycle through based on who's available at the time - this fall, it's Britain's "Dr. Who," David Tennant - and the now just-plain "Masterpiece" is divided into "Classic," "Contemporary" and "Mystery!" to absorb its popular sister series.

With all due respect to Tennant, who'd probably be fun anywhere, and to "Masterpiece," which continues to offer better-than-average entertainment on Sunday nights, most of this is much ado about nothing.

Indeed, the labels mean so little that last week's splendid "Endgame," based on a true story involving the fight to end apartheid in South Africa, and the intriguing two-part "Place of Execution," which premieres Sunday (9 p.m., Channel 12), are both classified as "Contemporary," though the latter could just as easily be "Mystery!"

Based on a novel by Val McDermid, whose Tony Hill series became BBC America's gripping "Wire in the Blood," "Place of Execution" stars Juliet Stevenson as a TV documentary maker investigating the 40-year-old disappearance of a young girl.

Her initial effort boasts the cheese factor of your average "48 Hours Mystery," but it's not long before she's followed a lead down the rabbit hole to the last story she ever expected to find.

McDermid fans who've been waiting for Tony Hill to make his way to PBS may want to keep an eye on the credits, which list Robson Green, who plays him, as one of "Place's" producers. *

Send e-mail to graye@phillynews.com or join a live chat at noon today at philly.com/tvchat.