TV tip: Community

NBC recently wrapped up the third season of its low-rated cult hit "Community." The most exciting thing about the show - about the bizarre lives of misfits who form a study group at Greendale Community College - is the fact that it often reminds its viewers that they're indeed watching a television show. It toys with meta jokes such as the characters being trapped in a "bottle episode," parodies of movies and TV genres like "Law and Order," or doing fake clip shows that don't contain clips from any previous episodes but are instead all fresh jokes. Normally, there is nothing more insufferable than a show that continually breaks the fourth wall, but "Community" does it with such style and elegance that the audience feels less like the writers are being lazy and more like the show is simply in on its own joke. Although this beloved sitcom hit has been marred by low ratings, NBC has given the "Greendale Seven" a shortened fourth season and thus, a chance to see the characters finally graduate. Now is the perfect time to catch up on the study group's hijinks before we reluctantly let them push their tassels to the left and accept their degrees at the end of next season.

- TYLER MCCARTHY