Five Reasons to Watch Tonight's Episode of "Community"

Just a few quick words about tonight's episode of NBC comedy Community ("Spanish 101"), the series' second outing. I had the opportunity a few weeks back to watch the second episode of this hilarious new series and loved every second of it.

So why should you tune in to tonight's episode of Community, when the airwaves are positively overcrowded with televised offerings? Here are five reasons why.

(1) If you liked the pilot, you'll love this even more.

If you enjoyed the hysterical pilot episode of Community, you'll love tonight's episode even more. Free from having to set up the group's situation and first meeting at Greendale Community College, tonight's installment has a lot more fun with the low-key academic setting, further building out the world of Greendale and strengthening the relationships between the characters.

(2) It focuses on some of the supporting characters.

While Community is an ensemble comedy, a lot of the action of the first episode centered around the flirtation between Joel McHale's Jeff and Gillian Jacob's Britta. While Jeff and Britta play a large role in tonight's episode, the spotlight also gets to shine on several of the other characters as Alison Brie's Annie and Yvette Nicole Brown's Shirley get a subplot involving political protest and Chevy Chase's Pierce gets to bond with Jeff when they're paired together for a Spanish project. Which brings us to...

(3) Ken Jeong.

Tonight's episode of Community marks the first appearance of Ken Jeong's imperious Spanish teacher Senor Chang, easily one of the most terrifying and funny professors ever to grace the small screen. Jeong has cornered the market on playing absurd, eccentric, or creepy characters in both film and television and he adds a dangerous, quixotic element to the mix here. His language lesson in tonight's episode (he claims 90 percent of Spanish is using your hands) is gut-bustingly comical and alone is worth the price of admission.

(4) Aimee Mann's "Wise Up."

The award for the best usage of Aimee Mann's song "Wise Up" ever goes to Community for its inclusion in tonight's episode. I won't spoil just how or why it's used but will say that I was rolling on the floor after seeing

(5) It's just plain funny.

And, really, what more do you need than that?

Community airs tonight at 9:30 pm ET/PT on NBC. Here's a sneak peek at tonight's episode:

Have a Burning Question for Team Darlton, Matthew Fox, Evangeline Lilly, or Michael Emerson?

Lost fans: you don't have to make your way to the island via Ajira Airways in order to ask a question of the creative team or the series' stars. Televisionary is taking questions from fans to put to Lost 's executive producers/showrunners Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse and stars Matthew Fox ("Jack Shephard"), Evangeline Lilly ("Kate Austen"), and Michael Emerson ("Benjamin Linus") for a series of on-camera interviews taking place this weekend. If you have a specific question for any of the above producers or actors from Lost , please leave it in the comments section below . I'll be accepting questions until midnight PT tonight and, while I can't promise I'll be able to ask any specific inquiry due to the brevity of these on-camera interviews, I am looking for some insightful and thought-provoking questions to add to the mix. So who knows: your burning question might get asked after all.

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What's Done is Done: The Eternal Struggle Between Good and Evil on the Season Finale of "Lost"

Every story begins with thread. It's up to the storyteller to determine just how much they need to parcel out, what pattern they're making, and when to cut it short and tie it off. With last night's penultimate season finale of Lost ("The Incident, Parts One and Two"), written by Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse, we began to see the pattern that Lindelof and Cuse have been designing towards the last five seasons of this serpentine series. And it was only fitting that the two-hour finale, which pushes us on the road to the final season of Lost , should begin with thread, a loom, and a tapestry. Would Jack follow through on his plan to detonate the island and therefore reset their lives aboard Oceanic Flight 815 ? Why did Locke want to kill Jacob? What caused The Incident? What was in the box and just what lies in the shadow of the statue? We got the answers to these in a two-hour season finale that didn't quite pack the same emotional wallop of previous season ...

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In Defense of Downton Abbey (Or, Don't Believe Everything You Read)

The proof of the pudding, as they say, is in the eating. Which means, if I can get on my soapbox for a minute, that in order to judge something, one ought to experience it first hand. One can't know how the pudding has turned out until one actually tastes it. I was asked last week--while I was on vacation with my wife--for an interview by a journalist from The Daily Mail, who got in touch to talk to me about PBS' upcoming launch of ITV's period drama Downton Abbey , which stars Hugh Bonneville, Dame Maggie Smith, Dan Stevens, Elizabeth McGovern, and a host of others. (It launches on Sunday evening as part of PBS' Masterpiece Classic ; my advance review of the first season can be read here , while my interview with Downton Abbey creator Julian Fellowes and stars Dan Stevens and Hugh Bonneville can be read here .) Normally, I would have refused, just based on the fact that I was traveling and wasn't working, but I love Downton Abbey and am so enchanted with the proj...

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