*Spoilers Ahead*
As the seasons have gone by and cast members have left Community‘s focus has shifted from the study group to Greendale itself. The show has become less about a cast of random strangers attempting to make it through life via a study group and more about a bunch of co-workers attempting to make their mediocre community college into something slightly less mediocre. I should make it clear that this isn’t a problem with the show, if anything it’s a strength. As a show, especially a sitcom, gets older it is forced to change it’s dynamic and, oftentimes, it’s focus, lest it become stale. Cheers did it, The Simpsons did it, most long-running sitcoms have done it and Community is simply following that mold. I say all of this to say that this week’s episode feels like something that could only work under the new focus this show has.
Annie freaks out when she sees an attack ad from City College and calls Frankie to hold an emergency meeting. Frankie charges The Dean with contacting the others but the number Jeff has given him actually belongs to a Japanese teen who has been posing as Jeff. This starts out as a very funny opening joke and somehow morphs into an even weirder and funnier subplot throughout the episode.
The group all gathers together and we learn that the attack ad accuses Greendale of giving a 4 year degree to a dog. (28 in dog years, as the attack ad helpfully notes.) The Dean can’t confirm or deny this which only angers Annie even more. This concept is classic Community, it feels like the type of thing that would have been a throwaway joke in an early season episode but with the focus now on the possible rehabilitation of Greendale this can become a problem that our characters actually want and need to solve.
The group goes about this in a few separate ways. Jeff gets to work making an attack ad with Abed only the attack ad will focus on discrediting the dog, because of course it will, Annie and Frankie will check to see if this degree is actually legit, The Dean is charged by Text Jeff to bring him five cans of olives and Chang goes to City College to film a porno there and discredit them.
The last two turn out about as well as expected. The Dean’s gift of olives to Jeff only freaks him out, especially since this apparently isn’t the first time he’s done this, and Chang’s porno actually discredits Greendale due to his incompetence. Thankfully, the first two options gain some traction. Abed managed to make a successful attack ad on the dog but Annie has discovered that due to overdue library fees the dog was not given an actual degree. However, Annie seems to have been offended by the attack ad on the dog and considers possibly transferring. This moment doesn’t really work, not because I don’t buy that she’ll leave, I never believe these type of moments, but because it feels too much like the writers needed to throw in an emotional beat to wrap up the story.
As funny as a lot of this episode is the story feels oddly disjointed and padded out, which is weird considering it’s runtime is shorter than the first two episodes. We get numerous little subplots, including one with Britta that just sort of stops, and they seem to take up time that could have been spent on the main story.
All in all, Community has made a case for how it can still manage to be an interesting show with all that has changed, next time let’s just get a little more focus in on the main story.
Bits ‘n Pieces
- About that Britta subplot, it was weird and I didn’t find it all that funny. Basically she wanders around the campus drunk, craps her pants, and then bonds with Elroy over their shared love of fictional 90s alt-rock band, Natalie is Freezing.
- Speaking of Elroy, he gets some good lines this episode and I could listen to Keith David speak for the rest of eternity, but he still doesn’t have a concrete reason to be around the rest of the group.
- “We keep loving in text but secret forever. Meow.”
- “Let’s not forget the ‘Brenda’ factor”
- “I found the smell, someone filed a taco.”
- “It was easy to be unimpressed back then. I mean it was, literally, cheaper.”
If you’d like to give me feedback or just chat about Community you can email me at theSuperAlbino@gmail.com or hit me up on Twitter @JesseSwanson