*Spoilers Ahead*
Since the beginning of Community‘s new season Jeff Winger has taken a bit of a backseat to the other cast members. I personally enjoy this as it give the rest of the cast a chance to grow. Still, Jeff is the ostensible lead and so this week’s episode returns the focus to him.
The group is all gathered by Frankie to hear about a new government program that will give a $300,000 incentive to any school that allows maximum security inmates to attend it via devices that seem to just be iPads stuck to Segways. Jeff is all for it, mainly because of the money, but quickly begins to regret the decision when he has to deal with the charismatic convict, Willy.
It’s great to see Jeff in the classroom again and I hope we get a bit more of that this season as the show has had a strange resistance to having him in that setting often. Willy seems offended by Jeff’s flat out refusal to teach anything and only show Planet Earth tapes to his class. It’s not clear what sets Willy off but it’s also not clear how sane this guy actually is. After all, he does attempt to push Jeff down a flight of stair with his Segway-like device, to nothing but mild shock and bemusement from Winger.
Willy gets the upperhand, however, and manages to inform The Dean of Jeff’s actions in class before Jeff can mention the stairs incident. Willy then proceeds to win over Jeff’s class and generally becomes a favorite among Greendale. The show takes some time to point out that Willy is doing what Jeff normally does, talking people into giving him what he wants and that Jeff, as has been demonstrated many times before, hates having his games played against him. This is all well and good but the story suffers from a real lack of an emotional hook. It feels too much like absurdity for the sake of it, similar to “Crisis Room” a few weeks ago. Still, it ends with a prison riot fight between Willy’s device and Jeff’s makeshift device created for him by Elroy so it still manages to be hilarious.
Elsewhere, Britta wishes to throw a party in the apartment and Annie refuses to allow such a thing. Britta gets her way by convincing Abed to agree to a party, staging it as a film about people partying like there’s no tomorrow. Naturally, things go awry as Abed struggles to get the right performances out of the party goers and just keeps the party going. I enjoyed this story a little more than the A-plot due to it having a decent emotional payoff, plus I’m a sucker for anytime Britta and Annie get to argue with each other. Eventually, Britta has to tell Abed that the film script she made isn’t accurate, despite being based on a true story, and this causes Abed to shun her. As Annie puts it: “You’re going to be punished in ways you won’t understand for longer than you think is rational or possible. But then one day, you’ll do something he likes and he’ll stop. And eventually you’ll either adapt or lose your mind.”
While this week’s episode is a bit of a mixed bag story-wise it manages to stay consistently hilarious I just hope we get more of the emotional aspect back. Ultimately, Community is good with just the straight absurdity but it’s great with the right hook to wring some stakes from that absurdity.
Bits ‘n Pieces
- I enjoyed the weird kinda turned on look Jim Rash gives The Dean during the battle between Jeff and Willy.
- The tag felt very off which I’m going to chalk up to everyone being on iPads and not interacting in person.
- Also, Chang is apparently homeless and everyone is fine with that, which makes sense.
- “I’m nobody’s fourth Ghostbuster.”
- “Where I’m from you accuse somebody of something you better have evidence or they better be a minority.”
- “There’s no tomorrow, party like it.”
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