*Spoilers Ahead*
Following last week’s strong outing Community hits it out of the park once again. I was starting to worry that the show might be heading down the wrong path in the middle of this season but this week’s episode, as well as last week’s, are a return to form for the show.
“Cinema” is a very strange episode as a lot of it revolves around the latest weirdo movie Abed is creating, only this time he isn’t creating it by choice. We’ve seen lots of Abed films throughout the show’s run but this is the first time we’ve seen him compromise on something.
The whole story gets rolling when Chang gains fame from his role in a ham commercial, His popular catchphrase, “Haaaaammmm, girl!” becoming the latest sensation. He is being sought after for Steven Spielberg’s latest film, Play-Doh Movie, and has distanced himself from Greendale and the gang. Out of a mixture of jealousy and greed, the gang agree to use Abed’s very small amount of footage from an unfinished film Chang was in to craft their own movie. Frankie even manages to grab a producer for the film, Maury (a very game, Steve Guttenberg.)
Much of the episode focuses on the filming of the movie, Chief Starr and The Raiders of The Galaxy, as it is called. The film itself is about what you would expect, it’s a terrible film where the actors (the other members of our group with a few Greendale regulars) repeatedly break character and yell at each other. Chang’s footage, including outtakes, is edited in in the worst possible ways and the film ends with Leonard, as Dracula, shooting a hole through Chief Starr.
Naturally, Maury loves the film, being enthralled by it despite it’s all around terrible production. He does, however, request that some time be cut from the film and Abed and the rest of the group decide to cut out Jeff’s, very long, death speech. This entire episode seems to slowly be building up to Abed freaking out as he has to make more and more compromises to how he normally prefers to work. In a slight twist, it is Jeff who ends up freaking out at the prospect of his scene being deleted.
It isn’t the scene that is bothering Jeff, not really, it’s Chang’s departure and the realization that he is going to be trapped at Greendale forever. Jeff’s crisis isn’t new but combining it with Abed’s story makes it seem different enough to work. The scene between the two ends up being a nice emotional note for them as Abed ends up being the one to cheer Jeff up after so many times where the roles were reversed.
In the end, the film gets screened for the school and gets a rousing reception but before Maury can distribute the film to the masses his company goes bankrupt. It ends up being for the best as it isn’t long before Chang’s new found fame goes to his head and he ends up telling Speilberg to “lick his butt.” Unbeknowst to him, Spielberg is in the room and Chang is, not so gracefully, told to leave.
The episode does suffer from pacing problems, something that has plagued a few episodes this season despite the longer running times. The story seems oddly rushed and it ruins some of the impact from the scene between Abed and Jeff. That said, even with it’s flaws this episode is the most genuine example of what I love about Community we’ve gotten all season. More episodes like this please!
Bits ‘n Pieces
- There is a lot of Chris Pratt talk this week. Mainly from Jeff, who seems to be oddly obsessed with his abs.
- Frankie gets to show up in the movie to play steel drums. Jeff was right, this gag really is paying off!
- I really loved everything Garrett did in this episode. #whoisglipglop
- Speaking of Glip Glop, that was a nice reference to Dan Harmon’s other show, Rick and Morty. Which you should definitely see if you haven’t yet.
- “I don’t think police should be heroes.” “Britta, pay your rent!”
- “So, let’s crap out this piece of crap.”
- “It’s like ‘Chinatown’ in space.”
- “I don’t go out the way I came in?”
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