Jmunney's Blog

By my estimation, the best analogue to “Basic Intergluteal Numismatics” is “Basic Lupine Urology” – an intricately well-done, but unnecessary, homage.  (Also, the titles follow the same format: with BLU, it’s “ha-ha, fancy way of saying ‘Dick Wolf'” and with BIN, – it’s “ha-ha, fancy way of saying ‘dropping coins into butts.'”)  I responded better to “Intergluteal,” not necessarily because it was better, but because I am more familiar with David Fincher’s filmography than I am with Law & Order.  I don’t think I’ve ever seen an episode of L&O straight through, whereas I have seen every Fincher-directed film besides Alien Cubed and Panic Room, and I’ve liked them all (well, Benjamin Button was okay, but kind of weird – but I don’t think it was referenced here anyway).  There were some touches on TV crime procedurals as well, a genre I did not think I was that big a fan of, but I guess I am watching the right ones, because I appreciated the nods to Hannibal (right down to Duncan’s Lecter-esque wardrobe) as well as Abed pointing out the overdone trope of a “special” investigator with the ability to recreate the crime in his head (even though that trope is done perfectly on Hannibal).  Typically, Abed will jump at any chance to recreate fictional tropes in real life, so it was an entertaining change of pace to see him start to act out the Dean’s patronizing request, but ultimately point out how disgusted he was by it, by means of just leaving the room.

Generally, I prefer it when Community‘s homages arise naturally out of the plot machinations and the character dynamics, as opposed to being imposed from the outside.  Now, if it is the latter, I can enjoy it if it is well-done, though it probably will not quite be at the top tier of episodes.  And so it goes for “Intergluteal.”  The dark green tint was fine either way, and I was perfectly happy with it because I loved seeing an episode of Community that looked like Se7en.  Annie and Jeff have teamed up together plenty of times before, so it was certainly believable that they would do so again, and the fact that they so easily slipped into roles typical of Fincher-ian investigators – a mix between the opposing styles of Se7en and the sexual tension of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo – was more a function of the editing than either of the two of them acting out of character.  And it certainly was not atypical of Abed to give Troy warm beverages and blankets, just like how trauma victims are treated in movies.  Troy committing to the trauma victim bit may have been silly, but it is also something he would do.  Then there was the Dean snapping at Rhonda to trace the call – my pick for biggest laugh of the night (give or take Jeff’s moment with Leonard) – which is something the Dean would absolutely do: emulating a trope in a way that doesn’t quite work.  So, really, it wasn’t so much that this homage felt imposed from above, as much as this whole episode just came out of nowhere.  It was hard to get your bearings regarding what it was trying to do, but that also seemed to be the point – so I guess what I’m saying is, the the justification for this homage was the homage itself.

One element that did not come out of nowhere but felt oddly unattached to continuity was the Jeff and Annie of it all.  I was actually surprised to see these two team up again right after last episode, considering this show has rarely been sure exactly how it wants to treat these two.  It wasn’t exactly sure here, either, though it did seem to start to be saying something, but that something got cut off (like everything else at the end of this episode).  When there has been a mystery to be solved at Greendale in the past – “Conspiracy Theories and Interior Design,” “Basic Lupine Urology” – Jeff and Annie have always teamed up for the investigation, so it made sense that they would do so again.  And it made sense that they have now teamed up often enough that people would start noticing and point it out.  I’m not sure why the Dean referred to it as creepy, though.  I’m not even sure what exactly was “this creepiness” was referring to.  Their age difference wasn’t brought up; it seemed more like the point was that it was weird that the two of them apparently feel the need to justify their spending time together by getting involved with a caper.

The state of their relationship seems to be that they are fine with referring to themselves as just friends.  They are still attracted to each other, but not necessarily enough that they feel a burning desire to act on it.  But that doesn’t quite add up, because in Season 4, their attraction still was clearly present.  There was never really a decisive moment when they said to each other or themselves that they were just friends.  How much time passed between the end of Season 4 and the start of Season 5, again?  Long enough for all the changes in the group dynamic to make sense?  Okay, that sounds about right.  (Looking over comments from around the Internet, it seems like the tension may have been played up and called attention to for the sake of emulating the sexual tension in TV and movie mystery-solving duos – I’ve already mentioned Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, and of course there’s Mulder and Scully, and also probably The Killing [which I’ve never watched].)

Oh, and Pierce died.  This may have struck some as rushed, or not dealt with properly.  The latter should not be too much of a concern, because the next episode will be dealing with it directly.  As for the former, unexpected deaths tend to feel like that.  Did it feel oddly shoehorned into an homage episode, which was also – homage or no homage – exceedingly silly?  Yes.  Was that necessarily a bad thing?  It may have rubbed some the wrong way; for me, it was weird, but in a way that I thought weirdly fit with the weirdness of the whole episode.  The case was closed, but never fully solved, because there are more important things to focus on, but there is still a lingering feeling of “Could it be…”

Oh, and I’ve barely been able to talk about the return of Ian Duncan.  It felt a little strange to have to explain his return, instead of just letting him be there.  Ultimately, though, by episode’s end, he was essentially just there, back in the Greendale swing of things.  His interactions with Britta were charmingly creepy.  There might have been a bit of overkill with the fake Britishisms, but his delivery was spot-on (“Oh, American high-five” was probably my favorite of the bunch).  The scene with him and Annie in his office also delivered the tension, and apparently it was a perfect homage to a scene in Zodiac that I don’t remember all the details of, but people who have seen Zodiac more recently than I have sound confident that it hit the mark.

I know I liked this episode, but