Jmunney's Blog

If you’ve regularly been reading my Community reviews for this season thus far, you might think – based on my grades at least (B+, B+, A-, B) – that I’ve been happy with the way things have been going.  But I’ve actually been a little worried.  The show has been all right, but it has yet to produce any masterpieces that in past seasons were always only a few weeks away.  “Cooperative Escapism in Familial Relations” wasn’t quite a masterpiece, but it had enough masterpiece-level elements  to be itself strongly satisfying and leave me optimistic for the future.

Let’s save the best for last, and let’s start with discussing the B-plot.  Abed, Annie, Pierce, and Troy end up at Shirley’s with her in-laws for Thanksgiving.  Andre’s family is apparently so unbearable that the study group-ers have to resort to spending nearly the entirety of the episode in Shirley’s garage.  Some other reviews have already mentioned the one thing I really didn’t like about this storyline – it hardly ever showed how awful the Bennetts supposedly were.  It felt like one or two scenes must have been missing.  Maybe they were – perhaps there were cuts for time?  Abed’s attempts to narrate the situation into a Shawshank Redemption (and then Prison Break) scenario did not feel forced, because that is something that Abed would do.  But it did feel kind of half-hearted; in fact, the whole situation felt half-hearted: they never really had it in them to abandon Shirley. So, considering that, it was actually a good thing that it was half-hearted.  Interestingly enough, while this episode provided further evidence that Chevy Chase had checked out during filming of this season, he actually provided some of the funniest moments, particularly his “reference” and “meta” humor that he insists “Ay-bed” will get.

Now for the moment we’ve all been waiting for: Jeff meets Daddy William Winger … and Britta insists on being there to see her psychology project through.  Also, Jeff has a “soft” half-brother, Willy, Jr., who was played decently by Adam Devine.  He had some memorable moments with Britta particularly the dinner roll session.  But the real meat of this plot was, obviously, Jeff and his dad.  Things start out well, but then William has the gall to imply that his abandonment was responsible for building Jeff’s character.  This ultimately leads Jeff to put his father in his place with a speech that is even weirder and more revealing than his confessions to Abed in “Critical Film Studies.”  Giving himself a fake appendix scar just so that he could be sympathized: wow, we really did not how broken Jeff was, or is.  But one thing that has been known – Jeff’s constant texting – was confirmed as a manifestation of his insecurity, even among those closest to him.  Jeff’s question to Britta about if she felt a desire to sleep with him has apparently been interpreted by some as flirting, but let’s be clear: he was teasing her by using her misplaced psychology against her after she had suggested that Jeff and his dad must be feeling an urge to sleep with each other.  Jeff is not trying to break up Britta and Troy.

Speaking of Jeff, a recurring line for this season popped up a couple times this episode, when Shirley and the Dean both ended a thought with “Jeff, or whoever” (meaning “I’m fine with anyone, but actually I really want Jeff to be there more than anyone else”) just as Annie had done in the season premiere when talking about who might join her in senior pranking.  In Season 1, even though Jeff initially wasn’t all that committed to friendship with his study groupmates, he was still the cool guy that everyone was drawn towards.  By Season 3, things got dark, Jeff at times seemed a little crazy, and there were some moments when his friends were left to wonder if they would be just fine without him.  But by the end of the season, though, he declared his commitment to his fellow Greendale human beings, and now his friends’ desire to hang out with him appears to be stronger than ever.  Accordingly, Joel McHale is the best lead actor in any sitcom on television right now, and (with the exception of Louis C.K.), it’s not even close. A-

For the first time in Season 4, Community finally included the normal, full-length version of the theme song.  And with the banter as the study group walked to class – especially Pierce’s note of approval to Jeff’s impression of everyone whining – there was  a similar sense of rightness with Greendale … until that sense was stopped dead in its tracks by the returning German invasion.  The foosball-playing German students were just as ridiculously stereotypical when they first appeared in last season’s “Foosball and Nocturnal Vigilantism,” but that first time Nick Kroll imbued lead German Juergen with just the right weird vibe, whereas this time Kroll is no longer here, replaced with Chris Diamantopoulos as Juergen’s brother, who goes beyond exaggerated German into full-on cartoon, sounding more like a Muppet than anything else.  Still, I was intrigued by the fight for the study room leading the Greendale Seven to realize that maybe they have been selfish and overly possessive about their sacred space all along.  The flashbacks to previous episodes felt enlightening, though they did play a little loose with continuity.  Everyone else at Greendale was supposedly at the puppy parade during the events of “Cooperative Calligraphy,” though I can believe that not quite everyone was there.  What was more bothersome was Jeff shooing Leonard away during the game in “Advanced Dungeons & Dragons,” which was not in keeping with the positive spirit of that episode.  However, I can appreciate how differently things can look from a different vantage point.  This was all brought to a head with the protest in the study room  (even the Human Being was there!), which cued Britta’s pro-anti disposition (“Oh, cool, what are we protesting?”).  Danielle Kaplowitz gave her meatiest performance ever as Vicki.  The whole affair was reminiscent of last year’s Todd-episode, “Competitive Ecology,” and like that one, I liked the idea of this episode more than the execution.  As for Malcolm McDowell’s debut as Professor Cornwallis, it was inauspicious; hopefully, it develops into something.

As for the Dean-Chang subplot, I feel like this barrage of punnery deserves particularly harsh criticism, but it kind of worked.  It didn’t do much more than act as what seems to be a prelude for something more happening with this “Changnesia” storyline.  While it makes sense that Chang and the Dean would continue to use their names as puns, the gag had gotten a little stale.  But this plot – particularly the Dean getting all “turned around” with “Changnesia” and then “Amdeansia” – managed to breathe new life into the punnery.

I have been watching each episode twice this season before writing my reviews to get a full idea of what I think, and this was the first time I wasn’t looking forward to the second viewing.  But I must say that I enjoyed it.  It was the typical sort of Community-rewatch enjoyment that I have experienced many times.  So, this episode was good enough to do that. B

“For the first time in my long history of being locked in things, I knew someone would find me.”

When the Inspector Spacetime convention episode of Community was announced, fans who thought the whole Inspector Spacetime business was overdone in Season 3 were accordingly wary.  It turns out, though, that “Conventions of Space and Time” isn’t  any more steeped in IS minutiae than it could have been.  InSpecTiCon more or less just happened to be the setting where the Greendale Seven hashed out their current character dynamics.  Actually, interestingly enough, the most Inspector Spacetime-specific moments were those involving Shirley and Pierce.  When the two of them are chosen for a focus group for the upcoming American adaptation of IS, Shirley pointing out that the fans like the original because “it’s smart, complicated, and doesn’t talk down to its audience” is obviously meant to echo how we Community fans feel about our show.  But the real-life echos that I most appreciated in those scenes were the continuing examples of Chevy Chase basically just playing himself, with his protests about being confused by the time travel calling to mind his voicemails to Dan Harmon in which he called Community “a f***ing mediocre sitcom.”

As for the actual IS fans, I was never worried that Abed would be taken away from Troy by Toby, especially after it was revealed at the beginning of the episode that he was perfectly capable of adjusting to the fact that Troy and Britta were now sleeping together.  After a year in which Abed nearly had multiple breakdowns due to his fear of change, he is now coming to terms with the fact that change is inevitable, as demonstrated by his simple acceptance of Troy and Britta being together and even the huge step of allowing Britta to be a fan of Minerva, the worst inspector in the history of the series.  Though,  for the sake demonstrate how hard it really is for Abed to accept certain changes, I did appreciate the moment when he warned Britta that she was really pushing it with her endorsement of Minerva.  Even though the stakes never felt too high, the emotion was real, with a particularly strong beat coming when Abed realizes that Troy will eventually find him after Toby locks him in the phone box.

Annie’s adventure of letting the hotel staff believe she is Mrs. Winger called to mind “Mixology Certification,” when she first demonstrated how convincing her play-acting is.  The details she was sure to include – her career as a world-famous police detective, placing a strand of Jeff’s hair on the bathroom sink – made her odd commitment rather endearing.  Meanwhile, Jeff’s moments with guest-star Tricia Helfer were good enough, but they could have amounted to more.  Honestly, the role of “attractive female Inspector Spacetime fan” didn’t need to be played by someone as well-known as Helfer.  In general, but overall, I wasn’t overly thrilled by the guest stars of this episode.  Matt Lucas did put a solid spin on his psychotic superfan role, but it wasn’t revelatory.  But I changed my tune about guest stars at the end, when 90210 alums (and, along with Chevy, Old Navy hawks) Luke Perry and Jennie Garth appeared as the actors in the American Inspector Spacetime.  Ever since I’ve been following Community closely, I have known who most of the guest stars were going to be ahead of time.  So it was nice that the appearance of these two was actually kept under wraps. A-

If you watch an episode of Community like “Paranormal Parentage” and end up disappointed, then it is because you have high – perhaps impossibly high – standards when it comes to Community.  That is understandable, considering how many all-time classic episodes Community has produced.  And seeing as this is the Halloween (#Valloween) episode, it is doubly understandable, considering the show’s track record with Halloween episodes.  But if you’re overly worried about this episode not measuring up to “Epidemiology” or even “Horror Fiction in Seven Spooky Steps,” you’re liable to have missed what “Paranormal Parentage” had to offer.  After Pierce locks himself in the panic room of his mansion (or so he says), the rest of the Greendale Seven are commissioned to spring him out – and possibly confront the ghost of his father.  What follows is an homage of haunted house movies.  The title suggests that Paranormal Activity may be the main inspiration, but this is actually the Scooby-Doo episode: a bunch of happenings that seem paranormal thanks to clever editing and misleading perspectives ultimately turn out to have a perfectly logical, though fiendishly complicated, explanation.  That fitting conclusion allows for a couple of well-earned emotional beats: Pierce’s brother Gilbert (a very welcome Giancarlo Esposito) returns, and the two embrace after deciding to be roommates, and Pierce’s daddy issues lead into those of Jeff, who it is revealed has tracked down his father (and been wearing his boxing gloves).  Joel McHale plays these dramatic beats better than perhaps any of his others in the series.  The strengths and weaknesses of this episode are flipped compared to those of last week’s premiere: the emotional beats land cleanly, while the humor isn’t as raucous.  That isn’t to say there weren’t any moments that made me laugh.  There were in fact enough to make this episode satisfying, particularly Annie nervously calling out to a missing Abed that if he is doing that thing “like that part in that movie” to stop it because she doesn’t watch scary movies and “therefore can’t appreciate the reference.”  Britta’s overeager therapizing is also a delight, especially the “Ziggy Freud” malapropism and Jeff’s command that she “stop answering phones.”  Also, like Abed, I too remember dates by movie releases. B+

“Congratulations: it’s me.”

Indeed, after nearly a year off the air, it is Community, so congratulations to us.  But, while it is back, it is also unequivocally different – no surprise, considering it lost its creator, a handful of writers, and a few producers.  The characters are still the same characters, and the plots are not too dissimilar from those of the previous seasons.  It was the subtle things that really made a difference – shots are closer than before, the music cues aren’t quite what they were.  It’s not necessarily worse – just, different.  Honestly, though, Community had already become a different show than it originally was.  Season 2 was different than Season 1, and Season 3 was different than Season 2.  But it wasn’t like those changes had previously happened between season finales and the subsequent season premieres.  So this change is much more sudden and jarring.  Could this change ultimately work?  “History 101” is more promising than not.

If there is anything significantly wrong with this episode, it’s that it’s overstuffed.  There are four separate plots, plus Pierce just sitting around doing his own thing.  The multi-cam version of the show within Abed’s head is an unqualified success.  Fred Willard as Pierce in this version is an inspired choice, especially considering that he was one of the actors originally considered to play Pierce.  The Greendale Babies within Abed’s head in the multi-cam show within his head is also a treat, with Britta making for a particularly cute baby.  Abed constructing the Winger speech for the Jeff in his head felt appropriate.  The Hunger Deans plot felt a little rushed, though I actually appreciated that it really had nothing to do with The Hunger Games.  I think that was the joke.  The Annie-Shirley senior prank plot was small-scale, but it did provide some nice character moments.  The Troy-Britta fountain plot barely even qualified as a subplot.  I’m basically neutral on Troy and Britta as a couple, but I will say it probably would have been nice to see some of the progression that apparently progressed offscreen.  The Chang scene was … intriguing.  The Dean moving in next to Jeff struck me as something the Dean would totally do, and it could work as a clever way to keep things moving along should Community get a fifth season and move beyond Greendale.  Shirley’s “Oh, Lord, NOOOOOOO!” at the end provided the biggest laugh of the episode. B+

As a member of a community of Community fandom, I have been selected to post a review of the Season 2 episode “Competitive Wine Tasting.”  I thought I would post it here for my blog readers as well:

I’m a relative latecomer to the world of Community fandom. I have been watching it regularly right from the start, but it wasn’t until the end of Season 2 that I realized how much I liked it, and it wasn’t until the Great Unifying Winter Hiatus of 2011-2012 that I discovered there was a significant fan community. This is all to say that I wasn’t even aware of the bad reputation of “Competitive Wine Tasting” until about a year after it aired. I believe I had only seen each episode once at this point, so when I found out it was the least-regarded, I thought, “But why? It has Abed in the Who’s the Boss? class. That’s Abed at his most Abed!” Then I bought the Season 1 and Season 2 DVD’s, re-watched all the episodes, and after all that, I thought, “Oh.” I remembered that I actually had been disappointed with this episode when I first watched it. It featured the return of guest-star Kevin Corrigan, who is always welcome in any TV show or movie, but it wasn’t much to get excited over – so that was bad sign number one. And then I had basically completely forgotten about Pierce and Jeff’s storyline. It didn’t even come back to me when I re-watched it. There’s a legitimate possibility I may have actually been asleep during those scenes for the initial airing.

Since this episode’s reputation is marked heavily by the fact that each storyline doesn’t really have anything to do with any of the others (other than that they all take place in elective classes), let’s look at each of the storylines individually. The A-plot involves Pierce’s engagement to Wu Mei (is that a pun for “woo me”? maybe one of the writers was having some fun), an Asian P.Y.T. that he has just met in the Italian Wine Tasting class that he and Jeff (and Chang) are taking. This is the same Asian P.Y.T. that Jeff attempted to pick up on the first day of class, only to be shut down with faux-broken English before he even had a chance to turn on the Winger charm. While Annie the romantic is excited to make wedding plans, Jeff the skeptic is suspicious. What exactly it is that makes him suspicious is not initially entirely clear, but when it comes to Pierce – and women resistant to the Winger charm – skepticism is always warranted. It turns out that Wu Mei is a corporate spy out to uncover info on Hawthorne Wipes. Jeff announces this to everyone in the smuggest way possible at an engagement party dinner that is inexplicably attended by Chang. [Chang sidebar: Chang’s presence here – like much of his presence in Seasons 2 and 3 – strains credulity, but I still find him funny, particularly in his interactions with Jeff.] But it turns out that Pierce knew all along, and he was fine with it.

Even though this is Pierce we’re talking about, it definitely feels like Jeff has gone too far this time, despite being vindicated. Sure, he ultimately makes things right by reuniting Pierce and Wu Mei and giving them a Winger speech to convince them how perfect they are for each other (they are both incredibly racist). But didn’t Jeff learn his lesson in “The Psychology of Letting Go”? Also of note: We know in retrospect that Jeff and Britta had been hooking up. They likely were not exclusive, but he didn’t seem to show much interest in anyone else that year (Quendra notwithstanding). So why did he even feel the need to go after Wu Mei? Questionable storytelling decisions aside, this episode does feature some fine acting from Joel McHale, particularly in the scenes with Annie as the thorn in Jeff’s side. Both get some good digs in at each other: Jeff telling Annie people don’t call her “irony-free Annie,” Annie’s disgusted look when Jeff says he knows about romance from having had a three-way in a hot-air balloon.

Abed has his own little story going on this week: a class on Who’s the Boss? taught by the guy (played by Stephen Tobolowsky) who literally wrote the book on Who’s the Boss? It feels appropriate that a “that guy” actor like Tobolowsky (probably best known as Ned Ryerson from Groundhog Day) would play the professor teaching on the subject of a show like Who’s The Boss? – well-known, but hardly the best show of all time.

The class asks THE question: “Who was the boss?” Everyone assumes the question is rhetorical, except Abed. The fact that Abed is so certain that he can provide a definitive answer to a question that wasn’t designed to have one really rankles Prof. Tobolowsky. In their confrontations, Abed betrays just the slightest hint of agitation as well, but he is the one who is cool and in control. Ultimately, Abed concretely proves that Angela was the boss, with the help of a chalkboard diagram (a sight gag that is never not funny). This storyline is plenty amusing, but rather insignificant; it feels like it should have been a webisode or a DVD extra. The fake-out ending with the gun and the What’s Happening?! book was weird.

Finally, we come to Troy and Britta’s storyline, in which they take an acting class together, featuring the return of Kevin Corrigan (another “that guy” actor!) as Drama Professor Sean Garrity. The class is asked to access emotions by recalling a traumatic memory. Troy can’t think of anything painful, so he makes up the story of his uncle putting his finger in his “no-no,” which makes him very attractive to the fascinated-by-pain Britta, attention Troy is happy to have after seeing her in a unitard. Your mileage may vary on the viability of Troy and Britta as a couple, so your feelings thereof likely color your reactions to this beginning of that potential relationship. For me, I think that relationship could work (honestly, with enough effort, I think any relationship could work), so I do not have any bias against this development. In fact, I actually find Britta’s devotion to pretend-molested Troy the most entertaining their romance has ever been. As for the scenes in the acting class itself, Corrigan keeps up his habit of seeming like he is on a completely different show while somehow fitting in perfectly. He embraces the (what some may consider) bullshit of acting methods while also commenting on them (e.g., forming a trust circle and then clarifying that “it’s just a circle”). He gets some other great moments in as well, such as the assignment of drinking a glass of cognac in a bathtub and the moment when he tosses his briefcase into the seats upon entering the theatre. Despite my disappointment, this was a solid performance from Corrigan. I guess my disappointment mostly stemmed from the fact that this was no “Conspiracy Theories…”

The resolution of the Troy-Brita storyline is representative of the resolution of the whole episode: as Garrity explains, “The pain of not having enough pain is still pain.” That does sound like an easy resolution, and it is. And in fact, the whole episode has easy resolutions of already well-trod ground. Community’s writers do not have the excuse of being actors, and not writers, because, well, they are writers.

Still, my reaction to “Competitive Wine Tasting” is that … it was fine. When the episode ended, I had a smile on my face. There were plenty of jokes that landed and nothing was irrevocably ruined. When I put Disc 4 of my Season 2 DVD’s in, “Critical Film Studies” started automatically playing. And so I needed to watch that episode as well. When that one ended, I didn’t end the episode smiling; I had a more poignant, melancholy disposition. “Competitive Wine Tasting” made me happy, but it didn’t challenge me or surprise me. Still, it was fine.

Other Observations:
-That tag with the bit from Fiddla, Please was great. I’m guessing Donald came up with it himself.
-The gag about Annie’s joke-telling class is an all-time classic. (“The professor is so old…”)
-I enjoyed the young Chevy Chase/Pierce Hawthorne photo on the wine bottle.
-Manuel on the PA was a nice gag that people don’t reference too often.
-“Trevor St. McGoodbody or David?”
-“She is funny, like Oprah.” “Oprah is a not a comedienne.”
-“Don’t sell yourself short: you’re a baboon everywhere.”
-Ketchup fight? Monkey drop?