“Who want’s to take a break and build a birdhouse?” -Chang
Community returned with an all new episode this week after being off the air for what seemed like 8 weeks. Before I get started on a review of this episode, I’d like to congratulate Community on getting renewed for a third season! Community’s ratings are some of the lowest on network TV, but it scores well with the key demographic of 18-39 year olds, so NBC, who’s desperate to stay relevant, picked it up. I’m not sure if this is due largely to the show or that NBC has no real great pilots in development that could do better. We should all be happy Community airs on NBC because on any other network, Community rest firmly in cancellation territory. But when the most watched TV show on your network is Harry’s Law, you’ve got to start taking any show that gives any kind of critical appeal.
This episode wasn’t one of their finest. It wasn’t particularly bad, but nothing stuck with you like in previous episodes. We do get a fine performance from Gillan Jacobs as Britta, which is always good because I feel like she’s been underused since her romance with Jeff has ended. I’m not sure what it is with Britta, but every time I see her on screen, I think she’s fabulous, but when she’s not there, I don’t particularly miss her. I’m not implying the show could go without her, but we’re just not invested in a relationship she has right now. It would become boring and clash with her personality if her only purpose was to constantly fawn over Jeff, but I need her to stay relevant!
This week’s episode proved the show can be just fine without Pierce. Did anybody miss him? Anybody at all? Didn’t think so. His sole purpose was to make a cheap racist joke at the beginning of the episode and then do nothing. If he left the show for season 3, I don’t think anyone would miss him. We also learned that Shirley and Chang can’t carry an episode. The strength of the show lies within the interaction between members of the study group. No matter what the writers try, Chang will never feel like part of the group, so the attempts to humanize him and make us care for him always fall short to me. And it’s not that I dislike Shirley, quite the opposite. I think she’s great at being the moral compass of the group and can always be counted on for a quip about wrong doings of others, but she’s not central plot material. It’s possible it’s because her main story came with the baggage of Chang, but I just wasn’t interested and even Jeff’s charisma could’t help the story finish strong.
In a show where I feel so strongly about the main characters, introducing a supporting character is always hot and cold with me. On one hand I’m curious how the characters will act with an outside force impacting their decisions, but on the other I don’t like losing screen time to some of my favorite episodes. Annie’s lack of presence was definitely noticed at my house. When it came to Lukka, I’m not so sure he served some great purpose, Basically he was just a walking gag that Britta liked some guy who committed genocide and was trying to not bring it up. It wasn’t awful or anything, but I don’t think we revealed anything new about the characters of Britta, Troy, or Abed in this episode.
Community has had a few choppy episodes like this in the past, but they always bounce back. Look for Community to do some allegorical take on Bastille Day done in film noir style or something equally as crazy and ambitious. Nothing would surprise me at this point with show. Congratulations one more time Community on getting renewed, but let’s not get complacent!
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