Community - "Biology 101"

Season 3, Episode 1

Weird, and not in the way the show usually is

“We’re gonna have more fun and be less weird

than the first two years combined.”

-Jeff’s subconscious

Well, that’s wasn’t exactly what I was expecting.

That statement of course implies that I did know what to expect, as if I had some grand plan for how Community was going to return after a stellar second season, the kind of season that you tell your grandkids about, or whatever. Now, part of the joy of Community is that you never really know what to expect, and tonight’s episode certainly caught me unawares, but not in a way that I’m sure I’m totally okay with. Let’s see if I can break down just what it is that threw me off:

A New Kind of Meta. Community has never been a show afraid to break the fourth wall, and has let its references and in-jokes fly every which way, and watching it do so with gleeful abandon is usually one of the highest pleasure I get from watching the show on a weekly basis. But most of the meta-commentary has either rested comfortably in the mouth of Abed or subtly worked into the dialogue. But tonight, the meta jokes – the opening musical number (and the lyrics that accompanied it), the whole idea of being less weird, the Dean’s comment about how this year “we’ll have no money” – they all felt more obvious than the show has done in the past. It was all very funny, but without the subtly, the jokes actually felt more gag-y and less biting.

The Guest Stars. Let’s face it, when you announce that you are going to get Michael K. Williams and John Goodman to guest on your show, people tend to expect big things from their performances. But considering that Goodman was only in two scenes, Williams was only in three, and that Williams played it relatively cool (he was closer to Stringer Bell than Omar Little, ya feel me?), it was a rather smaller pair of guest turns than I would have expected. All things considered, I actually appreciated it – with both of these actors, a little goes a long way, and I mean that in a good way – but it still added to my disorientation.

It Was Busy. That’s pretty self explanatory. We’ll get to why in a minute.

The Pierce Problem. Okay….here we go. Long time readers know that, like most people, I wasn’t a fan of the Pierce storyline last year where he acted like an unbelievable jerk and was eventually alienated from the group. But unlike most people, I couldn’t let it go. It ruined my appreciation of the otherwise excellent “Intermediate Documentary Filmmaking”, as well as a few of the episode that followed. While I liked the idea of the story, the execution was poorly handled in my opinion, and I couldn’t forgive the show. (I know, I take TV way too seriously.) Yet despite all of this, I was actually excited when season two ended on a cliffhanger, with Pierce choosing to leave the group. Here, I thought, was the perfect chance to redo the earlier plotline from a different angle, and get some good pathos out of it this time around.

Instead, we got nothing like that. The group all wanted Pierce back (minus Jeff), and Pierce was more than ready to comeback. While I get that they provide some explanation for this (Pierce was at his cult’s local rehab center for three months), and I can understand how the time apart might soften the group’s hearts towards him, it’s still feels like a cheat, as if the show got scared from committing to the idea and backed out. Now I get how this might just be easiest for everybody all around to move past last season’s kerfuffle and get back to Pierce being funny, I do. But I still feel robbed from what I felt could have been great, emotional television.

And yet….I can’t say I hated this episode. In fact, I’m pretty sure I still loved it. What can I say? Even when Community’s pushing my buttons…it still knows how to push my buttons.

It Was Hilarious. “Cougarton Abbey”. “Inspector Timespace”. Abed’s general reaction to the midseason status of Cougar Town. Troy hassling Britta. Chang living in the vents. The dean attempting to assert control. The 2001 inspired dream sequence. All those quotes! All of that – and I’m sure I’m missing more – was just golden. Whatever reservations I had were usually dulled by my uproarious laughter.

It Provides a New Way Forward. According to so many interviews and advanced press, Harmon and Co. will be attempting to return the show to its roots, so to speak. The show is going to be avoiding the bigger, more “high concept” episodes that grew popular in season one and that (for some fans, anyways) flooded season two, and instead focus on more character-based comedy.

Now, if you ask me, Community has already does plenty of character based comedy. However, given how well the show does do the character based moment, I’m interested to see where this goes. “Mixology Certification” was the show’s most character-based episode to date, and also one of its best, and if the show plans on doing episodes like that a lot more this season, than it can be my guest.

And that all starts tonight with “Biology 101”, which clearly lays out a lot of what’s going to happen over the next few months. Goodman and Williams, who are signed on to do multiple episodes, both got their introductions tonight, a move that signifies that the show will once again focus the action on campus. The Dean has already staked a bigger claim in the group’s lives. Chang is now a security guard. But the big theme tonight was the idea of inclusion, and that seems to indicate that there’s going to be a large focus on the group’s interpersonal dynamic. But to talk about that, we need to talk about the fact that…

Tonight’s Episode Played Off of Established Relationships. In case you didn’t notice, there was an obvious parallel between Jeff and Pierce tonight, two men who have both been driven outside of the group, and went mad for it. While this is the sort of development that could only happen in the crazy world of Community, the message is a good one for the show to explore. The idea of how much the group needs each other is one that has been played with before, but as the group begins the end of their time at Greendale (Britta’s picked a major, after all), the idea of what the group is going to do outside of college is something they would naturally think of, and something that the show needs to naturally explore

Also, Chang wanted to be in the group so bad, he stole the picture of Pierce and Sugar Cube from Jeff. Troy and Abed finally moved in together. Birtta’s meddling caused more harm than good. Character humor all around!

Quotes, Etc:

So, in Jeff’s dream, the show makes a point to highlight the line “We’re gonna sleep together”, which is sung by Jeff and Annie. Now, of course this season isn’t going to be less weird, but I can’t shake the feeling that that line is actually going to come true. Is it Community, huh, is it? Don’t toy with me; I don’t react well to being toyed with.

“If you want to give us gifts, we’re registered at Linens-N-Things.” “We have plenty of linens, we mainly want the things.”

“I’m gonna be a lean, mean, Dean-ing machine.”

“I named him Annie’s Boobs, after Annie’s boobs.”

“This is the kind of National Lampoonery that is coming to an end this year.”

“Don’t tell the monkey I’m living here.”

“Cougar Town’s been moved to midseason. That’s never a good sign….not cool, not cool, not cool, not cool.”

“Six seasons and a movie.” “Six seasons and a movie.”

“Hey dude, Sean Penn called, he said to dial is back….Sean Penn is an actor…” “I know who Sean Penn is. I’ve seen Milk!”

“If I wanted to run a monkey hotel, I’d install a banana buffet, I’d use vines as elevators, I’d put tail holds in the bathrooms, and I’d lower the shower knobs.”

“Spray your solutions all over me.”

“Monkey knock-out gas. Now that’s the kind of grounded, sensible thing I want to see this year.”

“This dean is saying to this appendage, ‘wassup?’”

“All hail Sir-Eats-Alone.” “Shut up, Leonard, I heard about your prescription socks.”

“You missed the most obvious one.” “No, I said ‘Green Mile’.”  “No, ‘Operation Dumbo Drop’.”

“You are human tennis elbow. You are a pizza burn on the roof of the world’s mouth. You are the opposite of Batman.”

“You could have lived your life in blissful ignorance, and died a happy, pansexual imp.”

“I don’t want to push it, but this would be a great time to baptize him.”

“Can it, Boobs!”

“It’s a scary, lonely, Chang-filled world out there.”

“Sorry, Starface.”

“Interesting. So this is the year we all die.”