Season 3, Episode 20
Hey, do remember when Community
decided to do a second (well, technically two more) paintball episode at the
end of the second season, no doubt because the first one had been so well
received? And remember how nervous everybody was about the show chasing past
success? Most importantly, do you remember how that two-parter was good, but
maybe not as good as the original, that it lacked some of the general
surprising first-timeness of “Modern Warfare”? It had seemed as if the writers
had learned their lesson with that episode, since it was let known fairly early
on that the show wouldn’t be going for a third paintball episode. And even
though the show would return to some of the themes that it had also explore in
its third season, the show at least avoided any superficial similarities
between its concept episodes (well, except it’s Glee and Law & Order
spoofs), and that kept things feeling fresh.
That is, until this latest episode.
“Curriculum” could never top that, no matter how hard it
tried, and boy did it seem to try hard. Most of the first two acts of the episode
concerned the group taking part in Abed’s therapy session together, which
served as something of a framing device for all the fake clips that the show
was beginning to throw at us. It was a much more traditional clip show format,
in that it’s an outside event - such a
thunderstorm, or a wedding, or in this case a therapy session - that causes the
character to have to remember these event, and in many ways this could be seen
as a more effective send up than the last go around, which had character
remember more for the hell of it. In fact, if this had been the place where the
show had first deployed the clip show spoof, then this might have been a more
effective form of it overall.
Except for the fact that the show wasn’t as daring with
the clips that they deployed this time. I’m sure part of this is budgetary, but
the flashbacks this time around didn’t seem as wild and diverse as they were in
the first iteration. There, we got flashbacks to an old frontier town, a
haunted house, a Latin America country, a habitat for humanity site, and a
train station, just to name a few. The range of things we saw only added to the
joke. This time, each of the montages served a particular purpose. One
illustrated Abed’s weird tendencies, the second showed just how weird Greendale
is, and the third demonstrated how beneficial the Dean was to the lives of the
study group. I can see how this is a positive, how the episode gave up
spectacle for the sake of story, and trying to tie all of them together to make
a cohesive whole. But let’s not forget that “Paradigm” also revealed the rot at
the core of the group (doing a lot of setup work for season three, now that I
think about it) and revealed that Jeff and Britta had been sleeping together
all season (though that was mostly played for a joke.) And that’s in addition
to the running gags concerning The Cape,
Jeff’s speeches, and all the recurring fights the group gets into.
But I don’t want to make it seem as if I hated the
episode. This was Community after all,
and there were laughs aplenty, but they mostly seemed to happen around the
edges, and it was the edges that made the episode enjoyable despite it’s
derivative nature. In fact, I’m the writers were aware of the possibilities of
these allegations. The flashback to a supposed third paintball adventure – this
time set as a 50s noir film – served as the writers’ acknowledgement of the
risks of returning to the same well too many times. (“I get it now. It feels
forced.”) I can’t determine if the irony of the situation was intentional –
that is, if the writers were aware that this episode wouldn’t measure up to the
original clip job – but it was funny enough.
The episode did one better with the cut-away gag that
imagined them all as patients in a mental institution. Though it was clear from
the moment that Dr. Hidey suggested the possibility that it wasn’t true – there
would be no more show if that were the case – it was a fantastic comedic set
piece, one which reimagined all of the show’s most famous moments through the
lens of crazy town banana pants, and snuck in a lot of references to some of
the most famous past episodes. (Also, one crackerjack of a voice-dub gag.) It
was one of the strongest comedic segments of the season, made even more
powerful by just how and dark and realistic it was.
Again, it was always clear that this moment wasn’t real, but it’s interesting to
think about what if it was. What if the crew were a bunch of deranged lunatics who
came together in an insane asylum out a sense of need and like-mindedness?
Would this really have been all that different from a bunch of emotionally damaged
people finding each other in a crazy community college? They’re both vestiges
of last hope – the only difference is a matter of degrees.
And that’s a character note worth exploring, unlike the treacly
endnote of last week’s episode. While that one felt likely largely unearned
closure, a conclusion before the story reached its natural end, this felt like
a more natural continuation of what was going on elsewhere. And when it turned
out that the therapy session were just another extension of Chang’s ridiculous plan
to take over the school. And that’s something that will be explored more as the
season comes to a close.
Next Week: 3
episodes to close out the season. I will go from deliriously happy with all the
new Community we’re getting, and then just plain delirious while trying to type
a review of all three that night
Quotes and Other Thoughts:
If you haven’t heard already, Community has been
picked up for a fourth season order of 13 episodes, with the possibility for
the back nine to still be ordered assuming that the show performs (or can
perform, depending on when it airs) better than the networks slate of six new
comedies. While I’m happy for there to be more episodes of the show, I am a
little disappointed that it wasn’t a full episode order. The show thrives on
taking place over the course over a full school year, even if the episodes are
very rarely about class. Without the time to breathe and progress naturally, I
think the show will be robbed of it’s natural momentum, that either we won’t
get to see a full school year – and thus see them graduate – or a rushed
version of the same over a short order.
Of course, now that the show has been moved toFridays for the fall (after Whitney and before Grimm, in the worst programming block
ever) hopefully the lowered expectations and the loyal audience to combine in a
way to ensure the show gets a back nine order, and possibly even more season.
And that’s assuming that the show won’t run into
problems if Dan Harmon doesn’t come back as showrunner.
“I need to eat natural, organic foods, or I am
never going to get rid of this hangover.”
“Oh, I’m aware of Inspector Spacetime. You think a
guy becomes a cop because his prom night was a dream?”
“Walk to your cars in pairs tonight. Rape’s up 8
percent.”
“He said, oldly, his brittle bones straining to
hold up his wrinkly skin.”
“Talk to me about ‘crazy town banana pants’.”
“Take it back! Out adventures are very manly.”
“Please don’t send my friend to crazy-person
jail!”
Some of the course offered at Greendale: Baby
Talk, Advanced Breath Holding, Can I Fry That?, Ladders.
“First, I want to see what happens when we steal
one of their pens.”
“And you shared a delusion with these people. Like
that time in the 90s when everybody got really into swing dance revival.”
“Stop letting him make you realize stuff.”
“He’s cold alone, and trying to stitch together a
sexy Patty Hearst costume.”
“May your dreams be sweet, and may your nightmares
be super-spooky monster scary, and not ‘you’re grandma is dead’ scary.”
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