Community - "Studies in Modern Movement"

Season 3, Episode 7

“Why am I always the one who has to adapt?”

I am always interested in the ways in which single-camera comedies use the inherent creative freedom of the form to break away, subvert, or otherwise diverge from the formula set by years of their multiple-camera counterparts. And I don’t just mean the obvious things, like the varied looks they are able to adopt or the different comedic rhythms. As readers of my Modern Family reviews no doubt know, I often expect to single-camera comedies to use the form to avoid telling the tired tropes that we all got sick of in the 90s. But there are some elements – especially the warmth of comedies from the 80s – that single-cams should adopt, and tonight’s episode of Community did that beautifully.

One of the themes that seems to be developing during this third season is the idea of breaking down the group into its individual members, and discovering what makes them tick, especially their darker impulses. This is a dangerous direction for a show to head in, especially a sitcom like Community which has in the past shown us that these characters care for each other, and in turn asks us to care for them as well. Bringing in an unprecedented amount of darkness could potentially upset that balance. (For comparison, Arrested Development was a deeply cynical show that hated its characters, but that was so ingrained in the show’s tone/universe that it wasn’t until I started watching Community that I realized it.)

So it’s a positive when the show sets out to remind us that the people still care for one another, even as their darker sides start slowly coming to the surface. This was used to great effect in “Remedial Chaos Theory”, and while it made a return appearance tonight, “Studies in Modern Movement” wasn’t quite as strong of an episode, for the simple fact that it didn’t have the same narrative hook that drives the best episodes. When I say “hook”, I don’t mean just that this episode wasn’t high concept; it’s that the plot involved splitting up the group into various activities, and switching between the four stories sometimes wrecked the momentum.

But that doesn’t mean that the stories themselves were great in their own right. Jeff’s attempts to hide away at the mall were indicative of the “Jeff, the group’s source of darkness” angle that was introduced in “Chaos” (notice how the group fairly easily settled their conflicts without him around), but it also gave us some insight into Dean Craig Pelton. Even though the ending twist still uphold Pelton as the creepy little man that he is, there was some sweetness to this plot, and both we and Jeff learned that beneath his off-putting exterior is a man who can in fact be a lot of fun. Meanwhile, Britta and Shirley end up stuck in a car with a man who thinks he’s Jesus, and while this plot obviously forwards the show’s exploration of Shirley’s divisive, outspoken views of her faith*, it was nice to see that their roles reversed more than once in the debate on the necessity of religion in morality.

*(Currently, this plot irks me in large way, but I would like to save that discussion for a time when Shirley in more front and center. However, the show never seems to afford her the same amount of screen time as it does the other characters – another thing that irks me – so it’s quite possible that this rant will also be shoehorned into some review into the near future. *Sigh*)

And then there was the A-plot, which saw Annie moving in with Troy and Abed. While her realizing the flaws of moving in with two man-children wasn’t exactly the most original idea for the show to come up with, it did something that I don’t think the show has done properly in long while, as it commented on the age range of the group using something besides the inherent creepiness of the Jeff-Annie chemistry. Even though there is a large age range among the group members, there are still fairly clear dividing lines, with Annie, Troy and Abed in the youngest group; Jeff, Britta, and Shirley in the middle; and Pierce all by his lonesome by being the oldest, and this was a nice use of that fact.

I’m not saying that there were any game-changing revelations, but it was a nice exploration of what these age disparities do to these characters, as Annie is obviously put off by Troy and Abed’s immaturity since she gave hers up so long ago because that’s what she thought she needed to do. (Concurrent theory: Though it’s not explicitly stated, I’m pretty sure Troy and Abed act so immature as a reaction to the unintended societal pressure to grow up that comes from the rest of the group.)

Yet even though these stories were mostly split up, they did come together in a glorious fashion right around the episode’s mid-point, and it’s here that the warmth really kicks in as we see a montage of sorts set to Seal’s “Kiss From a Rose”. While we already discussed how this changed our perception of Pelton for the better, the real warmth here came from the very sweet puppet show that Troy and Abed put on for Annie, a warmth that perhaps radiated to the rest of the plots. (Because let’s face it, hearing “Kiss” over the scenes from the Britta/Shirley subplot just didn’t really work.) The puppet show, much like Jeff singing with Pelton, was a reminder that despite the ways that these characters get on each other’s nerves, they do have enough compassion for each other to do things that cheer each other up.

Yes, part of the reason for the emotional high of the puppet show was so that we would really feel the low of Annie’s discovery of the Dreamatorium, but I think that’s the lesson we should all learn from this episode. Community can keep delivering these darker moments for these characters, as long as they also pair them with some warmer ones.

Next Week:  The show once again tries to recapture some magic, this time with a follow-up to "Intermediate Documentary Filmmaking". 

Quotes and Other Thoughts:

Right, Pierce: Him getting high off of paint fumes was certainly weird in a way that Community has been in the past, but unlike say his solo story in “Early 21^st Century Romanticism”, this one clearly isn’t leading anywhere. I’m not saying it was bad – it was in fact enjoyable for how weird it was – but considering all the other plots felt like they held emotional weight, this one sort of sticks out here.

For a show that’s usually so aware of its references, I can’t believe that the show didn’t credit the “someone wraps their head in bubble wrap while their friend is moving gag” to Friends. This omission is made even more blatant by the fact that Shirley had a line about Friends like less than a minute later.

Anybody catch the chords to “Jesus love Marijuana”?

“So glad you’re moving out of this neighborhood, Annie. Some dude peed on my car while I was parking it.” “Awww, you met Spaghetti. Yeah, I won’t miss him.”

“How was I supposed to know it was a handicapped space?” “Because the man in the wheelchair was yelling it.” “Oh yeah, and he doesn’t have an agenda.”

“You hear that? That’s not a heart monitor; it’s a machine telling me I’m out of khakis.”

“Man-children: Can’t live with them, can’t leave them along with your tape.” “Britta, don’t make jokes! You’re bad at it!”

“I’ve seen enough episodes of Friends to know that co-habitation lead to sex, drugs, and something Parade Magazine called ‘Schwimmer fatigue’.”

“Off campus I’m just a Craigular Joe.”

“We’ve spent our whole lives being told blanket forts are only for special occasions, like sleepovers or when uncles die.”

“Brought to you by that girl yogurt Jamie Lee Curtis uses to poop.” “There’s a pack in the fridge as a welcome gift.”

“And now, with your permission, I would like to sing a little song about race mixing. It’s called ‘Don’t You Do It’.”

“The Dreamatorium is non-negotiable, read the lease.” “Especially the part we added in crayon.” “You don’t want to take us to court.” “Trust us, this place can be a courtroom in the blink of an eye.”

“I don’t want a candy cigarette, I want our Annie…I picked the wrong week to quit.”

“Sorry Annie, I had some island girls over, and one of them must have slipped me a mickey.”

“How long have I been out? Is Napster still a thing?”

“Sometimes we get stuck in our own little world. And then in that world we make even littler worlds. And sometimes there are tunnels between those worlds, or a subway, one time a snake – we’re sorry.”

“We put the bunk beds in the blanket fort.”  “This all gay code.”

“HE TWEETED IT!”