Spoilers...
Community – “Digital
Estate Planning” (A), “The First Chang Dynasty” (A-) & “Introduction to
Finality” (A-)
First off, I’ve never written three episodes into the same
review before, especially not three this good, so we’ll see how this goes.
Second, I just heard about Dan Harmon’s firing from the series, and while I by
no means know anything about the inner workings of the show, from what I’ve
heard he was the heart and soul of Community. So thank you Dan Harmon (he
almost surely reads this blog). I know he gets paid a lot of money to do this,
but all the crappy showrunners do to, and over the past three seasons he’s made
Community into one of the most original and outright hilarious shows on
television. If these three episodes are the last he’ll ever work on for the
series, he went out with a heck of a bang.
Anyway, let’s start with the first episode “Digital Estate
Planning,” definitely my favourite of the night and another strong case for my
theory that every time Community drags out the altered title music the episode
is going to be awesome. I’ve played my fair share of 8-bit platformers and old
school RPGs and as I always do in these high concept episodes I found the level
of detail hysterical. It really did take me back to my days playing Zelda and
Mario as a kid, from the jumping sounds, to the text bubbles, to the large
Super Mario style terrain maps.
And combine that with the hilariously good characterization
of the little 8-bit characters and this episode could easily break into my top
5 Community episodes of all time. I loved how 8-bit Jeff had to jump up onto
the study room table to give his inspirational speech to the study group (only
to have them die seconds later). Or watching Annie and Shirley accidently
murder the blacksmith and his wife. Or even the fact that Abed fell in love
with the 8-bit blacksmith’s daughter, providing one hilarious conclusion to the
episode. It’s just one of those instances, and Community seems to have a lot of
them, where the characters and the premise jived together perfectly.
“The First Chang Dynasty” took on the classic heist story,
and proved you can never get too many parody episodes in one night. While not
as outwardly hilarious as “Digital Estate Planning” it was still a strong
showing for the series. I loved watching the study group each take on their different
roles in the heist (Abed and Troy’s plumber impression was my favourite) and the
way the writers so perfectly captured that pivotal moment in most heist movies where
the plan looks to be failing but in truth is actually still part of the plan. I
laughed pretty hard at Pierce’s confusion when they actually did get caught and
he still thought it was part of it.
I found Troy’s goodbyes at the end of episode to actually be
quite sad. If NBC hadn’t decided to stack three episodes together like this
that moment would have been a heck of a cliffhanger. I think the brilliance of
the scene is how none of the goodbyes actually had any substance to them (in
fact they were all hilariously irrelevant), yet still conveyed the raw emotion
of the moment. You had to feel for Abed after his stoic “sorry for getting
emotional.”
And that leads quite nicely into “Introduction to Finality”
which took Abed to a darker place than I’d ever seen him before. I had to laugh
at Jeff’s expression at the end of this episode when he heard Abed was planning
on sawing off his arm with a bone saw. Abed’s persona is generally pretty
lovable, but that’s a pretty serious level of mental illness. Even his
claymation visions in last year’s Christmas episode weren’t that bad. He wasn’t
going hurt anyone, anyway. Needless
to say that look summed up pretty much exactly what I was thinking throughout
most of the episode. I’m just glad Evil Abed was defeated.
By far the funniest storyline of the night was Troy’s
introduction to the inner workings of the air conditioning repair school. The
school’s secret society-like persona was hilarious (the hyped up introduction
to the sun room was amazing), especially when contrasted with Troy’s complete
indifference to pretty much everything they threw at him. It’s weird for him to
be the only normal character in a storyline, but that’s his role at this school
and he was damn funny in it.
The episode also marked another major turning point for
Jeff. When he started at Greendale he didn’t want anything to do with the
school or any of its students, and gradually over the course of the last few
seasons he’s come to accept that he needs the place and that he cares about the
study group. But he’s always had the end goal of getting his old life back, and
this was the first time we’ve seen him outwardly choose his friends over that
goal. His final speech at the end of the episode was one of those rare moments
where the show sort of transcended its comedy label and was actually quite
poignant. To me, that’s a great image to leave the season with.
I guess to sum things up, I’m cheering for this show for
next season. I love Community and I want it to succeed no matter what. But it’s
hard not to see the stupidity in NBC and Sony’s decision to take the show away
from Harmon. I hope the new showrunners can come in and take over where he left
off, but I think the sad truth is whatever they do is going to end up being overshadowed
by the fact that it’s not Harmon doing it – at least to the diehard fans, who
are pretty much Community’s entire audience. Still, I’ll be watching... this and
whatever Harmon’s next project ends up being.
My lines of the night (in order):
JEFF: This place is 20 cat turds and a Pixies poster from
being your apartment.
SHIRLEY: You had time to build a tiny working water fountain
and I’m a pine cone?
TROY: I made a new rule that the air conditioning repair
school has to act like a regular school. I can do that because I’m their
messiah.
Modern Family –
“Tableau Vivant” (B+)
Art projects have gotten considerably more complex since I
was in school. I think just to attempt something as grand in scale as a living
portrait would have garnered an A+. Alex on the other hand only got a B-, which
makes me wonder whether I would fail art if I were a student today. Or I guess
if maybe this is one of those fake television schools with an art department
capable of producing elaborate set pieces like a living version of the Tableau
Vivant.
But that moment did remind how much I like this show when
all of its disparate story threads come crashing into each other at the end of
an episode. The living portrait scene strained credibility a bit, but it was a
nice backdrop for the explosion of tensions that had built up throughout the
day. A sort of illusion of required restraint for these characters to trample
over as they went about sniping at each other.
I’m a sucker too for
unconventional pairings and “Tableau Vivant” had them in spades. Obviously,
most storylines are going to be split down familial lines but there’s a novelty
to the ones that aren’t – they feel fresher. Which means it shouldn’t surprise
you that my favourite story of this episode was Phil’s struggle to fire Mitchell
while avoiding any sort of conflict. The two of them played amusingly well off
of each other, and it culminated in a ton of very funny moments in the episode.
I loved the revelation that Phil had tried to break up with Claire 20 years
earlier without her ever realizing it. It fueled a ton of great bits in the
episode. And it was also quite funny to watch poor Mitchell stuck in the
elevator while seemingly everyone at Phil’s firm took shots at him.
Claire and Cam were great with each other as well. It wasn’t
too hard to see that Cam’s new age parenting techniques were going to be an
issue for Claire and I thought the garbage disposal scene in particular was
quite funny. Unsurprisingly, the only storyline I wasn’t that keen on was Jay
and Gloria. Their argument in this episode felt strikingly similar to last
week’s, and I just wasn’t feeling their lovable bickering this time around. I
do wonder though whether Jay’s audit might play somewhat into the season
finale. Keep an eye out for that...
30 Rock – “What Will
Happen to the Gang Next Year?” (B)
Another very appropriate episode title. Considering the show’s
going into its final season I am very
much wondering what will happen to the gang next year. One thing’s for sure,
I’m going to miss Avery. Jack needs another person from his “world” to riff off
of and considering how great Elizabeth Banks is in that role it’s going to be
tough to lose her. That is of course if we are losing her... I’ve been wrong
about these things before.
Ironically enough (for a season finale anyway), this felt
very much like a setup episode, and sort of floated along as such for most of
its duration. Aside from Jack’s split from Avery – which leaves his character
wandering somewhat aimlessly, as he has all season – every other character
storyline in this episode seemed to give them some sort of direction for the
season to come.
Liz realizing she wasn’t going to bail on Criss was probably
my favourite thread. I’m not sure if placing her in a relatively stable
relationship this season was a good idea or not, but I am interested in seeing
the writers finally commit to this baby storyline. They’ve flirted with it a
lot over the years and it feels like one of those things the series has been
building towards since its beginning. It might end up being a disaster, but
we’ll only know that when we see it.
In the same vein, Kenneth finally dating a girl (if of
course that’s the direction his hook up with Hazel will take) is one of those
long coveted storylines I think everyone kind of wondered what would look like.
The problem is – and it’s applicable to Tracey’s decision to start his own
studio too – that other than the big reveal, there wasn’t much else to these
storylines. I guess the subtext to my mild enthusiasm about the episode is that
while there were plenty of promising developments, at the end of the day they
were just promises, and there weren’t a ton of laughs to fill the holes.
Despite the fact it was a finale, “What Will Happen to the Gang Next Year?”
felt pretty average.
I am looking forward though to seeing how the writers deal
with the knowledge that this next season will be the show’s last. Hopefully 30
Rock will get the creative boost most shows experience in their final year. It’s
a series that deserves a good send off.
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