TV Review: Community 3.6, "Advanced Gay"

rating: 3.5

Community is coming off of two awesome weeks and it tried to keep the momentum up this week. There was a lot going on, but it did seem to be a necessary break away from their recent obsession with Rashomon. It gave some valuable insight and though this won't make its way into the Community canon any time soon, it was a solid episode. Pierce finds out that his wipes are being celebrated by the gay community for their ability to clean up presumably sexually deviant messes. Rather then bash the gays, as he is always so quick to do, he decides to throw a gay bash, a party to celebrate gay pride and increased revenue for his company. That is, until his dad shows up who is (surprisingly) still alive and (not surprisingly) a homophobic, racist elitist from an era long gone. Meanwhile, Troy's "gift" comes back to haunt him when he is visited again by the plumber who urges him to reconsider his career choice. He gets noticed by someone from the air conditioning school and the Vice Dean (John Goodman) tries to bring him into the fold in an MIB style trial. First off, John Goodman is absolutely delightful and I'm happy to see him get some more screen time. His voice is just so damn boomy and outrageous that I can't get enough of it. The episode as a whole is full of the right kind of laughs, not necessarily at the expense of anyone in particular but just plain clever (Abed you be me, ok Troy now you be me, etc.). Everyone more or less played their role this week, especially Britta, who's trouble with the word Oedipal, she says edible throughout, speaks volumes about what will become of her as a psychologist. A nice Chang moment here and there never hurts either. And Jeff's implosion was actually kind of refreshing. He's been on edge lately, and has actually been more and more on the fringe of the group, but he got brought back into the fold this week because he had something to fight for again. His own daddy issues are definitely not resolved and I'm waiting for the moment for that resurface in a big way. But best of all we finally got to see a little Pierce. Not as a maniacal villain or deceptive racist, but as a friend and a person. A little insight into his upbringing explains a lot almost right away and by comparison, Pierce is a damn saint. But he's also vulnerable and resentful. Despite all of the trouble that has split the group apart, especially last season, it was nice to see that they were all still there for him when he clearly needed it. The group actually got a long this episode and it actually felt very reminiscent of Season 1. Problem occurs, which Britta tries (and fails to solve). Jeff steps in for selfish, albeit slightly altruistic reasons and helps out. Abed and Troy exchange esoteric pop culture references in a meta cloud floating just above everyone else and Annie and Shirley act pleasant. But three seasons in, there's just a little more spark to the formula. In all the ways that Season 1 distanced itself from true character development, this Season is embracing wholeheartedly. It's just further evidence that (like Stella) Community has gotten its groove back, and they don't need some fancy plot device to give us a firm effort.