TV Review: Community 3.7, "Studies In Modern Movement"

rating: 4

Let me first start off this recap by saying, the Dean's name is Craig? Really? I always just kind of figured it was...well, Dean. Weird stuff. Ok, moving on. This week, Community focused on the internal dynamics of the group without those pesky "other people in the world" mucking it all up. We got a religious showdown, an imaginary Dreamatorium and an excellent, excellent montage sequence. My analysis: pretty damn good. Now here's why. Some of you have probably noticed that the show's gone back to its roots a bit. Without too many intrusions, the study group is starting to like each other again, even though they actually haven't studied for anything this whole season. A little lost love mixed with some high school nostalgia and just a pinch of political allegory makes for an excellent combination in my book. Community is at its best when it blends good times with kitschy references and the only slightly surreal, Seinfeld-esque scenarios. That's why you can get something as bizarre as the reality of how awkward it is to move in with friends thrown in with a sociopathic hobo who thinks he's the son of god and a sequence to fucking Seal. And it totally works. Annie's confrontation was probably the main focus of the episode. Annie, Troy and Abed have sort of defaulted as the "children" of the group so it's no surprise that they quickly (like 5 minutes quickly) sunk into juvenile antics. It's kind of funny how Abed and Troy have basically become one person at this point, and Troybed and Annie don't exactly see eye to eye. But c'mon they need each other, we all know that. Annie needs a little playful fun and Troy and Abed need to know how to use an iron so it works out. Perfect symbiosis. Also, Annie may claim that she's an adult, but her pouty drama queen schtick says otherwise. Troy and Abed to the rescue! But there was plenty of other hilarity sprinkled in this week. Britta and Shirley, who by the way have never really been paired up before, both live in their own little self-righteous worlds. You know the one, where everything they say is right and everything everyone else says is wrong. It's the same one your outspoken liberal friend is. And just like that guy, Britta and Shirley are all right to hang out with, until someone has the audacity to express an opinion. Then it's game on. I was pretty pleased to see their conversation mediated by some deranged guitar player, as if to (not so) subtlety suggested the lunacy of their world view. The show cleverly slipped in little bouts of passive agression and I can safely say I don't agree with either one of them. And of course it's always a perplexing experience to dive into the mind of Pierce Hawthorne. He's stuck somewhere in the 60's, wedged in between James Bond fantasies and delusions of drug-induced grandeur. I can only assume what we were seeing was an unnerving acid flashback from the draft-dodging days of Nam. Still, it was pretty entertaining. As a side note, was Pierce friends with a Senator once? But let's all agree on this right now. It was Dean's (I'm sorry, Craig's) episode. Right from the start, he was devilishly cunning, even if that came with its own brand of transparency. At this point though, Jeff kind of deserves it. He's been a real sourpuss these last couple of episodes and he was in desperate need of a wake up call. The one that says, hey, these are your friends, quit being a dick. What better way to deliver this message then a green-screen duet with a latent homosexual, followed by a subsequent green-screen fistfight with aforementioned creep. All of these various strands climaxed in a delicious musical focal point. Even the music in the episode had a mixture of personalities in it, from Troy's childish beat-boxing, to Pierce's over the top melody to crazy guy's crazy guitar riff. Little by little, this sequence brought each one of the stories to the top of the hill, just to watch them all plummet downwards moments after the song ended. A clever tactic indeed, but then again, doesn't Community have a real knack for that kind of stuff? Until next week, this is Jay saying: you can't get Kool-aid stains out with opposite color Kool-aid?