Community has a habit of revisiting ideas from previous episodes and expanding upon them in more bizarre and inventive ways. Last season they gave us a second paintball war in 'A Fistful of Paintballs/For a Few Paintballs More' and remixed Spaghetti Westerns with Star Wars. And early this season they took another stab at documentaries with 'Documentary Filmmaking: Redux'. Now comes 'Digital Exploration of Interior Design', which takes the blanket fort idea from 'Conspiracy Theories and Interior Design' and takes it a whole lot further. This time around we had a blanket fort and an exceptionally well designed pillow fort, which is way different so no one can be accused of repeating themselves.
Fort Wars: Episode I – The Pillow Menace
Evil Vice-Dean John Goodman was back, now with a goatee and a ponytail. If he wasn't evil enough before, he sure as hell is now. Only evil twins for evil universes have goatees. And only evil henchmen from 80s actions movies have ponytails (nice braids, though). In between band practice, he had sights set firmly on Troy and Abed. He's determined to drive them apart so that Troy will join the Air Conditioning School. I know I said last week that I wasn't happy about a rift developing between Troy and Abed. Well, I'm still not happy about it, but even that won't stop me being excited about an all out war between Abed's pillow fort and Troy's blanket fort. War is hell. But it makes for great TV.
Using his surprisingly extensive knowledge of Inspector Spacetime, the Vice-Dean set about playing Iago to Troy and Abed's Othello and Desdemona (I'll let you decide which is which) or Spike to their Scooby Gang. But I think he will find that Troy and Abed's bond is a lot stronger than he realises. Ideological differences on fort building (and Guinness World Records) might have driven them apart for now, but I have faith that they will soon reunite, stronger than ever before. I mean, they have to. They are Troy and Abed. They can't fall out for good. They just can't.
2+2 = Subway
Trust Community to make better use of its corporate sponsor in one episode than Chuck ever managed during its entire run.
Say hello to Subway. Thanks to corpo-humanization, he has contractually waved his birth identity in order to represent the collective humanity of Subway. He's done this in order to achieve his dream of running a non-profit shelter for handicapped animals. Despite her hatred of all things corporate, Britta finds a kindred spirit in Subway, one who shares her love for wounded animals and the belief that, rather ironically, all school kids should be forced to read George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four (now that is my idea of a dystopian future).
Too bad Pierce (who should really stop drinking ink) had to go and sink this ship by alerting the
A Boy Named Kim
The realisation that students have lockers at Greendale leads us into another routine instalment of the ongoing saga of How Jeff Winger Stopped Being An Inconsiderate Jerk. This might not have been the funniest of plotlines but it had Jeff and Annie hanging out together for the whole episode so I can't really complain. I did like how the writers pretty much acknowledged how repetitive Jeff's journey of self discovery has become. No matter how much growing Jeff does in any particular episode, come next week he's going to be right back to his usual self-centred, inconsiderate jerkish ways.
Notes and Quotes
-- No Chang again. Music to my ears.
-- For the second week in a row, Community was the No. 1 show on NBC, holding up against both American Idol and The Big Bang Theory. A fourth season is now looking more and more likely. 12 seasons and a theme park!
-- The Subway boss might refer to Subway 1 as 'Rick' but I'm fairly certain that in this former life, he was known as Keith Dudemeister and he used to work a Sacred Heart Hospital and was engaged to Elliot Reed.
-- I'm not sure if Pierce's increasing signs of senility is meant to be simply a one-off joke or an indication that something might be seriously wrong him.
-- I'm ashamed to admit that it took me a little longer than Pierce to get 'Britta Unfiltered'.
Britta: “Who do you think I am? I lived in New York.”
Pierce: “You never lived anywhere. You're a weapon designed for sex. You only think you lived in New York because I implanted your memories.”
Britta: “I’m not a whore! And not that I’ve thought about it, but if I were I’d be the classy kind that you fly to Dubai to stay in an underwater hotel.”
Dean Pelton “Wow, did you know Greendale students are technically in the army reserves? (strokes Jeff) Let’s say a little prayer for peace.”
Jeff: “Kim, It’s me, Jeff. The inconsiderate jerk. Look, I don’t remember hurting you, and I have to assume that’s what hurt you. God knows what crime you committed to deserve me disregarding you entirely. But whatever your crime, I think we both know the real crime is mine. I’m a self-centered shallow jackass. And I just want to thank you for your note, because I’m going to try and change. I just wish you were here to forgive me.”
Britta: “Subway, I love you.”
Britta: “I don’t remember seeing Subway in my pre-menopausal post feminist experiential marketing class.”
Annie: “I'm staying in the sleep study lab. All I have to do is wake up ever three hours and go (screams wildly) and I get two credits.”
After a couple of shaky episodes, Community is finally back on top form. Three out of four books by George Orwell that I have never bothered to finish reading.
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Mark Greig has been writing for Doux Reviews since 2011. More Mark Greig.
I preferred Urban Matrimony to this one I think, but the war looks promising and the Subway storyline was great, so Part 2 might change my mind!
ReplyDeleteLMAO
ReplyDeleteDear Mark, your reviews are just as good as the show itself! Kudos.
Dear NBC, ya, you've got a winner here. Please give us a forth season and no (_____) of a (______) useless hiatus (regardless of the season)
The original blanket fort episode was one of my favorites. This one wasn't as wonderful, but I loved how they acknowledged that they were repeating something. And I hate product placement in my shows, but I just loved what they did with Subway. It was like watching a corporation acknowledge everything that's wrong with corporations and laughing at itself.
ReplyDeleteDid Pierce have a stroke or something? He seems to be a different person every season. Last year, he was just mean. This year, he's demented.
Terrific review, Mark.
Definitely one for the books!
ReplyDeleteI loved that last scene, must've repeated it a thousand times. Guess i'm a sucker for fake-epic moments.
It's interesting, but the dynamic of this show feels off to me when Troy and Abed are not getting along. They have been the core relationship throughout. I really, really hope they sort themselves out.
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