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Community: Home Economics

“You can do whatever you want. You just have to know what that is.”

After his realization of the power of friendship in “Introduction to Statistics,” Jeff is forced in this episode to test whether or not he is comfortable with asking from help for people who are completely willing to help him. And Annie loses her pants.

If Community has a Theme of the Week, this time around it’s helping people out. Abed helps Jeff realize his true inner potential, and that it is not just about wealth, status, and really good hair. Shirley helped Annie tell Troy that she likes him, or at least learn not to help him date someone else. And Pierce tried to help Britta but wound up helping himself, and then helping her by accident.

Back in “Social Psychology,” Abed observed that he and Annie were like Chandler and Phoebe on Friends: they never really had any stories together. One of the standard sitcom tricks is to put unlikely characters together, and Community does a great job of that in this episode.

The highlight is Abed and Jeff. In the real world they would never interact, but in the perfect world of the Greendale dorms their relationship is a beautiful thing. Abed continues to show that he understands friendship: if you like someone but they’re becoming “dormed,” you have to let them go. And how perfect is it that Britta realizes the key to Jeff’s heart isn’t sex, but faucets?

While “Intro to Statistics” left me feeling rather cold, “Home Economics” just makes me smile. The adorable losers of the study group are meant for each other—cabbage smells, poo-poo hearts, platinum faucets, and all. Aww.

Mark Says...

When I settled down to watch this episode my first thought was "Oh, is this the one where Jeff and Abed hang out in Abed's dorm, get drunk and do Breakfast Club? I loved that episode". Turns out I was wrong. This was not the one where Jeff and Abed hang out in Abed's dorm, get drunk and do Breakfast Club. This was a completely different episode where Jeff and Abed hung out in Abed's dorm. No one got drunk or did Breakfast Club.

The reason for my confusion is quite simple—this episode was a Baldwin. Every show has Baldwins. They are not something that is exclusive to Community or NBC. Baldwins are episodes that, from a distance, look very similar to each other, making it difficult to tell them apart. It is only once you get up close can you are able to tell them apart, to see which are Alecs and which are Stephens. This was a Billy. Good, not great, but it has its moments. Sadly none of them involved people getting drunk and doing Breakfast Club.

Cool Cool Cool:

• Troy: “Like a grown-up date, but within biking distance of his parent’s house.”

• Jeff: “The next person who offers me charity or pity will be mentioned by name in my suicide note.”

• Jeff: “Don’t you ever want anything more from life than cereal?”

• Britta: “Excuse me. I have a future murder victim to visit.”

Three out of four handmade Italian faucets

Josie Kafka is a full-time cat servant and part-time rogue demon hunter. (What's a rogue demon?)

3 comments:

  1. Mark, you are a genius. That is the most perfect description of a phenomenon I didn't previously have a name for that I've read in a while. And it works in a subtle Clueless reference as well. Review perfection!

    (The one where they do the Breakfast Club is the Valentine's Day one where Jeff needs to drunk dial Britta. I forget the title, but I know it's *not* 'Romantic Impressionism', cause that's the one right before it, and I always mix them up on the DVD!)

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  2. Annie is becoming the character who most charms me. There is something about her innocence that makes me smile. The look of joy on her face when Troy was her backpack, and then that awkward callback to it was just lovely. I'm glad she has Shirley to help her retrieve her blanket.

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  3. As a Baldwin, myself, I find it strangely nice when the term is used as a scale of hotness.

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