In a improvement over last weeks somewhat melancholy documentary, last nights episode had me in stitches. Community towed the edge of ridiculousness, but never crossed over it. All in all it was one of their stronger episodes.
Vice President Joe Biden is planning on visiting Greendale College as part of a political promotion. He’s supposed to meet with the Dean and the President of the student body. Only Greendale doesn’t have a student body. With 7 hours to campaign before VP Biden arrives an impromptu election is held. Annie runs because she’s optimistic she can make Greendale better. Jeff runs to prove to Annie that politics isn’t about being good or smart, its about selling out and serving the public with vague platitudes. Mean while Abed notices the secret service agents securing the campus. When they pat him down for being suspiciously aware of them, he explains that its easy to notice things when you’re not used to being noticed. This hilariously attracts the romantic attention of Special Agent Robin Vohlers, who much like him is incapable of expressing emotion. She only wishes Abed was more of a threat so that she could see more of him.
When I first saw the g-men talking about Abed, I was afraid they would center jokes around racial profiling him for being Palestinian. I have to really give Community credit for not going with the obvious choice for the Abed’s B plot. Instead, they went for something a little more heart warming, for the detached robotic characters. In the end Abed announces something out of the anarchist’s cook book publicly to draw Agent Vohlers back to him, and she smiles. It was cute. I hope they bring her back. There was a bit of a missed opportunity with this B plot. It would have been funny to see Britta trying to defend him from being profiled, with her extreme left wing jargon, when he was encouraging it to impress Vohlers.
Speaking of Britta, she was the butt of the joke this episode. When she threw her hat in the electoral ring and started her revolutionary rhetoric no one wants to hear it. I’ve noticed over the course of the last season she’s fallen into the background. When Community started it was obvious that she was intended to be the female lead and Jeff’s counterpart. Gillian Jacobs is listed after Joel McHale in most media. Her personality is the most obvious foil to Jeff’s. Jeff is greedy and materialistic. Britta is a hippy. Jeff’s knee jerk reaction is to look out for himself. Britta’s is to put others first. One would think that she would be the character to cause Jeff to be introspective. However recently that role has fallen to Annie. I’m not sure if this is because of Alison Brie’s talent actress. She’s able to bring alot of humor to her over achiever character, and frequently steals the show. It could also be that Annie is more likable. Britta is a self righteous phony, who professes to be a great humanitarian, yet in actuality uses her politics as a way of validating herself. She doesn’t necessarily believe what she’s saying she just likes the soap box. Annie despite being naive is genuinely sweet, and a good person. When she tries to stand up for something its not for validation ,its for belief. I wonder if this was intentional on the part of the writers or if this naturally developed.
This episode had some great gags too. In the tradition of “Troy and Abed in the Morning” the duo host an election program. The anus shape school flag makes an appearance as a presidential shield. Pierce crosses new thresholds of dickishness and of course gets his comeuppance. Also lets not forget the epic battle of wits between Leonard, and Magnitude. Bravo Community!
On a Scale of 1 to Epic, (Epic equals 10) I’d give it a 8.5