Oh man what a great episode. I don't think I laughed as much as I did at the second episode, but I felt this one was really strong and utilized all the characters to great effect. I'm pretty sure Britta is going to be my favorite character this season. Sure I've always liked her in the past, when the other characters would dump on her. But I love it now that apparently the whole world is dumping on her too, what with her being homeless, apparently drunk all the time (some of the first episode, most of this one) and I absolutely loved Britta zoning out to the music and imagining herself in a music video. Be honest, when they introduced Britta as Jeff's love interest back in the pilot, did anyone ever imagine an episode where she'd be so drunk she shit her pants
I've noticed a fair amount of push back to this season (and to a lesser extent, last season) because of the dwindling cast. And I can't deny the show has changed because of it, but I think the charm of Community is that they aren't just replacing the old cast with new characters who are carbon copies. Sure after Pierce left we got Hickey who was the resident "old man" but he did his own thing, and wasn't Pierce 2.0. I don't know Elroy enough to say the same, but I think he'll be doing his own thing too.
This is definitely the most Community episode of season 6 so far. Good to see Classic Jeff rather than watered down centrist Jeff. And a semi-callback to the Buttflag ep. Another complaint about Yahoo Screen. It's impossible not to see the caption that describes the episode when you watch it. Some people like going in with no information! I don't think in the pilot anyone imagined she'd become the airhead.
If I recall correctly, it took Season 5 about 3 or 4 episodes to really get going. I see no reason why this season wouldn't be the same. I want to see a Jeff centric episode. I know that this show stopped being solely about Jeff sometime around season 1, but I'd still like to see a few episodes where he's the lead.
Did they officially write out Buzz Hickey or is he officially still on campus off camera? One little touch I liked from the second episode was how Abed tried to do the handshake with Britta and she Britta'd it.
I saw a GIF of that handshake (don't remember where now) that showed it was actually Abed who Britta'd the handshake
Whoa, whoa! Jeff is not the main character of Community! The main character of Community is Abed Nadir! Jeff is just an oversensitive loser working through his abandonment issues. Abed, the avatar for the audience watching television for decades and wishing that was their life, was abandoned by his mother and judged by his father, and driven into emotional isolation by his inability to connect with people in the real world. Dan Harmon saw the pain in Danny Pudi. Anyone can play Jeff, that's why Dan Harmon is so nice to Joel McHale!
I think the nice thing about Community is that arguments could be made for Jeff, Abed, or Annie being the main character. Britta probably had this potential back in season 1, but that ship has sailed. Chevy Chase, Donald Glover, and now Yvette Nicole Brown leaving the show rules them out for this, though to be honest, none of them seemed to be "main character" types. An argument could be made for Abed, Jeff, and Annie representing the Id, the Ego, and the SuperEgo. Jeff is clearly the Ego (in more than just he's the most conceited). He is the one least likely to attempt to bring Abed back to reality. Though the parts about delaying gratification don't seem to apply, though quite often, it does happen because Jeff is dealing with Abed. Annie is clearly the SuperEgo, serving as the moral center. Abed as Id makes sense, since it often falls to the others in the group to help him with more than just meeting basic needs (though for Abed, a steady media diet is a basic need).
Oh man this episode was great, and everything I've wanted (namely more Jeff). I loved how every one of the main characters got something to do, this felt like old Community again.
Annie is the second least expendable character after Abed but it'd be hard to call her the main character since most of her episodes are about how she relates to other characters. I thought this episode was average. I like the ideas but I don't think they knew where to go with it. I got the impression that they might have started out with a more interesting idea but it was too close to the biology professor from season 3. I think the actor playing Elroy is doing a great job but it's hard to pin him down as a character so far. His role in the cast so far seems to either be to drop sarcastic remarks, be annoyed by political correctness or fill roles that no other character fits into. Buzz Hickey last season was defined immediately, Elroy seems like just a really well cast joke repository. I like season 1 Britta better than stupid Britta. She's funnier when she's trying to be an anarachist than she is when she's Brittaing things. I think my favorite Britta moment is in the model UN episode.
Saw Gillian in Hot Tub Time Machine 2 last night. She was playing a feather head, but I forgot how beautiful she was if you subtract all that Britta baggage.
This was my favorite episode of the season so far. The ending had me in stitches. I also loved the one last Community/Cougar Town gag (Brian Van Holt, a regular appeared only on an iPad on the series finale of Cougar Town and was Willie here).
The guy trying and failing to push Jeff down the stairs with the telepresence robot made me crack up.
I feel like the episode just didn't come together in a cohesive way. The B plot was pretty weak in this episode so they probably should have just ditched the Britta party story and done some more committed theme stuff in the A plot. This is the first we've seen of Jeff's class since the episode where he first started teaching it. In that year it's gone from Jeff having fun talking about how to outsmart DAs to just blowing it off completely with no real explanation why. Also they could have done about a story about a criminal who honestly wants to rehabilitate, is pissed off that Jeff is shortchanging his education over laziness, and convinces Jeff at the end that he needs to really teach his class. Instead they tossed that out for one clever attempted murder scene and then a rehashed ego battle. It feels like they wasted opportunity in this episode and muddled the message.