Halfway through this episode I was so happy because the episode felt amazing; it was classic, vintage Community style with secrets coming out, and everyone confronting each other in conflicts that showed how fundamentally flawed these characters are, and how they respond to each other, allowing the actors to play with everyone in the cast - except for Jim Rash - to their greatest strengths. I thought it would be an automattic A, but then everything started to crumble when Gupta was asked to perform.
How can I grade an episode that is both an A and a C at the same time? I guess that my only choice would be to make an average grade, but that doesn’t feel fair to those great first 19 minutes we have; though repetitive, it is the same plot structure that worked for both “Cooperative Calligraphy” and “Cooperative Polygraphy”, making this the third installment of Community’s “Secrets Laid Bare” as Abed says, and it is pretty great at first. And yet, I can’t give it a high grade because the last minutes were sorely disappointing.
This is the third episode in a row in which an episode of the show left me disappointed; once again Community is victim of its length, as if the episode ended with another note by minute 21 like it used to do on NBC then this would have been a great episode, but sadly it prolonged far more than necessary, it was left with an open ending, which is as a whole hugely different in tone than the first two acts of the episode.
That’s my biggest issue, how the episode so drastically changed when the leaked emails didn’t just involved the Greendale committee, but the whole school, pushing everyone against each other. Conflict only really work in Community when it used to strengthen the bonds between the people who study and work on Greendale, and for a minute there it seemed like the show was going there, but then it shifts completely once the hackers leak everyone's e-mails.
One can assume that as Frankie said, they are bound to bounce back from this one, and she is right - they bounced back from Chang’s tirant reign on season 3 -, but we don’t get to see it, making it feel like there is going to be no continuity from here onwards.
I think my biggest disappointment of the season so far is that the show is gradually moving from a linear storytelling format to merely just a procedural format in which the show just brings up something to deal with each week. What happened to season long characters arc? What happened to their dreams and aspirations? What happened with the crazy storylines? I understood their absence at the beginning of the season, but 6 episodes in I don’t see anything sprouting from the storylines, it seems like the episodes are becoming irrelevant as that I can miss it one week and come back another week.
That’s not to say Community doesn’t offer big laughs and golden lines week to week, because it still does that, but it certainly lacks a sense of purpose. I’m starting to wonder if Harmon’s desire to call it a quit after the show was cancelled is affecting the way he does the show, as Abed himself appointed season 2 as “the golden era”, as if Community couldn’t be as good again.
And yet here we are… at the end of the episode I honestly felt as if the writers just said “nah, who needs resolution?” which is a slap on the face after what started out as an outstanding episode.
To its credit, it does feel like the episode allowed Frankie and Elroy to be closer to everyone else now that their secrets were exposed, and for a moment there I felt the sense of unity that makes for a great Community moment. But the tone is off… way off. These episodes usually led to huge poignant moments of bonding, but here it ended with a punchline instead and it just didn’t land.
As I write the review I realize just how much this season is hurting from a sense of purpose and how the length is truly hurting what are incredibly solid - and even brilliant - storylines.
Every single reaction to each character reading what they said about each other on their emails were golden moments, showing the rapid fire comedic momentum Community delivers so well, but then everything falls apart, little by little.
Gupta’s act, even while meant as an irony, just didn’t land on any level, then there’s the whole school practically ripping each other out, which could have led to a good moment of unity later on, but instead everything is left on the open. And it’s not that it’s a bad thing, it that it doesn’t go at all with the tone the episode built up.
I hope I’m wrong, I hope that I’m merely exaggerating, that this was just a misstep at crafting the ending and not a sign of what’s to come, but I’m certainly worried. I love Community because in spite of being a comedy it has always been able to build up character arcs and stories for them that showcase evolution as good as any drama series does and as a whole get you to deeply feel for them while also delivering great comedic moments. Should that era come to an end, maybe there’s no reason to continue the show moving forward.
Just this once, I’m going to break my grade on two, because it’s not fair for the amazing first 2 acts to get squeezed with the ending.
Grade: A for the first 19 minutes / C- for the rest
Stray Observations:
-Elroy has a thing for the lunch lady who serves the hot food.
-Britta: “It is freedom of speech! An amendment so important that it is literally the first one they remembered to add.”
Elroy: “The white people?”
Frankie: “With penises.”
Jeff: “We rather call ourselves people without color or vaginas.”
-Elroy: “These guys are giving hackers a bad name. And hackers is already a dumb name.”
-Elroy to Chang: “Point your little finger to me and I will eat it!”
-Abed: “How much of the leak did you read? I have a right to fit in!”
-Annie mentioned Abed’s girlfriend, so that gives me hope that we will see Rachel again… eventually.
-Frankie’s sexual preferences has been discussed since episode 4 and this episode just outright tackle it, as a poll is run on a chain of emails. And Annie tried to win and wrote something gross. I can’t help but feel curious towards what they may have wrote.
-Frankie: “If you people were trapped on a tiger infested island with no food or water you would judge every ship that came to save you!”
Annie: “How do the tigers survive with no food or water?”
-Frankie writes to her dead sister as a coping mechanism. That was short poignant moment that the show could have capitalized on, but instead it let it slide.
-Elroy made 3D models of Frankie, Annie and Britta’s bodies for a game. Wow.
-Annie: “Jeff! Gross! And Britta, great way to memorize the date of your big victory.”
-Elroy: “Jeff writes to astronauts. Talk about creepy.”
Jeff: “They are national heroes!”
Elroy: “Yes they are. Leave them alone!”
-Frankie: “You two dated?”
Elroy: “This was a study group?”
Abed: “Yeah, Chang was our teacher.”
Frankie and Elroy: “What?!”
Chang: “That’s right. And frankly, haven’t been well utilized ever since!”
That was a great meta gaga. And I’m inclined to agree, though this season has managed to use Chang well.
-And well, after that the episode just… crashes… so I decided to just leave the lines that worked. Though Garret and Leonard’s feud was fun.
-Sorry if this review sounded depressing, but this was just such a good episode ruined by its final minutes. I hope next week this doesn’t happen. As a whole I’ve been liking season 6, but the pacing has to be improved in order to make the extended length work and the storylines need to be more cohesive and build some continuity. Otherwise, this is a completely different show with Community’s characters and setting.
