After a bit of a misstep in last week’s episode, Community was back in full-force with “Curriculum Unavailable”, managing to pull the rug out from under both the characters – and the audience – in hilarious fashion, re-gaining its footing as it picks up momentum towards the season finale, or as I’ve been referring to it for awhile now, Chang’s Last Stand.
What begins as an Abed-centric episode in the vein of “Introduction to Film”, with the group rallying around Abed when a psychiatrist (fantastic John Hodgman cameo) questions his sanity. For a few minutes, it felt like the show was veering off into dangerous territory, when the group is coddling Abed’s sense of reality, but it becomes clear there are more dire things at hand… this psychiatrist is here to question all of the Greendale 7, and challenge all of their sanities.
Putting all seven characters in the board room made a large portion of the episode a quasi-sequel to both the bottle & clip episodes from season 2 (with of course, meta references to them both). Everything was in there: dean costumes, Jeff & Annie exchanging looks, Abed being weird… and a hilarious montage of different classes offered at Greendale, including Ladders and Can You Fry That? (my personal favorite).
Then things get Chang-weird when its suggested they’ve been at Greendale Asylum the last few years, which leads to a funny clip of the gang acting out big moments from past episodes in straight jackets (again, a self-reference to the clip within the last clip show, complete with the dialogue line from Annie: “Harrison Ford”). Ultimately, it’s all revealed to be a cog in Chang’s master plan, which has been going swimmingly thus far (through phase one at least… but then what phase is getting them expelled and the Dean kidnapped?), though this might change when the all-powerful Vice Dean gets the word.
But underneath all the ‘being meta’ and Troy jokes of “Curriculum Unavailable” is another important emotional piece the show’s been cultivating for awhile now, and that’s the role of Dean Pelton in the school. They might as well just call him Dean Parallel; his failed career has led him to the only school that will let him (kind of) be in charge, and his growth is symbiotic with that of the groups. He’s part of their family now, and now that he’s gone, they’re starting to realize how important he was to them after all (a truth helped by another great set of Dean scenes). If there’s anything this show is making clear this season, it’s that these people all need each other equally, and Greendale needs them as much as they need it.
So now the search for the Dean is on, and with tonight’s developments came the news that Community will be returning next season for a 13-episode fourth season (though it’s open to being extended through the back 9). It’s hard to speculate on news like this, because the landscape of TV can change so quickly (remember December, when it seemed all but impossible that the show would be renewed?).
That being said, it does feel like this, paired with the short final season of 30 Rock, represents a wiping clean of the table by NBC for their high-cost comedy commitments, and the beginning of end of the strongest comedy line-up NBC has had since the mid-to-late 1990s if those episodes are indeed the last we’ll get. But whatever the case may be, there’s still three episodes of Community left to air next week, all which can be watched stress-free knowing the show will return in the fall.
Other thoughts/observations:
- Troy was hilarious again in this episode. Highlight? Probably getting the karate trophy, and the painful reminders that followed.
- Garrett’s voice (and him as a pre-cog). Brett Ratner jokes. Hodgman’s LOST references… seriously, I could just write bullet point after bullet point of the hilarious jokes in this episode.
- “It’s Bagel Bites, with a deconstructed Hot Pocket reduction, topped with a Doritos glaze.”
- it’s been TWO MONTHS in Greendale Standard Time since last week’s episode… how fucked up is the dean going to be after two months in Chang’s captivity?
Loved the write up, and I agree! This is running neck and neck with “Remedial Chaos Theory” as my favorite episode of the season so far! The whole thing was brilliance, from start to finish. The in-jokes, the LOST references (We have to go back!) all of it came together in just that perfect way that, for me, only Community knows how to do. As far as the renewal; I’m not happy there will be only thirteen episodes, but I am ECSTATIC we get thirteen instead of just a flat cancellation. Again, great write up!