Nothing signals the arrival of spring like a Thanksgiving episode, right? ‘Cooperative Escapism in Familial Relations’ is a victim of scheduling, a Thanksgiving episode that misses the mark, despite some solid Jeff/William Winger material. ‘Familial Relations’ tries to tackle two big stories without dedicating enough time for either, victim of a script that plays to its weaknesses, rather than its strengths.
One of the biggest problems of this season is how inauthentic characters feel, most of them reduced to the broadest versions of themselves through four episodes. There are a couple scenes in ‘Familial Relations’ that breaks out of that with Jeff, as he addresses what a mess he is thanks to not having a father in his life. Pair those moments with the opening scene (how nice was it to have the study table back for a scene?), and you’ve got the best few minutes of the season so far.
But there is plenty of material to bring those moments back to Earth: most notably the empty homage to The Shawkshank Redemption, which doesn’t even introduce its presence before it’s already working towards a conclusion. It really doesn’t work: the episode completely ignores the actual party, and characters go from showing up at the front door to hiding in the back room afraid to return instantaneously. Not establishing the setting of the house and the people in Shirley’s family is fairly representative of how her character’s been handled through the show’s run – but more importantly, it cheapens the parody. Community‘s parodies were never great because of the parodies – it was the actual story lines going on beneath the homage, an important component the show’s thrown away in search for easy laughs this season.
That feeling of emptiness ultimately carries over to Jeff, as well, even though I enjoy his long speech about how emotionally damaged his father’s made him. There just wasn’t much to Jeff’s father as a character, and it came off mostly feeling like an excuse to put a face on Jeff’s biggest personal hurdle. More so, Britta’s presence at his Thanksgiving throws a major wrench into Britta/Troy – they not only don’t have a single interaction the entire episode, but ‘Familial Relations’ makes the obvious point that Jeff and Britta are a much better comedic pairing (as well as much more emotionally compatible).
I’m not saying I didn’t enjoy the Jeff material – but it didn’t feel like the resolution the story line deserved, glossing over the interactions between him and his father to get to a (great) Winger speech and inevitable ending with Jeff reinforcing how important the study group is to him. I wish the writers had picked either a Shawshank homage or the appearance of Jeff’s father: the two of them competing for screen time just lessens the potential impact of both, reducing its characters to imitations of themselves in the process.
Grade: C
Other thoughts/observations:
– Britta gets horny while therapizing… she is the worst.
– Pierce is just painful in this episode.
– Jeff’s half-brother was a disappointment: he’s a wholly empty character. Utterly pointless.
– Jeff Winger can do better than a Tara Reid reference.
– Troy just doesn’t understand anything anymore, does he?
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This was hands down the best episode of the new season, and one of the best episodes ever for character development. A few of the jokes fell flat but no one can rightly say this new version of Community is without heart. “Cooperative Escapism” was nothing but yards of heart, and I loved it. I definitely want to watch it again.