Review: Community ‘Intro to Felt Surrogacy’ – Pulling At Strings

There are going to be a lot of people who don’t like ‘Intro to Felt Surrogacy’, and for perfectly valid reasons: it’s not very funny, most of it is a very weird homage for a show like Community to do, and the most important character moments of the episode are largely inorganic. That being said, I liked ‘Felt Surrogacy’ a lot more than I expected to; where it lacks in brains and comedy it makes up for in heart, staying true to the foundations of Community‘s philosophy.

At its core, Community is a show about a group of people that are able to heal and grow because they have each other. They all complement each other in some fashion, and over four seasons, a strong bond has developed through their hijinks and numerous homages, thanks to the strong character arcs Harmon built over the first three seasons. And there’s a Harmonic tone to the third act of ‘Felt Surrogacy’, where the Greendale crew come together over experiences that are painful to them (except Abed, of course… he’s just behaving awkward because everyone else is).

The actual ‘adventure’ the Greendale 7 go on is ludicrous – but it’s supposed to be, a direct homage to The Muppets and many children’s shows of the past three decades. Does it work? The music certainly does, refreshing arrangements that don’t allow their inspirations to become parody, beautifully crafted songs that play to all the actor’s singing strengths quite well (and brings them together in a way season three’s ‘Regional Holiday Music’ distinctly avoided). ‘Felt Surrogacy’ is all about the idea of ‘community’ between these people, and the composition of the songs directly reflect this.

Now, I’m not sure how well the whole puppet production works. I do like how it appears in the real world, with each character bonding in a way with their own puppet, allowing it to be a familiar, but separate entity in the room (Abed’s yelling “My father’s withholding!” is a particular highlight). But when it come to the actual balloon ride and night in the woods, it’s a little too haphazard to be effective. Dialogue s are short, with many jump cuts back and forth to individual puppets on screen (not to mention the whole weird ‘freedom’ drug trip)… and like many episodes this season, the stream of jokes and references aren’t all that funny.

Oddly enough, the episode manages to recover from this, and a flaw that would be critical in other episodes – I’m talking about the absolute contrivance of every character’s secret. Jeff’s situation isn’t really relatable to his father’s, and the others are just silly for the sake of silliness (despite the heaviness given to Shirley’s weird reveal). Britta’s is fitting, of course, but is it really a surprise? What redeems all that nonsense is how its utilized: it’s an opportunity for the group to heal together, catalyzed by the Dean, their ever-loving puppet-making shepard (Shirley’s Biblical references are numerous in this episode).

Like Jeff says (ironically, of course) in the beginning, Greendale is pulling their strings – but it’s a much more positive thing than they sometimes realize it is, a message that’s always been central to the show’s ideologies.The final moments of Community have its heart in the right place – and despite the uneven execution of what precedes it (and the fact the whole balloon trip makes almost no sense), ‘Felt Surrogacy’ shows an ambition previous episodes of the season have mostly avoided (or really whiffed on).

Grade: B+

Other thoughts/observations:

– well, hey there Sara Bareilles!

– Jason Alexander as a transient mountain man from Greendale is oddly timely, considering the story about the man who lived in Maine’s woods for 27 years.

– another weird moment between Jeff and Britta, making references to their shared sexual experiences (and quirks), and then sharing a weirdly suggestive smile.

– The Deanocchio costume was probably one costume too many, especially for an episode featuring over a dozen puppets.

– …. so where the hell is Pierce? I understand this episode is part of his deal to live (he had to agree to do the puppet dialogue and singing), but they seem worried about his absence… and then forget about it.

– “Garrett! NOT NOW!!!”