Community Season 1, Episode 2 “Spanish 101”
Written by Dan Harmon
Directed by Joe Russo
Aired September 24, 2009 on NBC
Taken at face value, “Spanish 101” is a fairly typical second episode of a modern ensemble sitcom, engineering simple situations to reinforce character traits and ideals, with a few new recurring characters and ideas thrown in as the still-new writer’s room begins to figure out its weekly rhythms, reliable fallbacks – and most importantly, its grander ambitions beyond the show’s premise.
Community‘s second episode certainly fills that role – and does it pretty well, taking a pair of awkward stories and marrying them behind the two phonies placed at the head of the study group. However, lurking under the surface – mostly in the characters of Abed and Pierce – one can start to see the genesis of the more reflective, exciting, experimental series audiences would come to know and love in later seasons and episodes.
Through Jeff and Britta, “Spanish 101” mostly fills its expected role as the second episode of a sitcom; there’s the introduction of Spanish professor Mr. Chang (Ken Jeong, mere weeks after his star-turning appearance in The Hangover) and a lot of acerbic teasing between the male and female leads – it’s fairly standard sitcom fare, especially once Pierce enters the frame, attempting to form an intergenerational male bond with Jeff, who has already established himself as the group’s unhealthy leader (the group literally will not study without him in the room, a realization that fascinates and saddens Britta).
Jeff’s attempts to get close to Britta backfire on him; after switching cards with Abed to get her as a partner, he ends up partnered with Pierce for the group’s first Spanish project when she pulls the same trick on him. It’s a great reminder to the audience that Britta and Jeff exist on a plane of moral equivalence; both assuming their own intelligence and ability as manipulators, which this episode uses to set them off on their individual paths for the rest of the episode.
What I love about Jeff and Pierce’s first sausage fest is how it quickly shifts into something a bit more reflective – textually and metaphorically, particularly the latter once Pierce stands at the blackboard and draws Dan Harmon’s infamous “story circle” on it. It’s a masterful bit of writing from Harmon, letting Pierce reflect Harmon’s big ambitions for Community‘s ability to turn simple concepts and blow them up into something maximalist, and positing Jeff as the disinterested network executive just looking for a series to do exactly what is expected.
One can almost hear Harmon’s pleas leak through the text; if the ultimate goal of Community is to build a community, why not take the most dramatic, inventive path to get there? Jeff, who already convinced Annie to provide him with study notes two weeks into the semester, just wants to take the easy path to a passing grade; go through the motions, do it quickly, and get back to the job of pretending to be awesome and important (in the episode’s cold open, Jeff steals the rearview mirror tag from a professor’s car to get a better parking spot).
For Pierce (and Harmon), “Spanish 101” is more than just another assignment; it is a genuine opportunity to build bridges, to break new ground and build a relationship, between characters and the audience. And though its ultimate delivery of this idea – which comes from a slightly hand-holding bit of dialogue from Britta, the one time this episode feels like its pandering to expectations – isn’t particularly refined, its is effective – and surprisingly, hilarious, when Jeff agrees to put on an elaborate performance of material he said were the rantings of a crazy person not 18 hours earlier.
The marriage of Jeff/Pierce’s story and Chang’s introduction provide a really strong foundation for “Spanish 101” – which is good, because the other half of the episode doesn’t quite deliver on the same idea (which, given Harmon’s inconsistency with writing his female characters, is not particularly surprising), when Britta stands witness to Shirley and Annie cosplaying at being political protestors.
Now, I absolutely love the idea for this story, exploring the idea of performative politics (years before it would become en vogue) when Shirley and Annie turn Guatemalan censorship into something to bake brownies and make t-shirts for. Clearly, there’s something about their behavior that hits close to home for Britta – so much that when Jeff goes looking for her after his disastrous study session, she’s joined the silent candlelight vigil Annie’s organized, wearing the goofy black tape over her mouth in order to make sure she’s not left out of something she’s banked a large part of her personality on.
Though “Spanish 101” does a pretty good job of exposing Britta’s inner poser, it’s certainly more effective when it’s breaking down Jeff’s own facade about being a loner who cares about nobody, willing to risk the failing grade in class so he can save face with Pierce (which he disguises as something he does to gain favor with Britta, though that certainly rings at least slightly false, even if he won’t admit it). Either way, both are effective in challenging Jeff and Britta with confronting their unwillingness to relinquish control – which, sometimes, is what happens when you start to let a group of strangers into your life and they become friends… or you know, when you sell a network an idea and then they try to place a bunch of guardrails on the execution of it.
Though Community is still in the nascent stages of balancing its developing qualities (though this is ostensibly the beginning of Troy and Abed’s friendship, it’s really only present for two scenes, one of which is over the closing credits), “Spanish 101” shows the foundation of a series bursting at the seams to be wackier, more cynical, and more vulnerable. And though the mechanics of its story aren’t the most memorable, it is an incredibly important episode in establishing some of the fundamentals that would make Community the series it would become later in the season – not bad for a show’s second episode, one of the earliest signs NBC’s new little comedy was onto something.
Grade: B
Other thoughts/observations:
- Dean over the PA: “Whoever is growing a small batch of cannabis behind the gymnaisum, congralutions you have won a cruise. Report to security to claim your ticket.” You’ll have to do better than that to catch Star Burns (who makes his first appearance during the protest!).
- “real stories… they don’t have spoilers.” Britta, already taking concern with Abed’s grasp of reality.
- “What’s a guy gotta do to get a C around here?
- There isn’t a title credits song that warms my heart more than The 88’s “At Least It Was Here”, which I haven’t heard in the years since my last rewatch. Still hits!
- For the real Easter egg hunters, “Spanish 101” marks the debut of Long haired guy, a background role played by Andy Lobo, who would make 65 appearances throughout the series. (Lobo would later be seen in an uncredited role in a handful of Superstore episodes).
- Chang’s introductory monologue is such a masterclass of comedy; Ken Jeong’s energy is so important to the comedic tenor of Community, and watching the birth of it in this episode never gets old. Ya bit!
- Pierce, regarding Britta: “What is she, a water filter?”
- Apparently Pierce is homophobic and critical of Israel… a man of many multitudes.
- Abed, on Pierce: “He told me girls have two pee holes.”
- The costuming for Jeff continues to be a work in progress; the untucked button-down paired with baggy cargo pants feels like something he would mock in later seasons, but here it is in all its glory.
- of course, the episode contains the Troy/Abed Spanish rap, one of the greatest closing tags in American sitcom history. Sometimes, you just have to sit back and watch history be made.
- Up next: Abed find his life’s calling in “Introduction to Film”.