After tonight’s episode of Community, we are officially more than half way through the fourth season! “Economics of Marine Biology” definitely had a few laughs, and did a great job of including the great secondary characters that Community is so well known for (Pop Pop!), but the huge cast and multiple story lines also made the episode feel a little disjointed.
Tonight’s installment was directed by Tricia Brock, and she just directed one of my favorite episodes all time of The Walking Dead, “Clear”. I was definitely excited to see her in the credits, but I was interested to see how her directorial skills would translate to a comedy like Community, and overall I think she did a pretty good job.
All of our story lines stemmed from the arrival of a rich prospective student Archie, as the Dean wanted to court the rich loser and keep him enrolled and paying for courses. I wasn’t quite sure how this plan was going to work, though. Was he planning to get Archie to donate extra to the school? Wouldn’t he just be having a new regular student? Well, regardless of the validity of Dean Pelton’s plan, I did love all of his frantic demands that he whispered to Annie and Britta. “Put up a tent, write ‘Mountain Dew’ on it, make it cool!” was my favorite, and “Dry his kicks, Britta, put your back into it!” was also solid.
Overall I would definitely say I enjoyed the whole Archie storyline the most, but there was quite a lot of stuff going on outside of that. Troy and Shirley’s taking PEE (Physical Education Education) had some funny parts as well, and I’m hoping to see more out of this class. It’s kind of strange how just about every episode shows us a new class, but then we usually don’t ever see that course anymore. It makes it easier to get guest stars for just one episode, like Michael Kenneth Williams or Malcolm McDowell, but it really doesn’t make sense in terms of a community college setting.
There were two other story lines tonight as well, with Pierce and Jeff going to a barbershop and Abed starting a fraternity, but both of them were such inconsequential placeholders that I feel like I shouldn’t even bring them up. The barbershop had a few funny Pierce lines, but Abed’s fraternity ended up being absolutely pointless. My only thought is that the Delta Cubes will be an ongoing plot as the series goes forward, as his scenes tonight felt completely forced and tacked on.
When I think back on all of my favorite Community episodes, they mostly involve the entire group sticking together like in the season two bottle episode “Cooperative Calligraphy” or the season three classic “Remedial Chaos Theory”. Splitting the group up into four story lines is not a good idea for this show, so I’m hoping the last half of the season will bring everybody together more often.
Random Thoughts:
- Pierce has said some terrible things over the years, but “When men were men and women were sex cooks” was one of the worst things I can remember.
- I like how Jeff’s sexy stubble was back the day after his professional shave.
- I love how Magnitude losing his iconic “Pop pop” slogan was the one thing that made Annie decide that they’ve gone too far. Oh, and by the way, “Not in my backyard” was my favorite back-up catch phrase.
Community Season 4 Review “Economics of Marine Biology”
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