1x23 Modern Warfare

[9.3/10] It’s funny; my first thought watching this episode was “how come director Justin Lin can make the action so clear in this one when it was so muddled in Star Trek Beyond? But it speaks to what was achieved here that the man who staged all of this action (and the men who staged all of the action in the sequel episode) went onto make billion dollar blockbusters. It’s really impressive how well Lin and company are able to take a network sitcom budget and turn into something this simultaneously silly, cool, and exciting.

Like the best of Community, “Modern Warfare” runs through a myriad of tropes in the action movie genre, while riffing on them and repurposing them at the same time. References to everything from The Warriors to Die Hard to Battle Royale are executed perfectly and integrated beautifully into the outsized world of Greendale.

There’s also some good character work in the show, as always. The will-they won’t-they stuff with Britta and Jeff got tiresome at points, but the show makes their tension turn closer to something real given their denial and eventual post-coital action movie banter afterwards. This show walks the line between parody and sincerity so well, mining the cultural conventions its spoofing for the nugget of truth within them. The fact that, after needling Britta about it, Jeff not only wins the game, but gives his prize to Shirley, is an unexpected-if-sitcom-inevitable sign of growth from him.

Overall, this is one Community’s most creative outings, which is truly saying something for this show. The pitch-perfect recreation of action movie moments, the wonderful integration of them into the universe of this crazy community college, and the use of them to further develop some of the show’s biggest characters make this a true stand-out for the series in its first season.