8.1/10. Everytime I step away from Community for a while, I forget how great it is. Mrs. Bloom and I put this one on for rewatch as kind of a lark, and for the first segment or so, I thought to myself "this is good, but not great." You never know if you're overrating something in hindsight. The initial love triangle-esque storyline of Britta riding her "fearlessness" of confessing her love to Jeff to fame within the school, while Annie is still pining after Jeff, and Jeff wants nothing to do with either of it, felt like standard sitcom buffoonery.
But then, Jeff tries to beat Britta at her own game by confessing his love and they have a game of romantic chicken that hilariously escalates and escalates until the truth comes spilling out. The marriage Abed tries to instigate between them ends up with Annie being shocked that Jeff is "marrying" Britta after he kissed her, everyone being shocked that he kissed Annie in the first place, Pierce finding out that Troy's been mockingly tweeting his quotes (in a now-dated reference to the Shit My Dad Says twitter account), and Shirley is shocked that this whole romance, which she was instantly invested in, was a sham. It steers into the skid of the darkness at the heart of the show, especially when Abed responds to Jeff's mocking statement that he can't tell the difference between real life and TV with the putdown that TV has structure and a likable protagonist whereas real life just has "this" and "you." It's a devastating little moment.
But of course, Winger gives a Winger speech, making amends, and even suffers for it, and the group re-bonds after that mess. It's the right balance of exagerated winking irony and sincerity that the show nailed. On top of that, the comedy is very much there (Betty White's urine-drinking anthropology professor is a quiet charm in the episode), and it's a great kickoff to what is arguably the show's best season.
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParent2016-09-14T01:45:50Z
8.1/10. Everytime I step away from Community for a while, I forget how great it is. Mrs. Bloom and I put this one on for rewatch as kind of a lark, and for the first segment or so, I thought to myself "this is good, but not great." You never know if you're overrating something in hindsight. The initial love triangle-esque storyline of Britta riding her "fearlessness" of confessing her love to Jeff to fame within the school, while Annie is still pining after Jeff, and Jeff wants nothing to do with either of it, felt like standard sitcom buffoonery.
But then, Jeff tries to beat Britta at her own game by confessing his love and they have a game of romantic chicken that hilariously escalates and escalates until the truth comes spilling out. The marriage Abed tries to instigate between them ends up with Annie being shocked that Jeff is "marrying" Britta after he kissed her, everyone being shocked that he kissed Annie in the first place, Pierce finding out that Troy's been mockingly tweeting his quotes (in a now-dated reference to the Shit My Dad Says twitter account), and Shirley is shocked that this whole romance, which she was instantly invested in, was a sham. It steers into the skid of the darkness at the heart of the show, especially when Abed responds to Jeff's mocking statement that he can't tell the difference between real life and TV with the putdown that TV has structure and a likable protagonist whereas real life just has "this" and "you." It's a devastating little moment.
But of course, Winger gives a Winger speech, making amends, and even suffers for it, and the group re-bonds after that mess. It's the right balance of exagerated winking irony and sincerity that the show nailed. On top of that, the comedy is very much there (Betty White's urine-drinking anthropology professor is a quiet charm in the episode), and it's a great kickoff to what is arguably the show's best season.