*Spoilers Ahead*
Film spoofs have always been a part of what makes Community unique, taking the basic plot and themes of a movie and then twisting it to suit the warped nature of Greendale. Even back in the first season the show started to differentiate itself by doing spoofs on The Color of Money and Goodfellas. “Grifting 101” follows in that tradition but doesn’t quite stick the landing.
This isn’t the first time Community has chosen a film that isn’t exactly embedded in pop culture but the reason previous examples of this have worked is that there was always a strong thematic link between the film being spoofed and the characters on the show. “Grifting” offers almost none of that instead focusing on the long con (or grift, if you will) that Jeff and the others play on the new teacher of a grifting class (the wonderful Matt Berry of IT Crowd) after he grifts most of them out of their money.
At first, the story seems to be yet another one where Jeff’s insecurities flare up due to the presence of someone who is better than him at something. It’s not a particularly original story for the show but it’s usually a good building block. The problem then, is that there isn’t any comeuppance for Jeff, nothing for him to fail at and learn from. Jeff wins and the grifter gets grifted. The story ends up not being about Jeff and his need to be the best as it is about a random conman who tries to swindle Greendale and gets swindled back and as fun as it is to see the Greendale gang finally get a win over someone it leads to an episode that feels like nothing of value has actually happened.
Arguably, that can be said for many episodes and I want to point out that this episode, like so many this season, is hilarious and Matt Berry gets some truly stellar lines. But, the comedy is only part of what made me fall in love with this show. I fear that I’m beginning to sound like a broken record but this entire season has real suffered from a lack of themes and emotions. There are bits and pieces scattered around but it never adds up to anything.
At this point I should mention that I wasn’t aware until after the episode what they were even making fun of. The film being mocked, The Sting, is mentioned by Abed and eventually watched by the entire group to get ideas. But a combination of the characters condemning the film as boring and my lack of knowledge about it surely didn’t help me appreciate the parody.
The biggest thing that bugs me about the show currently is that I know it’s still capable of being the show it once was. Last week’s episode even proved that they can do it when they feel the need to. The cast is there and the jokes are there but there needs to be a reason for me to care about the combination of them.
Bits ‘n Pieces
- I want to praise Matt Berry because he really helped keep this episode afloat for me. I hope we see him show up again sometime.
- The nice piano opening was cool and I enjoyed the painted titles for each scene.
- “No, I am God, which pretty much makes me better than you!”
- “The next person who says grift is going to…grift.”
- “Are you trying to be disarming? Are you grifting me out of my arms?”
- “You hit me? With a women’s hand? You midwestern floosy!” “I lived in New York!”
If you’d like to give me feedback or just chat about Community you can email me at theSuperAlbino@gmail.com or hit me up on Twitter @JesseSwanson