*Spoilers Ahead*
“Cooperative Calligraphy” is easily one of my favorite episodes of Community and it’s sequel, last season’s “Cooperative Polygraphy,” managed to live up to the heights of it’s predecessor by being both a hilarious and lovingly sentimental sendoff to one of the shows characters. This week’s episode makes it all something of a trilogy and even openly talks about those previous two episodes while poking fun at this episode’s inability to match up to those other two. It’s a sad, if funny, joke because it’s mostly accurate.
“Basic Email Security” finds Greendale being hacked due to a scheduled performance by comedian Gupta Goopti Gupta and one of the lunch ladies having her email leaked to the rest of the campus. The hacker threatens our group and the gang is more than willing to back down and cancel the performance until Britta convinces them to stand up for their right to freedom of speech. Jeff, who always seems to have the most to hide, is unnaturally cool with this, until he finds out that it won’t just be his little used Greendale email, but his actual one as well. This all culminates in a huge argument as the group snipes at each other while attempting to set up for Gupta’s show.
What made “Calligraphy” and “Polygraphy” work is that each episode wasn’t just about the weird revelations and secrets of the group. In “Calligraphy,” the group tests the limits of their trust in one another and find that they all care about each other much more than they thought. “Polygraphy,” finds the group tested and strengthened from beyond the grave by one of it’s own and ends up being a fitting tribute to what that character meant to the others. “Security” simply feels like a series of weird revelations and secrets.
Don’t get me wrong, the episode is still very funny. I especially enjoyed getting some teases about Frankie’s sexuality and hearing about Elroy’s emails with a Virginian family who think he is one of their cousins. But this episode makes me acutely aware of what might be the biggest hindrance in this season. The group’s dynamic is off. I can’t quite pinpoint what it is, maybe the significant cast changes, the new writers, the Yahoo move (most likely a bit of all three.) But the dynamic just isn’t there like it use to be, even last season. There are flashes of it here and there but as a whole the show feels like it’s lost it’s heart. The show is still hilarious but it doesn’t feel like it’s capable of tugging at the emotions of it’s audience anymore.
In a way, this seems directly related to the shift in the show from being about a group of screw-ups coming together to form a study group that serves more as an ad hoc family to a bunch of co-workers who are just a bit too invested in the college they work for. That said, I don’t think the show is completely unable to get us to feel for these characters, it just requires some extra work, work that the show hasn’t been willing to put in.
Bits ‘n Pieces
- Getting to see Frankie and Elroy’s reactions to both the gang formerly being a study group and Chang previously being a teacher were great.
- Speaking of that scene, Chang gets to poke some fun at his character development when he says he hasn’t been “utilized well” since then.
- Was glad to see “Daybreak” by Michael Haggins back. Also known as “Pussy Fever” to listeners of Harmontown.
- Fat Neil shows back up in this episode and the new beard looks pretty good on him!
- “I kinda zoned out and assume we’re standing to go see Avengers.”
- “Hey, silver and gold ladies, ain’t no losers there.”
- “Riselle is like a daughter to me!”
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