Laughing to cover up the darkness

Joel McHale in "Biology 101," the first episode of Community's third season.  Photo courtesy of daemonstv.com.

While watching "Biology 101," Community's third-season premiere, I found myself laughing hysterically. This episode was one of the show's sharpest, funniest half-hours, featuring some pretty hilarious gags ranging from a sophisticated running joke about the differences between British and American television to the sheer physical comedy of watching John Goodman's Vice Dean Laybourne (head of the inherently funny Air Conditioning Repair Annex) using his girth to intimidate Dean Pelton (Jim Rash). After I'd finished watching the episode, however, I realized that, despite the many very funny moments, this was a dark, dark episode of Community, possibly darker than last season's melancholy standouts "Mixology Certification" and "Abed's Uncontrollable Christmas."


The darkness of the episode stemmed largely from its exploration of Jeff's innermost depths. While the ensemble as a whole was very strong - Danny Pudi's Abed in particular had some stand-out moments - this half-hour was about Jeff Winger, and Joel McHale did a great job with the character. The show has always been, to some extent, the story of this shallow, self-centered character who learns things about himself through the rest of the study group, and that idea was at the forefront of "Biology 101." The difference between this episode and previous Jeff-learns-a-lesson episodes (such as last season's "Accounting for Lawyers") is that this episode doesn't let Jeff learn an easy lesson and go on with his life; he is forced to really look at himself, deep down into his core, and realize that he doesn't like what he sees. This moment of realization comes during a parody of the enigmatic finale of 2001: A Space Odyssey that doesn't feel like a parody in the way the show has done parody before. The scene is funny, but when you look more closely it's also very serious, very much the story of a man who is only now realizing how little he has in his life.


According to creator Dan Harmon, this year Jeff "will try to change himself in ways that only prove the bad things about himself... He's a narcissist and a solipsist. His decision to start being a human being is going to be really hard for him." The show started to go darker last season, as certain episodes (such as the aforementioned "Mixology Certification" and "Abed's Uncontrollable Christmas," in addition to the excellent "Paradigms of Human Memory," among many others) began to show the cracks in the characters' seemingly happy exteriors. This episode took it further, and many of the funniest jokes included very dark elements, the best of which was the moment when the characters of Cougarton Abbey, a fake British series upon which Cougartown is supposedly based, all poisoned themselves with hemlock in the final episode. I for one am excited to see Community take a darker turn this season. Much of the best comedy is mined from pain, disillusionment and self-loathing, and I'm sure this wildly inventive show can do wonderful things with this new darkness.


But enough about death and despair. As I said before, "Biology 101" was a very, very funny episode of Community. The running gag about Cougarton Abbey was fantastic, as was Abed's discovery of the extremely long running British sci-fi series Inspector Spacetime. (Can we have a David Tennant cameo? Please, Dan Harmon, please?) John Goodman was magnificent as Vice Dean Laybourne, and the revelation that Greendale's Air Conditioning Repair Annex provides eighty percent of the school's budget was great, and allowed for Dean Pelton's lovely, self-referential line, "I just came by to tell everyone that this year isn't gonna be that different, with the notable exception we won't really have any money." And the inspired Glee-style number that opened the episode was very funny and short enough that it didn't take up too much of the show's running time. Plus, that opening burst of sunshine and rainbows was an excellent contrast to the darker undertone that pervaded the rest of the episode.


Abed and Troy moving in together is a promising development, particularly since Annie will, at some point, be moving in with them. Britta's announcement that she wants to major in psychology is sure to provide some great comedic fodder, and the rest of the cast's reactions to her desire to become a therapist were priceless. Also, Omar Little! As a biology teacher who is also an ex-con! YES!


Stray Thoughts

• I think that Chang as a security guard could be a great development, as long as he doesn't get overused. A little Chang goes a long way.
• Harmon has also said that Jeff and Annie's relationship is going to go in a romantic direction this year. I have mixed feelings about this. On the one hand, the two actors have great chemistry, and Annie is the one person who can consistently make Jeff think about his actions. On the other hand, she's still 20.
• The high-pitched whining sound that Abed made when he found out that Cougartown wasn't coming back until midseason (and again at the gruesome end of Cougarton Abbey) was amazing, and also recalled Troy's screaming in "Paradigms of Human Memory."
• Loved the shot of Chang just nonchalantly walking around carrying a ham.
• Chevy Chase did a great job in this episode as a penitent Pierce, who was willing to be the villain just because Jeff needed someone to.
• "We have plenty of linens. We mainly want the things."
• "You are the opposite of Batman."
• "You could have lived the rest of your life in blissful ignorance and died a happy pansexual imp."

"Community" Finale: There Will Be Paintball

Donald Glover, Danny Pudi and Alison Brie in "For a Few Paintballs More." Cougartown actress Busy Philipps can be seen in the background.

The epic game of paintball has now concluded, and I feel that I can safely say that this year's two-part finale managed to top "Modern Warfare" in terms of both scope and laughs. There was even a nice, emotional coda at the end that wrapped up the season-long arc of Pierce's villainy and alienation, while leaving the study group reeling. This move promises good things for next season, and exemplifies one of the best features of Community: the show's ability to have major character growth even amidst the paint-splattered craziness. (Note: SPOILERS. All sorts of spoilers. Seriously, stop reading if you haven't finished the season.)

I realize that this is almost the same thing I said in yesterday's review of the Vampire Diaries finale, and that's probably not a coincidence. (In fact, it's definitely not a coincidence.) I appreciate The Vampire Diaries' go-for-broke pacing as much as I appreciate Community's absurd wackiness, but those features would certainly ring hollow without the character building moments that both shows are so good at. This is one reason that I prefer these two shows to something like Glee, which has all the wackiness of Community but without the underlying character stability. (Todd VanDerWerff of the AV Club makes this point excellently in his otherwise questionable article about why Community and Glee are basically the same show.) The show's character relationships ground the general insanity, and the finale was a perfect example of that.

But you didn't come here because you want to hear me pontificate about Community (if you did, leave a note in the comments and I'll be happy to write more pontificating posts for you); you came because you want to Talk. About. Paintball. And so do I. I have a lot of thoughts on "A Fistful of Paintballs" and "For a Few Paintballs More," and I can't wait to share them with you. So, here goes.

One of my favorite things about the finale is the way that it tied in references to previous episodes of the show. In my profile of Alison Brie, she mentioned that all the recurring characters would make appearances and that conflicts from throughout the season would come to a head, and the episodes lived up to that promise. I was a particular fan of the way that Troy's plumbing expertise, revealed in the Season 1 episode "English as a Second Language," was put to good use when he rigged the library sprinklers with paint. The final conspiracy theory, which revealed that Greendale rivals City College were behind the paintball war, was also a nice nod to the ongoing rivalry explored in "Basic Rocket Science."

There were other, less direct references as well. One of the most intriguing and revealing moments came when Annie, impressed by Abed's Han Solo-esque rebellious persona, began to fall for Abed, and ended up kissing him in the (paint) rain. This was both a nice throwback to the kiss between Jeff and Annie that closed out last year's season finale and an insight into Annie's character. Annie is the romantic of the study group, someone who spent part of the first season hopelessly in love with Troy and was crushed when she found out about Jeff's affair with Britta. Annie's vulnerability was on full display here, and Brie played the moment when Abed drops character and leaves with a detached "Cool," beautifully, showing us Annie's devastation and her disbelief that she ever could have considered a relationship with Abed.

The episodes were also impressive for the deft tonal shift that took place between the first and second parts. The Western motif in the first half was very funny, especially Josh Holloway's mysterious gunslinger and the saloon culture in Pierce's hideout. (Vicki's table dancing was a great detail in that scene, and Garrett's put the whole thing hilariously over the top.) The Star Wars vibe in "For a Few Paintballs More" was also great, even though it was fairly understated; despite Abed's Han Solo impression and the paintball players dressed as stormtroopers, the second half followed a fairly straightforward action plot rather than a specific Star Wars plot. I really like that the show didn't feel the need to stick too closely to Star Wars; if the Family Guy parodies have taught us anything, it's that reenacting the entire movie is not actually funny. Like, not funny at all.

I also really enjoyed Troy's power struggle with Jeff, as it highlighted some nice tension from the season as a whole. Even though Jeff is generally called upon to be the leader of the group, Troy is the one who has to step up when no one else wants to, a fact that was nicely demonstrated in one of my favorite episodes of the season, "Mixology Certification." It was really nice to see Troy assert his independence, and even better to see Jeff acknowledge Troy's value in the finale scene. The Troy and Jeff pairing is not a particularly common one on the show, particularly since Troy and Abed's relationship is so strong, but I like to see Troy insist on his own importance on occasion, particularly since the character is my personal favorite. (It doesn't hurt that he's played by Donald Glover, who is just hilarious all the time. Warning: the first and third link are fairly NSFW.)

I also liked the role that Shirley played in the finale. Shirley is often the group's voice of reason, and she kept up that role nicely here by reminding the other characters, through lines about wanting to go home and see her children and missing CSI, that this was a paintball war rather than an actual war. Shirley's nun costume was a great nod toward the character's roots as a stereotypical Black Christian woman as well as a nod to how far she's come. I also really liked that Shirley and Britta were the two members of the study group who made it to the final moments of the paintball war, and the scene in which they rode in on a golf cart, guns blazing, was both funny and triumphant. Even though I really like the final scene with Pierce, and the way that his win (and subsequent donation of the money to Greendale) set up Pierce's relationship to both the school and the study group, I really wanted Britta and Shirley to win.

Speaking of that final scene, it was a great way to humanize Pierce and redeem him, at least partially, for all the nasty things he has done this season. It was also a great set-up for some major conflict next season, as the group comes to terms with their treatment of Pierce and, presumably, tries to woo him back. The final scene was sadder than I expected the end of the PaintStravaganza to be, but it was appropriate to the tone of the season as a whole. Plus, the tag before the credits both brought back the funny and acknowledged the people upon whom the real burden of the paintball war fell: the Greendale janitors. Funny and classy, the tag was a great way to end the season and lighten the mood a bit after Pierce's sobering exit from the study group.

A few stray lines and moments that I enjoyed, but didn't have time to fit into the review proper:

• Leonard telling Jeff that he was once a Little Rascal
• The slow-motion shot of Annie's boobs (the anatomical parts, not the monkey) bouncing as she ran away from Holloway's character
• Troy's anguished howl at Magnitude's sacrifice: "Pop what?!"
• The cameo by Cougartown stars Busy Philipps and Dan Byrd
• Annie's rejection of Abed's vest, because it smells like Starburns
• Holloway's "Sonuvabitch!" (yay Lost reference!)
• Vicki's final charge into battle
• The return of Quendra with a QU
• Speaking of recurring characters, where were Rich and Slater? I would have liked to see them at some point.
• Pierce's two fake heart attacks were hilarious, and a great paintball strategy!

Alison Brie Talks "Community," "Mad Men" and Paintball

Brie as Annie Edison in Part 1 of the upcoming Community finale, "A Fistful of Paintballs"

It’s always a little risky to talk to an artist you truly admire. They could be just as kind, gracious and funny as you thought, or they could turn out to be uncooperative or narcissistic. Recently, I had the opportunity to talk to Community’s Annie Edison herself, Alison Brie, and I’m happy to report that this charming, funny and talented young actress falls into the former category; she’s just as sweet and bubbly as you would expect from the actress who brings Annie to life. She covered a wide range of topics, including her work on both Community and Mad Men, sharing a scene with Josh Holloway, and her desire for a mermaid-themed episode of Community.

If all of you are excited as I am about the upcoming, sure to be epic Community finale, you’ll be excited to hear Brie’s thoughts on the two-part sequel to last year’s beloved paintball episode. Brie said that getting the script for the second part of the paintball episode contained some of the most shocking twists she had seen in a Community script. “The second part of the finale, there just are twists and turns that I didn’t see coming at all,” said Brie. “There are moments when you’ll read something and look at the writers and say, ‘really? Is this just a joke for the table read?’” Brie even compares the twists in this episode to Jeff and Annie’s unexpected kiss at the very end of last year’s finale, saying “This is two years in a row now that my biggest shock of the season has been the very last episode.”

Brie also teased Annie’s role in the paintball battle, which promises to be much greater than her role in last year’s episode. “Annie got taken out pretty early when we did the original paintball episode, and this time I really have a lot more to do,” said Brie, adding, “She’s practiced since she got taken out so early last year. She doesn’t like to lose.” 

Brie was especially excited about the scenes that Annie shares with Josh Holloway’s mysterious stranger. “He plays a bit of a mysterious character, and I got to do some action scenes with him.” She also got to flirt a bit with the man best known as Lost’s heartthrob Sawyer, and apparently shared quite a bit of chemistry with the guest star. “As we were doing the scene, our writer and director said ‘We’ve got to milk this chemistry’… and I was like, ‘Yes, chemistry with Josh Holloway, nailed it!’” An episode of Community wouldn’t be complete without a few pop-culture references, and having Sawyer himself on the set provided the writers with some opportunities for the meta. “There’s going to be a Sawyer line,” she promised, “so we’ll see if the Lost fan’s pick up on it. I’m sure they will.”

Of course, viewers who have invested two years in Community also want to see what the rest of the study group is going through, particularly given the internal tensions that have threatened the group this season. Brie promises that we’ll see plenty of developments in the group’s relationships. Recently, certain people in the group have been having trouble with other people, and “those feuds really come to a head in a major way in these last two episodes … there is a lot of really emotional stuff going on.” We’ll also see some of the recurring characters make an appearance. “There’s a lot of cute nods to the peripheral characters,” said Brie, “these people that you’ve seen every so often on the show.”

The final two episodes, however, are also action-packed, and the actors were worn out from all the paintball fights. “I clean [my ears] every time I shower, and I still had paint coming out of my ears a week later. It grossed me out!” laughed Brie, who had already suffered a paintball-related injury filming last year’s episode. "Last year I got shot in the boob, and it hurt!" said Brie. "I had a bruise."

Brie was also happy to talk about her hopes for the future of Community and Annie Edison. For all the ‘shippers out there wondering who Annie will end up with, Brie says, “I go back and forth between Troy [Donald Glover] and Jeff.” Like so many of us out here who love the chemistry between Brie and Joel McHale, “a lot of the time Jeff and Annie make sense to me, because Annie has a way of being a voice of reason for Jeff.” However, she also thinks that the pairing of Annie and Troy is a possibility: “They went to school together, they grew up together, they’re the same age, and there was really something in that.” Brie also has some ideas for the show’s third season. “A mermaid episode,” said Brie, “a Splash episode where Annie just shows up naked on a beach, and you realize, “Oh god, she’s a mermaid … I’m going to pitch this.”

While Brie is best known for her work on Community, she also plays a recurring character on a very different critically acclaimed show: Mad Men’s Trudy Campbell. Although Brie admits that she identifies with Annie more because of Annie’s “nerdy sense of humor,” and the fact that Annie is contemporary, while Trudy is a period character, she says there are similarities between herself and Trudy. “It’s very easy for me to connect with the ambitious side of Trudy, her striving for perfection. It’s just that what Trudy values are not the things I value.” She also has some insight into Trudy’s relationship with Vincent Kartheiser’s Pete, one of the show’s more unlikeable characters. “What’s fun about playing Trudy is that she doesn’t bear witness to a lot of Pete’s horrible deeds. She just loves him and wants to be an amazing wife to him, which makes her a quirky character,” said Brie.

Brie is currently in Ann Arbor, Michigan filming the movie Five-Year Engagement, which costars Emily Blunt. Brie said that being in a college town like Ann Arbor has put her more in touch with Community’s fan base. “I just adore our fans. They’re amazing,” said Brie. “They pick up on things right away. They’re so intelligent and they get so excited about the show, and it’s been really cool to be here in Ann Arbor and be able to witness them firsthand more than usual.”

I said earlier that it can be risky to talk to an artist you admire, because you never know what they’re really like. It is equally worrisome to hear about the behind-the-scenes dynamics of an ensemble show like Community, because you never want to hear about tension between cast members. “One of the best things about working on the show has been making some of my best friends,” said Brie, adding, “I’m texting them every day, and they’ve been texting … We love each other.”

Despite the cast’s tight bond, Brie was willing to dish on one hot topic – the question of who was the show’s best paintball player. “I feel like I have to say Joel [McHale], so I don’t get in trouble” laughed Brie, but went on to add, “I have to say that Danny Pudi is very agile … He’s like a jungle cat, so he’s a good stealth man, but Joel is, you know, all muscle.”

Even though most of the talk centered on the upcoming finale, Brie was happy to talk about other episodes – in particular “Paradigms of Human Memory,” the recent clip show that showed viewers glimpses of a number of adventures that didn’t make it on screen. I asked Alison what clip she would like to see expanded into a full episode. “It would definitely be the St. Patrick’s Day adventure,” said Brie. “Especially Abed’s line, because Danny’s such a pro, and the way he delivered that line, ‘The mysterious events that surrounded the exciting conclusion of our St. Patrick’s Day adventure.’” However, after thinking for a moment, Brie added that another favorite clip was “our trip to Mexico where Pierce almost gets shot.”