Quick Take: Community, “Early 21st Century Romanticism”
“Land line? Okay Grandma Bell.” – Chang to Jeff
Review: Community, “Early 21st Century Romanticism”
(S0215) For shows that I truly love and admire, I become “protective” in a sense and actively plot out how I would like things to proceed, what should be done more of, less of, differently, and so on. Obviously, nothing I say or do will actually impact the production of the show itself, but it’s interesting how I think many true fans of television shows (and other mediums too of course) do this.
With Community, as much as I’ve enjoyed this second season, I’ve been slightly apprehensive at times that the continued and deep forays into parody mode (zombies, religious flicks, and claymation, just for starters) could pull the show away from its roots as a show about a motley “community” within the oddball environment of a community college, driven by razor sharp and pop culture-drenched writing. This is all prelude to saying that the last few episodes have returned to something closer to the “normal” Community mode. This week’s episode, “Early 21st Century Romanticism,” was a solid and solidly funny episode but – and I’m going to knowingly contradict my previous statement a little bit here – did not reach the dizzy heights of hilarity that some of the parody-driven episodes took us to this season.
While there were many funny lines and a few very satisfying character moments (particularly involving Troy, played by Donald Glover, and Abed, played by Danny Pudi, who are emerging as one of the better bromance couples in the history of television) the episode did suffer just a smidge in that there were four distinct storylines going on that didn’t have a whole lot to do with one another, though Jeff (Joel Winger) did his best to make it all mesh right at the end.
The two best storylines involved Troy/Abed and a soccer watching get together at Jeff’s place that turns into an all-campus rager (to quote PCU, one of my favorite movies of ever). Troy and Abed both have their sites set on the same young lady, a librarian played by Maite Schwartz. They decide to offer her a “decent proposal” as it were, which ends up with both of them taking her to the Valentine’s Day dance so that she can decide who she wants to date again. The librarian chooses Troy, but the decision doesn’t sit well with him in that her reason for choosing him did not meet the standard of acceptance for his eccentric best friend. “There’s someone out there for us,” Troy tells Aded after he dumps her.
Meanwhile, Professor Duncan (the great John Oliver) manages to invite himself over to Jeff’s place to watch the Manchester United versus Liverpool soccer match. Things evolve rapidly however as Chang (Ken Jeong) invites himself over as well… to live. And somehow this also involves half the campus stopping by to get their party on. It’s all a touch forced but fun stuff nonetheless. I’m hoping that Magnitude, one of the campus folk who show up, becomes sort of the Star Burns of Season Two and emerges into a regular role.
The other storylines – Britta and her friend Page both thinking the other is a lesbian, Pierce hitting the pain pills so hard that he manages to see a miniature Andy Dick in a Captain’s hat wherever he goes – feel a little jumbled in the overall mix. Things end on a sappy-sweet note with Jeff reaching out to the gang, apologizing for being curmudgeonly on Valentines Day. “I love you guys,” he texts the group. It all works on the strength of the characters and McHale’s acting chops.
More thoughts on this week’s edition of Community:
Video: Community, “Early 21st Century Romanticism”
Check out all the romanticizing antics in full from Hulu, while available:
