TV in Review: Community, “The First Chang Dynasty”
May 18, 2012 7 Comments
In a slightly peculiar twist of programming, there were three new episodes of Community aired last night. I’ll look at them all, but not at all at once. Let’s start today with “The First Chang Dynasty,” which is the sequel to last week’s compelling “Curriculum Unavailable.” Will the study group figure out what’s going on at Greendale? Can they rescue Dean Pelton? Will they defeat Senor Chang? What if we discovered that it was all a dream, and that they’d fallen asleep in Chang’s Spanish class back in Season One?
JEFF: You see? It’s not the real Dean!
COP: Of course. The head of security at Greendale Community College has kidnapped the Dean, and replaced him with — a Deanalganger.
We get to see how Chang is handling his attempt at playing dictator. Yeah, he’s let it go to his head a little, but that’s part of the fun. From living in the vents, to ruling with a stuffed tiger at his side. Life is looking up for Senor Chang.
Troy finds out from one of the guys in the Air Conditioning School where Chang and company are hiding the Dean, and there’s a little added emotional impact because he’ll have to abandon his friends in the study group and enlist in the AC School if he wants to take advantage of all that AC School insider knowledge and mojo.
Instead, the group plans an elaborate heist.
It involves planning…
…disguises…
…more disguises…
…horrifying disguises…
…and surveillance vans…
Then there’s Pierce’s absolutely beyond disastrous swami disguise. I get the whole meta joke of him being this inept racist bastard and all, but did we really need Chevy Chase doing brownface in this episode? In any episode? Ever?
I enjoyed the double-switch, or whatever you call. A fakeout plot reversal with a twist? I mean, of course, the part where they get the Dean to hide so the fake Dean can be found while they rescue the real Dean. You know, where the plan appears to be coming together.
Can I just say that the rave escape was totally surprising?
And Dean Pelton’s return to power was swift and logical. But Troy’s turn to air-conditioning…no whispering of sweet nothings can save us from this.
THE FINAL THREE
TV in Review: “Digital Estate Planning” (Season 3, Episode 20)
TV in Review: “The First Chang Dynasty” (Season 3, Episode 21)
TV in Review: “Introduction to Finality” (Season 3, Episode 22)
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Watching the final 3 episodes it’s obvious that they were written with an eye to this being the final season, Of course that was true of the last couple of episodes. I mean, who does a parody of Burn’s The Civil War expecting to get another season? with Jeff’s last minute conversion to niceness and all. Hopefully they can unnice him by next season.
The Ken Burns’ parody is a great example of the strengths and weaknesses of Community. No one else is doing that, so the show is irreplaceable, but it’s tough to draw huge network audiences for something that inventive. And I’m pretty sure they can unnice Jeff as needed. It was emotionally satisfying for a season finale, but things will get boring quickly if the characters don’t have those major flaws.
The Ken Burn’s parody is a good example of why this show is struggling in the ratings. If you had never seen Community before and sat down to watch that episode, you just would not have gotten the joke. And to greater or lessor degrees that’s true of most of the episodes this season. It’s become impenetrable to outsiders because of the inside jokes and the knowledge required both of the character’s personality quirks and previous references. It’s like Arrested Development. Brilliant, but if you were not there for episode one hard to break into.
Well, Community might become a bit more “normal” next year, given the news that Dan Harmon has been fired. I know it was mostly due to NBC not liking to work with him, but it’s possible they also see it as a chance to go more traditional with the show.
DIGITAL ESTATE PLANNING was definitely original, but this episode followed by the finale proper marked a great end to a strong season. Glad that we get this show back next year if only for 13 episodes (fingers crossed for more!).
Yeah, having finally watched all three, I agree with the order that they aired them. “Digital Estate Planning” was original but (to my mind) the weakest, then this was a fun and satisfying conclusion to the Community 7 story line, followed by a strong finale.
I’m glad that they’ll be back but definitely wish it were for more, so that they could be comfortable experimenting throughout another full season.
Of course, could be good or could be bad without Dan Harmon. Time will tell!