It's March, so you know what that means: Thanksgiving! Since Shirley's a mom and also a cook, she invites the entire study group over to her place. Abed, Annie, Pierce, and Troy readily accept, but Jeff has plans, so he can't go. The rest of the gang briefly wonders what he might have going on until the Dean comes in and spills the beans: Jeff's spending Thanksgiving with his estranged father.
 |
| Britta's insanely happy to hear that. |
Regardless of Jeff's denials, Britta thinks the conversation they had at Halloween was the impetus behind him contacting his father, and she busts out her boom box and gets funky to celebrate her success as a therapist. She even offers to tag along to dinner, but he wants it to be a quick, emotionless meeting and tells her to stay out of his business.
After the credits, the show splits into two stories:
The Winger Family
Jeff goes over to his dad's place, but when he gets to the door, he can't bring himself to knock and he runs back to his car and drives away. He calls Britta from the road and tells her he met his dad and got himself some good, old-fashioned closure. She doesn't buy it, for two reasons 1)20 minutes isn't enough time to get closure, and 2)She's at William's house, and Jeff isn't there. Her therapeutic meddling convinces him to come back, and he meets his dad again for the first time in more than 20 years.
 |
| He looks just like Castle's dad. |
Jeff and William deal with their emotions like men and immediately set out some ground rules: No hugs, no apologies, and plenty of scotch. Jeff's half-brother, William Jr. isn't exactly on the same page, however. He's very emotional, and concerned that his older brother will replace him in his father's heart. Through a little discussion, Jeff finds out that the reason why his dad didn't run out on Willy is because his mother died and he got stuck with him. The elder Winger's not exactly a caregiver, though, and his second son's a bit of a wreck. Britta tries to fix him with a little roll-based role playing, but it doesn't work.
 |
| She sees what she did there. |
After dinner, William says he's proud of Jeff for being so tough and independent, and that maybe leaving him was for the best. Jeff is understandably pissed off, tells his father to go to hell, and leaves again. Unbeknownst to him, William Jr. tags along in his car. He wants his brother to teach him to be dead inside so their father will like him. Jeff's not dead inside, though. He goes back to the house and explains to his dad just exactly how broken he is. And, damn, is he broken. When he was in seventh grade, he lied and said he had appendicitis, then gave himself a scar with a pair of scissors so he wouldn't get found out, and he still keeps the "Get Well Soon" cards he got in a box under his bed as proof that someone once gave a damn about him. William's not exactly sure how to deal with that, so he fakes a heart attack. Jeff's been friends with Pierce for three and a half years now, though, so he's seen that trick many times, and he doesn't buy it.
 |
| It was worth a shot. |
Jeff thanks Britta for making him face his father, and Willy Jr. thanks Jeff for showing him that it's possible for someone to stand up to William.
The Bennett Family
When the rest of the gang gets to Shirley's house, they immediately find out that her relatives are terrible. While they can't leave, they can do the next best thing: Hide out in the garage. Abed decides that they're in a Shawshank Redemption situation for some reason, so he starts narrating and suggests they stage a prison break.
Pierce offers to fake a stroke, but the rest of the gang isn't into it. Instead, Annie fakes menstrual cramps, which would work great if not for the fact that Shirley's sister-in-law is a gynecologist. Over the next few hours, they use various excuses to rotate in and out of the main house, but there is no escape. When their last-ditch effort to get out by having Pierce fake a broken hip fails, they only have one choice: Give themselves food poisoning by eating Abed's rancid seven-layer dip out of the garbage.
 |
| He was saving it for a special occasion. |
But, before they can dig in, Shirley catches them. She tells them that she brought them in to act as a buffer from Andre's horrible family. Abed realizes that Shirley wasn't the Shawshank warden, she was really another prisoner on Prison Break. Or possibly the warden on Prison Break... I never watched that show. In any case, the gang decides to stay to help take some of the heat off their friend.
At Greendale on Monday, Jeff has prepared a Thanksgiving feast for the whole gang, including the Dean. Their Thanksgivings with their families were terrible, so he's decided that they should have a real one with their real family; the one they chose.
 |
| D'awwwwwww. |
What I Liked
-One of Pierce's escape plans involves him falling down a lot. I remember the 1970s too, Community writers. Although there's a good chance that Chevy doesn't.
-This week's best line: "Shirley! We were just... about to... eat garbage dip! Why did I have to go third?!"-Annie, Abed, and Troy
What I Hated
-The Dean's obsession with Jeff is getting a little crazy. Before, he was just happy to be around him and spend a little time hanging out with the study group. Now, he's in full-on lunatic stalker mode. The way things are going, the series may very well end with him killing Jeff and wearing his skin as a costume.
-They didn't get Malcolm Jamal Warner back as Shirley's husband, Andre. They didn't show any of her kids, either. What's the point of doing an episode about family problems if you don't show any of the established members of the person's family?
-Abed does a whole Morgan Freeman narration thing, but it was a reeeeeeeeeal stretch to get the episode to have anything in common with The Shawshank Redemption.
Final Thoughts
After this week's revelation, three of the guys have half-siblings they never knew about. Jeff has Willy Jr., Pierce has Gilbert, and Abed has the unnamed baby from the claymation Christmas. I don't know if the writers on this show are just repetitive or if they're trying to work out some issues from their real lives, but Community is now basically a bad daytime soap opera. There's a reason why most of those have been cancelled: They suck. So, I don't see the benefit of modelling the show after them. I guess it doesn't matter since there's almost no chance the show will be renewed for another season, but it's still very strange.
Not long into the episode, I turned to my girlfriend and said "This looks like it might get dramatic," and boy, did it ever. There wasn't any particular reason for it, either. We already know Jeff is kinda messed up, and we didn't need him to tell any disturbing childhood stories to prove it. He made out with his 19-year-old friend right after another one of his friends professed her love for him, he's a borderline alcoholic with narcissistic personality disorder, and he's in community college because he lied for years about having a bachelor's degree. At this point, the fact that he gave himself a fake appendectomy scar is just superfluous.
Nevertheless, a little character-developing drama would be fine if the rest of the episode were funny, but it wasn't. The Wingers were dull and dramatic, while everyone at Shirley's house was just sort of there. They didn't do anything funny, or even really attempt any jokes. And seriously, what the hell was up with trying to turn it into a Shawshank thing? Was that the only prison movie the writers have seen? Why did they even do a prison story at all? Personally, I would've gone with something that leant itself to more wacky hi-jinks.
This was easily the least funny episode of Community so far. While some might say that still makes it funnier than 99% of the comedies on TV, those people are wrong. This show is now but a shadow of its former self. Mercifully, there are but eight episodes remaining.
No comments:
Post a Comment