Monsters of Television

“Hard to believe I’m not really not really in space.”

A lackluster episode of Community is still better than most comedy on television, so I can’t be too disappointed in “Basic Rocket Science” even if I do think it’s one of the weakest episodes the show has done in a while.

Like “American Poultry” and “Modern Warfare,” “Basic Rocket Science” is a high concept episode doing a full on riff of a particular film genre (in this case, space movies). I remember one of the critiques around “Modern Warfare” was that it didn’t serve the ensemble very well since they were dispatched so quickly (“Troy made God angry!”). My contention, that they needed to leave for the actual character impact to occur, Jeff and Britta having sex on the study table, would end up paying off in the end actually came true in the finale of last season and the premiere of this season.  Like the folks who were iffy on “Modern Warfare,” have the same quibble with “Basic Rocket Science”: where’s the character beat in this episode, because I’m not really feeling it.

I was happy when Annie admitted that she alerted City College to the Greendale’s simulated space program, but I didn’t really buy her reasons: school pride and a desire to transfer? What’s that? It came out of left field? Why yes, it certainly did. It’s a nice step for Annie, getting past her clear dependency issues, but without a stronger beat guiding that particular action, it does feel a little random. Sure, we can argue that the fallout with Jeff may have been a motivation, but that gets lost in the episode’s zany antics. And unlike Jeff and Britta at the end of “Modern Warfare,” I don’t see this recurring back since it seemed like such a footnote to the episode. Or, more simply put, “Modern Warfare” was constructed to get to that final scene, but there seemed to be no endgame for “Basic Rocket Science.”

And let’s talk about Dean Pelton a little bit. I’ve defended the character in the past, but if the show continues to use him like this, I’m afraid the character needs be written off as lazy. I like Pelton as an over-enthusiastic and semi-clueless dean of a community college with the occasional acknowledgment of his sexual proclivities as an aside. It felt like these asides are becoming less asides and larger jokes. As an example, the circled and rated truckstops? Not funny since it goes on too long, and Abed calls it out, as opposed to Pelton mentioning he knows that area when they find out where the simulator is. But his reaction to the dean of City College whispering in his ear at the end of the episode is the kind of in and out gag that should be more often deployed with the character.

Despite my quibbling, I did like portions of the episode. For instance, the opening sequence, in the dark room and the slide projector, was actually not only funny but in keeping with the genre riff of the episode. Pierce’s “space madness” worked well enough; I particularly enjoyed him sticking his two index fingers through the wire mesh door to try and get to the lock. The KFC product integration/mocking it wasn’t very seamless, but I’m willing to excuse it because I found S.A.N.D.E.R.S. to be far too funny and easily my favorite portion of the episode. It was a nice mix of Mother from Alien and H.A.L. from 2001.

That the episode felt a little crowded and stuffed makes me even more anxious about the Christmas episode, and it’s very high-concept approach. Like Glee in the second of half last season, I worry that Community may give in to the things that get it attention instead of focusing on its characters and their relationships. However, provided Community can maintain a balance (and I suspect that it can), I think I’ll be okay, and keep on loving the show.