Monsters of Television

“Then you’re not listening because his has lasers.”

It appears it was “Let’s talk about religion!” week for some broadcast comedies and Glee (nailed it). It’s an odd trend to just have happen at once (Modern Family dealt with religion this week as well, but I don’t watch Modern Family so I can’t comment on it) and even Community got wrapped up in the trend.

I’ve seen a lot of discussion on Twitter about how television fiction handles religion. Typically it’s done in a one-off episode and is then never mentioned again (unless you’re Bones, and then you mention it in passing constantly, but that’s because you’ve got two sensible characters discussing differences of beliefs). But sitcoms tend to follow the one-off formula a little more than others, a semi-very special episode as it were that helps bring a story around to the central idea expressed in Glee‘s “Grilled Cheesus” and this episode of Community: It’s okay not to believe in God, but for the love of God, please believe in something.

It’s not the best way to handle a discussion of religion since it essentially shores up a message of spirituality or secular sacredism (peanut butter fudge ice cream, for instance, or two attractive girls wrestling in oil), but it’s how things tend to go. Even Lost, through its finale, cuts through the moral ambiguity to give its audience an ambiguous afterlife. But whereas Glee‘s treatment of religion comes off as poorly fleshed out and weighed down by songs that have NOTHING to do with spirituality (“Only the Good Die Young” is about taking the virginity of a Catholic girl, Puck, not martyrs), Community makes the same message about believing in something is better than nothing but at least they’re still  funny about it.

As the episode somewhat acknowledges, “The Psychology of Letting Go” is a bit of a retread of last season’s very good Christmas episode: people’s beliefs are challenged by one another, but in the end it all comes together to form a valued unit of people. The jokes, however, keep staying fresh. While the show continues to escalate Pierce’s silliness in regards to his laser-based Buddhism, I keep waiting for Pierce to play all off as a gag, even if it something he legitimately believes. And I do respect the show for, when it comes down to the moment of truth, letting Pierce keep his belief system in tact (if only so they can make more jokes about it later). And Chase plays the moment well, even if the focus is on Jeff’s realization that he shouldn’t be going to the morgue (or that it’s okay to indulge in things sometimes since he’s going to die anyway). There’s flicker of acknowledgment in Pierce’s face, but much like, say, Barney’s realization that Bob Barker isn’t his dad on How I Met Your Mother, he still needs something to hang his hat on.

Annie and Britta’s subplot, about their respective approaches to being a woman, equally felt like a retread of earlier material, though much more focused. I didn’t really find it terribly funny, though Shirley’s unacknowledged passive-aggressive behavior was funny. At the same time, the plot at least served as a nice narrative parallel to the A-plot. As Shirley sagely notes: “Yeah, you’re both so different. Skinny bitches.” While there are certainly racial and body images at play in this comment, in terms of episode thematic, it fills out the episode by saying that religion isn’t the only thing that we necessarily need to overcome to accept on another. Other ideological hang-ups, types of feminism practiced in this case, can get in the way, too.

But in the end, we can always count on men to be huge perverts. So say we all.

FINAL THOUGHTS

• An Abed-light episode in terms of dialogue, but there was some really funny stuff going on in the background with him this week. Did he get that girl pregnant and then deliver the baby? I hope so.
• I really wanted Troy to talk-cry. That hasn’t been done yet this season, and I’m starting to miss it.
• The Duncan-Chang thing was okay, made better by how it didn’t involve Chang trying to break into the study group and Jeong’s excellent physical comedy.