Monsters of Television

“It’s lame that he cares.”

The fact that “Beginner Pottery” aired out of order is probably a good thing. Last week I expressed concerns that the show was relying too heavily on the “friends as family” theme, and I saw the same concern expressed elsewhere (which is always reassuring). I asked for a variation on the theme or just a new theme all together. This week’s episode does neither. It doesn’t abandon the theme all together, but it doesn’t rely on it for the episode’s moral. Instead “Beginner Pottery” feels like a very smart gag delivery system that doesn’t let up for 22 minutes while still imparting a lesson about success in relation to the individual and the group.

Jeff’s struggle to be good in the eponymous class, one he dismisses as a blow off class, parallels his struggle to be cool in shorts while playing pool. His descent into Goldbluming (though not a great impersonation of Jeff Goldblum) and obsession with Doctor Potterywood (I can’t remember the character’s actual name) provide a nice variation on Jeff’s insecurities about his status within the college. It escalates nicely toward the end with Jeff’s unintentional, and then intentional, Ghost referencing.

Sailing class, however, provides perhaps the best gags of the night while motivating the show’s moral lesson. Everything worked albeit the jokes of sailing were nothing particularly fresh, the show made them funny. Pierce getting pummeled by the boom not once but twice doesn’t seem like overkill because of the absurd situation of having a boating class in the parking lot. That it gets capped off with the surreal rescue of Pierce from drowning due to a leak in his rowboat, complete with the even more surreal image of the boat sailing by a classroom, had me in stitches.

Despite my desire for theme variation, I like that Community provides a moral lesson each week. Like Scrubs, the surreal and crazy are means to larger, more grounded ends. Yes, Community is a bit too ironic and wacky for the moral lesson to have the emotional heft many of Scrubs‘s finest episodes did, but that’s ultimately not the show’s goal. (I’m assuming, even if I turn out to be wrong, that Abed’s line about voice over narration being a crutch was directed at Scrubs.)

Finally, tonight’s music has to be complimented for enhancing the humor. The big sequences, Jeff’s attempt to make an awesome pot and Pierce’s “death at sea” are accompanied by wonderful music that matches each situation. Jeff’s pottery scene is string-filled and inspirational, the type of music you normally get in an art creation montage sequence only to end in an ominous failure, both musically and visually. The music for absorbing Pierce’s “drowning” is right out of White Squall, and like Jeff’s pot gets complimented by a wonderful visual moment of Pierce sitting with a lifesaver, Troy looking off to the horizon while Britta, Starburns and Shirley all look down. I want it as a desktop wallpaper.

FINAL THOUGHTS

• The episode tag with Señor Chang wasn’t particularly funny. Just sayin’.
• I love that Greendale’s instructors have gotten sick of pop culture references, going so far as to ban them in their classes. That’s just a brilliant idea.
• Annie making a painfully phallic vase should’ve been a cheap joke. Instead it’s a nice continuation of Annie’s sexual repression. I also appreciate her callback to “Introduction to Film.”
• For those who claim that Lost is about too many daddy issues, check out Community. Everything is a mother’s fault.