Monsters of Television

“I agree with brown Jamie Lee Curtis.”

Community begins to pay off some of its larger storylines in “Asian Population Studies,” particularly Chang’s quest to join the study group (to destroy it) as well as Shirley’s pregnancy as a result of her night of radioactive taco beef zombifiaction fling with Chang. Likewise back from the undead is Rich, who Annie spent the winter break with doing do-good, and is now seeing as a potential boyfriend for herself.

The episode is played straighter than most Community episodes, but doesnt quite reach the heights of “Mixology Certification” in terms of the show’s sense of grounded reality (or what passes for it on this show). On the other hand, it does address the idea of what happens when you have put a particularly sitcom-y character like Chang and try and introduce him into a group of self-aware genre nuts. I just don’t know if there’s much new in that story since the show already kind of did it last season.

And that’s kind of my problem with the Chang storyline in a nutshell. The show already visited how the group responds to an outsider wanting to join the group, and Chang, like Buddy, is a kind of aggressive (?) sitcom character that with a particular characteristics that are leaned on remarkably hard. With Chang, its his psychotic attidude and turning his name into a pun (and I like how that slowly builds in the episode, to the point that you don’t notice that they’re happening).

One of the benefits of Chang’s teacher role last season was that he appeared in quick scenes, allowing Ken Jeong to do that one thing very well and then get out. The character wasn’t overexposed, essentially. And there’s value to that since it livens up scenes, keeps the character fresh, and allows the rest of the study group to respond and then move on (the Dean functions much the same way for me). And the show acknowledges these traits in Jeff’s speech (McHale is nailing those monolouges) for Chang’s inclusion. And while it didn’t convince me that Chang needs to be in the group, it’s at least a step forward in the storyline.

The remainder of the episode works well. I like that Andre, Shirley’s ex-husband, isn’t played as a cad but as a man who recognizes his mistakes and is willing to step up and take care of the Chanley (Shirang?) baby. And for an off-screen character who has had an impact on Shirley, and by extension sometimes the group (particularly in season 1), it’s nice to see how he’ll continue to have an impact on these people’s lives by being present in Shirley’s again. Likewise, Andre’s scene with Jeff under the awning? Well-executed, not too saccharine, and the kind of emotional beats that the show excels at.

And then there’s Rich. Jeff’s right when he identifies Rich as something of a too-good-to-be-true cypher, but this, much like the Chang plot, feels like a bit of a retread. I don’t learn anything new about Rich that I didn’t know from “Beginner Pottery” or “Epidemiology” nor was there really any development along Jeff’s relationship with Rich. Never for a second did I think that Jeff’s run through the rain would result with him being at Annie’s door, and the show doesn’t sell me completely on why Jeff’s there. Annie likes Jeff for who he is already. Is it necessary for him to be that kind of all encompassing virtuous person, too? Unlike the awning scene, the final scene of the episode is without the necessary emotion to really work, and it weakens the impact of the episode.

All in all, it’s not a great episode for the series, but I’m just glad to have it back.

FINAL THOUGHTS

• Even though there were kind of the background this week, Jacobs, Pudi, Chase, and Glover all had really nice moments through the episode, which tells you just how strong this ensemble is.
• “I couldn’t watch it but it sounded sexy. Laserdisc.”
• “Oh, he apologized. I guess that completely unbangs that stripper.”
• “MEZZANINE?!”
• Loved how the don’t know the names of any of the people at the school and have instead come up with racist and pop culturally based ways of identifying their peers.
• I’m officially ready for an entire episode devoted to Troy and Abed actually filming an episode of Troy and Abed in the Morning. It can be an Aaron Sorkin parody.
• “He has a landline and uses the word ‘album’.”