Community: Introduction to Film

While it usually takes between a half and a whole season to determine whether or not a show has any lasting power, it's a lot easier to tell whether or not it's actually entertaining. Community will have to give us a reason to keep tuning in after five or six episodes, but for right now it just needs to convince us that it's funny enough to stay on NBC's powerful Thursday night lineup. I wasn't sure until this week that it had legs, but there were a few moments tonight when I saw evidence of a truly strong half-hour comedy.

Admittedly, the whole college setting for Community is rather thin. It barely surfaces in most of the stories, which is not to say I really want this to be a satire of college life anyway. I'm happy enough to get to know these characters and enjoy the absurdity that follows them while accepting the university as a stock setting. But while most of the jokes involve Abed being weird or Jeff being snarky, the few bits that rely on the education premise are frequently hilarious.

In this episode, John Michael Higgins guest stars as an accounting professor who has embraced every stereotype of the convention-bucking educator and then turned the volume up on the persona to extremes. He opens has class by telling his students to throw their text books away (books he presumably required them to purchase) and to "seize the day" no matter what they do. For anyone who ever had a teacher who thought it was a good idea to base their professional demeanor on Dead Poets Society, scenes like that are sadly familiar and frequently funny. When Higgins implores his students to stand on their desks because "why not?", a poor girl promptly breaks her ankle when her desk topples over. It's the simple jokes that are always the best.

But Jeff can't lie his way through this fluffy nonsense class. Higgins sees Jeff for what he is, a slacker trying to coast through the semester with no intention of day-seizing. Despite his best efforts (flying a kite, jumping rope, playing daddy to Abed), Jeff can't quite convince his sunny prof that he's living his life to the fullest.

As for Abed, he gets this week's B-plot when he inadvertently gets Britta to pay for a film class his father won't let him take. What results is a short movie using Jeff and Britta's cruel remarks about Abed to demonstrate the divorce of his real parents. This puts something of a sappy cap on the episode, but it deepened a character who very well could have remained a clown with no inner life.

I also want to give points to Chevy Chase, who had his first really great moment in the series. When Troy keeps getting made fun of for his effeminate sneeze, Pierce sits him down and explains how a man can guide any social situation in his favor with the right kind of sneeze. It was an excellent piece of small-frame comedy that leaned on Chase's performance while also demonstrating that Pierce isn't as dumb and wild as he seems.

Best Moment: The sneeze demonstration. It was a real classic bit.

Biggest Laugh: The dangers of standing on desks. Between the ironic timing and the core of truth, it was a real laugh-out-loud moment.

Episode Rating: 4/5- This was by far the funniest episode of Community to date, but I'm not so keen on how the show veers into sweetness. I'd prefer things to stay silly and at least a little cutting instead of shoehorning a soft core in the end. All in all, I'm glad I'm sticking with this show for now.