COMMUNITY: Jeff and Annie Need to Hook Up Already

I’ve been looking forward to seeing Chang in his new job as campus security ever since last week, and overall I liked where Community went with the idea. Chang is a difficult character. He is easily the cartooniest person on the show, which makes his plotlines harder to get behind. While everyone gets their turn acting crazy, there’s never the question that they’re still real people with feelings inside. Chang has never felt like much of a person, just a caricature. Often that’s exactly what I love about him, but other times it makes me want to take a cheese grater to my face. So what the show does is smack Chang in the face with just what exactly a security officer does: they call the police when something bad happens. How does that reality taste, Ben?

It goes without saying that Chang feels crushed and defeated. All he wants is to arrest someone and beat them with his flashlight, but he can’t. Enter Britta. She’s come to realize just how unactivist-like she’s become since coming to Greendale, so in her typical overcompensating way she lashes out at the first authority figure she walks past–Chang. The result is a bizarre romantic comedy plot that only gets a few scenes, but it had me laughing the most out of everything “Geography of Global Conflict” had to offer. The repeated use of that Lionel Richie song just sent me other the edge into hysterics. Of course, it’s never really about love with these two. They serve as means to an end for each other. Without Chang, Britta has no one to rebel against, and without Britta, Chang has no one to detain. It’s twisted and weird, but satisfying. My one complaint was the ending. There comes a point where things get too weird (and not in a good way), and this storyline definitely went there with its resolution.

The other storyline involving Annie’s evil Asian twin, Annie Kim, had less clear high and low points. I enjoyed having the whole study group participating (sans Britta and Chang), but there were times where what was happening just didn’t mesh. Much of it had to do with what was happening between Jeff and Annie, who can’t quite come to grips with their attraction to one another. I really don’t want the show to drag out the chemistry between the two. It’s at the point where just drawing attention to how inappropriate a relationship between them would be is making it an undesirable match. They’re both hot and clearly want each other, so why try so hard to make it creepy? It’s only funny for so long before it’s boring.

The Model U.N.-off provided some good gags, particularly from Troy realizing Georgia is a country as well as a state, but then refusing to change his accent. Martin Starr guested as Professor Gligoris, a perfect addition to the Greendale faculty. He fit in instantly with the show’s other characters, unlike last week’s Professor Kane. Starr, who is no stranger to rather geeky roles, wonderfully played Gligoris’ zany love for political science.

I liked what Community was trying to do with the episode. Our characters have changed a lot since the show’s first season, but not so much that they’re immune to falling back into their old ways. They can’t ignore their instincts forever, which is why Britta lashed out at Chang, why Annie wanted to destroy her Asian twin, and why Jeff will eventually hook up with Annie. How do you overcome what’s hardwired in our brain? I think that’s what this season hopes to explore.

Quotes:

“Not Asians! Women!”

“The rules to which I would have to spend the evening devising.”

“Uruguay kindly requests that Somalia stops pronouncing it Ur-a-gay.”

“You’re acting like a girl and not in a hot way.”