Community: Season 3, Episode 3

[kamalloy]

Kinda meh on last night's episode of Community. I'm not really sure I'm liking the characterization of the entire study group as horrible people who can't tolerate anyone but the group. I mean, everyone in the group has flaws, and some of them aren't all that likeable, but Troy, for example, is usually a pretty easygoing and a generally nice guy

Comments

[lilinthra]

I agree about the episode. Something funny (to me) that I noticed: the episode mentions Breaking Bad, has a meth simile, and an Arizona Matchbook Company (AMC). Maybe the writer's room is having some fun or also likes the show.

[kamalloy]

Also, how Starburns (Alex?) got kicked out of bio class.

[loopychew]

There's a whole debate going on in both the AV Club and Sepinwall's comments, where people are split down the middle about this.

I would say this has happened before, with Jack Black back in Season 1 and arguably Chang in Season Two. We've seen that they do, in fact, have some friends and frenemies on campus (Shirley's friend Gary, which the group all hates--though we never see him; Britta's thought-she-was-a-lesbian friend, Enver Gjokaj's war criminal, etc.), but they've always been resistant to the idea of other people specifically in the study group. This is that to a slightly higher extreme, one which they can bounce back from.

[grysar]

Yeah, it isn't necessarily out of character, it just means the bad sides of their characters are emphasized over the good.

I'd say the key thing is that the develop as a result of this rather than just revert to mean.

[kamalloy]

See my comment below; my worry is that they'll downward spiral for too long.

[kamalloy]

Todd never explicitly states that he wants to join the study group, though. It's logical that he'd end up studying with them, being someone's lab partner, but unlike Buddy or Chang (or Rich, although the problem with him was really Jeff's issues regarding Annie), he's not actively looking for an in. I'd have been okay with them ignoring him completely (in fact, I would have found that funny) but unlike the others he hasn't done anything to really earn their ire.

My concern is that they won't bounce back. This happened to some extent last season in Paradigms of Human Memory, which I thought was a great episode, but I'm afraid they'll keep going on this path for a little too long.