Community 2×15 – “Early 21st Century Romanticism”

In this week’s Community, Jeff takes a break from the group after an angry disagreement about the Barenaked Ladies, Britta becomes friends with a woman she thinks is a lesbian and rubs it in the face of everyone who is less open-minded than she, Troy and Abed like the same woman, and Pierce hallucinates about Andy Dick.

The Feminist in Me Thinks… The writers continue to use Britta perfectly.  She hasn’t had a prominent storyline in her own in a long time and usually just exists to comment on the other characters, but here, she was so delightfully smug on her hipster pedestal, announcing to the entire study group that she had a lesbian friend.  The twist that her friend Paige was not, in fact, gay, but hanging out with Britta to further her own hipster credentials, was the icing on the cake, and I enjoyed watching Annie and Paige’s “Annie” friend looking on with horror and amusement.  Of course, the writers had to throw in a little fan-service there when Annie looked like she would have kissed Britta – not that that’s the first time they’ve dipped into that well (that’s what she said).

On another note, I think Community is the only show that can get away with a “bros before hos” plot and not leave me annoyed.  Of course, Troy and Abed would eventually like the same woman…and of course, they would only come to realize that they only needed each other and their bromance was more important than any woman.  There was a time when I liked the rise of the “bromance” because I thought it was sweet that men were encouraged to openly show affection towards one another, but I started hating it when too many of the bromance movies seemed to boil down to: “Bitches.  Amirite?”  I don’t like bromances that make women seem irrelevant, or reduce them to those tramps that come between two guys.  In this episode, though, Troy and Abed never had a moment of hostility towards each other because they pursued the pretty librarian together.  And they didn’t turn her into an evil skank by the end; she just simply wasn’t right for Troy because she couldn’t understand Abed.

I was also very amused by Troy saying that the right woman was out there for them. Clearly, Troy and Abed need to date a pair of women who have the same kind of weirdly sweet relationship as they do, or they need to date the same woman.

The Comedian in Me Thinks… Aside from Troy having a suitcase filled with tacos (why not?), my favorite moments from the episode came from Jeff.

Troy: “What do you do when you and your best friend want to ask the same girl to the Valentine’s Dance but neither of you have dibs because you both fell in love with her at first sight?”  Jeff: “Well, I don’t believe in dibs, or love at first sight, or love, or best friends, or doing things.”

Wondering if the other members of the study group follow his lead and look up to him because of his height: “Do huddled masses mistake me for the Statue of Liberty?”

And, of course, the whole argument about the Barenaked Ladies, where Jeff wonders why people are so weirdly defensive about that band.

I’m also tentatively looking forward to seeing what they’re doing with Pierce.  He’s been too much for me to handle in the past two episodes, but if we can chalk up his extra-strange behavior to a painkiller addiction…maybe that can work.  On one hand, it strikes me as lazy.  On the other hand, he’s recently had to face his own mortality and lost his mother.  Was this a character arc all along?  I’ll be quite pleased if it is.  Either way, that image of him passed out on the bench was disturbing and portentous.  (I also loved that he didn’t have an off-the-cuff remark, but a “weirdly supportive” prepared statement about Britta being a lesbian).

The Verdict: I liked many parts of this episode but found myself underwhelmed.  Each individual subplot worked well for me but I don’t think they worked well together.  Huh.