Community’s “Advanced Gay” and the Season 1 Problem

Heart attack or clever way to get out of this episode?

After two stellar episodes from Community, “Advanced Gay” pales in comparison. “Remedial Chaos Theory” and “Horror Fiction in Seven Spooky Steps” exemplify what is best about the show, a comedy that is not afraid to push the boundaries of how stories are told on television without sacrificing the status and growth of its characters. Yet “Advanced Gay” seemed to fall back on the tired, unimaginative threads of Pierce’s conservative social views, Jeff’s Daddy Issues (still left unresolved in any way), and Britta’s ill-informed overreaching. But most disappointing is the resuscitation of the “Look! Community college students! They take their studies so seriously. Aren’t they quaint?” approach to storylines, which I was hoping the writers had gotten over by the end of season 1.

For some context, let’s take a look back.


 

“Remedial Chaos Theory”, aired on 10/13/11

This episode epitomizes what has made this comedy one of the best for the past couple years, starting with “Modern Warfare” at the end of the first season. Like its predecessors, the episode takes advantage of the fashionable physical theory of Many Worlds in order to tell its story in an edgier way. However, its ultimate goal is to help the audience gain a deeper understanding of the characters, by revealing what is essential to these characters and what is merely forced on them by circumstance.

Take Pierce (Chevy Chase), for example. Pierce managed to tell his Eartha Kitt story in every timeline (my favorite telling? “You know who got it in the long run? Eartha Kitt when I nailed her in the airplane bathroom"), showing his omnipresent desire to be popular in the group. Yet what is even more revealing is that as the frequent antagonist for the group, and the member most likely to offend in whatever way possible, doesn't give Troy (Donald Glover) the horrifying troll doll in every scenario. Rather, external circumstances that varied across the parallel worlds determined whether he would give that troll to Troy. In the worlds in which he learned that his friend is grateful to him for his help and cares for him, too, Pierce is actually considerate of Troy’s well-being and hides the damn fire-starter. The writers have taken advantage of the sideways worlds set-up to explore how much of Pierce's antagonism is actually natural to Pierce, and how much is forced out of him by his relationship to the study group.

The episode is even able to find a resolution which ties the distinct worlds together without forcing a message down its throat. In the last iteration, Abed (Danny Pudi) argues that there's too much chaos and probability already governing their lives, and that they should try, whenever possible, to choose their own fate, for better or worse. So instead of rolling the die to determine who picks up the pizza and setting off an uncontrollable chain of events, the group chooses to send out Jeff (Joel McHale). The result? Pizza for everyone and the concluding shot of everyone dancing to "Roxanne" like the motley family of nerds they are.

(Side note: this episode was written by Chris McKenna, who also wrote the likewise fantastic second season episodes “Paradigms of Human Memory” and “Intermediate Documentary Filmmaking.)

“Horror Fiction in Seven Spooky Steps”, aired on 10/27/11

While not quite as high concept as the last episode, “Horror” is still a well-made episode that for once is an actually funny Halloween-themed episode. Each character is given the opportunity to tell a horror story, and thus the writers are able to both satire pop-horror staples and further draw out their characters. Annie’s (Alison Brie) story parodies Twilight-esque vampire romance, but in keeping with her ambitions, independence, and self-motivation (on the flip side, read: repressed aggression), Annie turns into a were-wolf and devours the vampire. Of course, she also has to teach him to read before she kills him.

Featuring a cameo by Annie's boobs. But alas, not Annie's Boobs.

It’s the details that gave this episode its richness. Each parody is actually made into a short film, and we see hints and clues at new aspects of these characters without them being thrown into our faces. Shirley (Yvette-Nicole Brown) may be a loud and proud warrior for Christ with a sweet voice, and a divorcee with three children, but I never actually thought about how innocent she still is. For that reason, it was particularly funny seeing her literally hell-bent drug addict Britta (Gillian Jacobs) dumping a container of pot leaves on her chest and getting high from it. Also in this episode were a few more signs that Abed might actually be a human male, as he casts himself as the romantic lead opposite Britta in his own slasher flick.

In the same way that Pierce was humanized in “Chaos,” I likewise found Britta to be a bit more human in this episode. It is easy for her to be a screechy, pretentious yet ill-informed, unfeeling liberal stereotype if she is not treated carefully, but in this episode, she was able to be a bit dim and over-reach but still be caring and at least agreeable. It’s actually cute in this episode, that she has NPR podcasts on her iTunes but still mispronounces “macabre.” 

And then “Advanced Gay” happened.

“Advanced Gay”, aired on November 3, 2011

Suddenly, our characters seem to flatten and lose dimensions. Pierce and Shirley are older than the show’s target audience, and therefore must both be homophobic, and in Pierce’s case, racist! Time to throw in some ironic homophobic jokes! And since the show is self-aware and left-leaning, it is okay to throw in stereotypical depictions of gay men, naturally. 

The B-story this week is about the seduction of Troy towards the career fields of plumbing and air-conditioning, which saw the revival of the Good Will Hunting parody of Troy as a genius repairman. This plot just feels cheap, that the genius that community college students can aspire to is in repair work. This thread is one that I had hoped the show had abandoned, this attitude of mocking community college as opposed to “real” college, as if the writers had some sort of superiority complex. This show works best when they cast Greendale as existing in some hyper-reality, home of the sweet but occasionally dim and extremely odd, who could point out the absurdities of the real world. It’s a similar to the successful move that Parks and Recreation made at the end of its first season when it abandoned its premise as the government version of The Office. Also, if you are going to cast John Goodman as a bad-ass assistant dean, come up with something more clever for him to partake in than a flat movie parody that you already made on the same last season!

Britta is back to her overreaching, screetchy, holier-than-thou attitude this week (“In my psych class I’m learning about this thing called the Oedipal complex …”). She immediately starts diagnosing Pierce and Jeff with daddy issues, and while she may not be wrong, the writers need to be more careful with how unlikeable they make her character. I'm also becoming concerned that the writers don't know that if they continuously refer to Jeff’s strained relationship with his father, it they need to actually pull the trigger and SHOW him. It has been clearly stated, many, many times over the years that Jeff and his father have issues to work out. Now it’s time to show the audience what it’s all about, or let it go.

Even God hates Britta

Final thoughts? I’m going to hope that this week’s episode was an anomaly, because this season has been consistently well-made. The biggest problem with this episode is that it just wasn't funny. Set aside lack of character development or insight, I barely laughed once (when the Reverend at the funeral said to Britta, "You're the worst"). But I trust that the show will be back to form next week.