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Showing posts with label Joel McHale. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Joel McHale. Show all posts

Saturday, November 5, 2011

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.