After the epic episodes of Community that we’ve had lately, this one seemed a little flat — not that it wasn’t good; it just doesn’t quite compare to the epic Goodfellas episode or last week’s Action-Adventure. This week, we settled back into our normal sitcom station. It’s final exams time at Greendale, and the gang is trying to pass Spanish 101.
What’s interesting about this episode is that we find an unconventional show trying to deal with standard sitcom conventions. Every high school show in existence that has made it past two or three seasons, has to come up with new ways to have all of the stars end up at the same college. Similarly, Community needs to figure out a way to keep the Spanish study group together.
I wouldn’t say that this episode was shocking, but it did manage to take somewhat of an unconventional turn. It was beginning to look very sitcom-y (in fact, I think that was kind of the point), but instead of going the route that they set up — having everyone fail the class because Annie sabotaged them– they just dropped Spanish altogether, in favor of Anthropology.
This is great for a couple of reasons: Getting Senor Chang fired and having him enroll in Greendale as a student allows him to have more realistic interactions with the group. Ken Jeong is a real win for this show, so the more Senor Chang, the better. I just hope they don’t start calling him something other than Senor Chang. I think Annie did at the end of the episode, but it’s not really something I want to hear any more of.
The other thing that makes this a great idea is the fact that not only do we get more of Senor Chang, we’re also potentially getting a new character: the anthropology teacher. Will he or she be their nemesis like Chang, or more of a friend/love interest? Whatever they decide, it opens up more possibilities for season two.
Speaking of possibilities, I’m really kind of curious as to whether or not the whole “Troy as a plumber” thing was merely a way to work a Good Will Hunting reference into the episode, or if it’s something that’s going to pop back up. Same goes for Pierce’s fling with the mean Spanish teacher, although I expect that that was more of a one-off type of thing, uh, as it were.
Clacked by Kona Gallagher 
on May 13, 2010 @ 22:11 EST5EDT
