After Remedial Chaos Theory, I finally forced myself to confront the fact that my levels of enjoyment with Community had reached how I feel about Arrested Development. It was one of the toughest things I've ever had to do, but I'm glad I did it because it actually helps me enjoy Community more. Moving on, last night was the third Halloween episode Community has done and it had a tough act to follow. Not only was it coming right after one of the best episodes the show has ever done (which was aired out of order, hence the similar story structure), but the previous Halloween episode Epidemiology is one of my personal favorite episodes so it had to prove to be a worthy successor to that one also. Luckily, Horror Fiction in Seven Spooky Steps was more than up to the task.
Much like Remedial Chaos Theory, the episode uses a simple set-up to set-up several segments, which show us how each character views themselves and sometimes, each other. In this case, Britta has found out through the psych tests she recently had the gang fill out, that one of them has homicidal tendencies and plans to figure out which one by telling a scary story and seeing how they react. But her story is lame (it is Britta, after all) and everyone else starts telling scary stories. The horror anthology episode is something that The Simpsons perfected eons ago, but Community does it differently, by using each story to highlight things about each character.
So Abed's story is super logical and full of a smart hero (him) making wise choices, Annie's story has is full of lust between her and Jeff, Troy's story is full of things he thinks is awesome, Pierce's is racist, and features him as a well-endowed, well-loved-by-ladies character named Magnum, Shirley's is holier-than-thou, and is about the rapture, and Jeff's is just a half-baked excuse to try to calm everyone down once they know there may be a maniac amongst them. They all fit in with what we know about the characters, and they're all funny, filled with plenty of gags. My favorite story is probably Abed's, which is so logical it loses any tension, but Pierce's delusion, which isn't even horror-themed, is a close second, mainly for the reactions after his story (Jeff: "...What... in the hell... was that?"). I also really enjoyed the ultra-violent ending of Annie's story, where she turns out to be a werewolf and we see her describe in great detail to the group how she rips Jeff apart.
The episode even had a great triple twist ending. First we find that Jeff filled out the test at random, so his is probably the homicidal one. Then we find out that Britta britta'd (a verb the group uses when someone screws up, though Britta tries to unemphasize the magnitude of the mistake it takes to consistute a Britta) the tests by running them through the scanner wrong. And lastly, after the tests are computed properly, it turns out that everyone in the group but one person is crazy. They decide not to figure out who the sane one is, but the audience gets to learn that Abed is the only sane one in the group. That figures. All in all, this was another great episode of Community. It wasn't Remedial Chaos Theory amazing, but it was still a great episode, with lots of great moments. It just goes to show that Community knows how to do a Halloween show.
Grade: Totally Awesome! (Great)
Memorable Moments
-Financial Problems at Greendale: The Dean claims that he rigged the lights to flicker for "Halloween week". When Jeff asks if the lights will work come November 1st, the Dean simply says: "All Saints Day Month".
-Troy: "I heard the dean got taco meat from the army!" If the rest of the night after they went to the real party and the episode ended became Epidemiology all over again, that'd be awesome.
-Britta's narration was clear throughout her entire story. "An escaped mental patient has escaped."
-"Here we are. A log cabin I rented so we could be intimate in safety. Because it's not the fifties, so we don't have to neck in a car at inspiration point". I loved Abed's story, again.
-Britta in Abed's story: "I'm turned on by how logical you are." Abed: "I'm comforted by your shiny hair and facial symmetry."
-Because it doesn't make sense that they would turn on the radio and immediately hear important news, Abed hums a song for several seconds.
-Jeff in Shirley's story: "Oh man, my drugs are wearing off. Who's got more?" Cut to Britta with a big jar labeled Weed saying "Here you go baby".
-Britta doesn't care about the plagues because she lived in New York.
-"Troy and Abed sown together!"
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