Community: Urban Matrimony and The Sandwich Arts

Before I sat down last night to watch the return of Community, I did something important. I curbed my expectations a little. Because ever since Remedial Chaos Theory, my love for the show had been growing and growing very quickly. When the show was taken off the schedule for a couple months, it only grew quicker and greater. I was a full-on crazed fan of the show, and when the show got put back on the schedule I began counting the days to March 15th with crazy anticipation. And so my excitement grew, and grew even wilder when they released that trailer I watched 50 times and spent an entire blog post dissecting. But days before the return, I realized something. My expectations for the first episode back were way too high and if I didn't adjust them, there was a very real chance I could be disappointed. So I sat down, took a breath, and expected a simply great episode of Community. Nothing mindblowing. Not yet anyways. And happily, my expectations were met.

What Happened, Yo!:

-Pierce is trying to be an entrepenuer and find new business ventures to take his company at the same time that Shirley is thinking (with some help from Britta) about opening a sandwich shop in the space where Greendale's coffee shop used to be. They talk about potentially going into business together when Andre enters and proposes (again) to Shirley. Shirley accepts and they plan to marry on their anniversary, which is only a couple days away. Not wanting her to use the wedding as an excuse to avoid following her dreams, Britta says she'll plan the whole wedding if Shirley agrees to work on the Sandwich Shop idea. Shirley is skeptical, but agrees to give Britta a chance. Shirley and Pierce work on their pitch, and Shirley learns that Pierce is so interested in getting a new business venture because he has been fired from Hawthorne Wipes. They propose their idea to the Dean who loves it, but the meeting causes Shirley to be late for the rehearsal, angering Andre who thought the whole point of getting re-married was for things to go back to normal, so Shirley could be a full-time mother again. This causes Shirley and Andre to have a big argument.

-Meanwhile, Jeff is supposed to be working on a speech for the wedding, but is unable to find anything good to say about marriage, which he doesn't believe in. So he starts drinking to try and find something. Britta, on the other hand, is against marriage, which she believes promotes outdated gender stereotypes but turns out to be great at wedding planning. This depresses her, as she begins to think that marriage for her is inevitable and inavoidable. She gets drunk, and when a drunk Jeff declares at the rehearsal that his parents divorce proves that marriage is a lie, she says that she's destined to get married and they decide to marry each other. Shirley and Andre interced and as they explain to Jeff and Britta what it takes to get married, they reconcile, with Andre accepting that Shirley has changed, and they get married right there. Shirley finds out from the Dean however, that while the board loved the sandwich shop idea, they've rented the space out to Subway. Meanwhile a drunk Pierce is seen laughing at his father's grave about his new business.

-Also meanwhile, Troy and Abed get offended when they are asked to be normal for the wedding, but then they decide to do it, spending a full day dewhimsifying themselves in the Dreamatorium. Normal Troy and Abed wind up being more offputting then regular Troy and Abed however. At the wedding, they seem to have resigned themselves to normal behaviour, when Troy sees Annie's Boobs (The monkey), and realizes that being weird is who they are. He convinces Abed to snap back and the two become weird once more.

I Liked This: Urban Matrimony And The Sandwich Arts was probably the most normal episode of Community in a while. Even most of the non-high concept episodes this season had some crazy element like The Air Conditioning School in Advanced Gay or the Anime sequence in Foosball and Nocturnal Vigilantism but this episode had none of that (unless we count Troy and Abed being normal but even that wasn't wackier than anything you'd see in the first part of season 1.). And that's fine. A normal episode draws in viewers and can still be very entertaining. Which this was. Shirley got her most significant story so far in the season, and the idea of her and Pierce trying to open a sandwich shop together is a promising one. Her remarriage to Andre was also something that has been coming for a while and I was glad that the episode let them come to an understanding and get married, instead of having them break up so Shirley could pursue her dreams. And Britta was on fire this week. The irony in having her being good at planning weddings was gold and I loved her lamenting that she'll probably get married someday. Also, the entire exchange that leads to her and Jeff almost getting married (again! Remember Anthropology 101?) was great. And Troy and Abed trying to be normal is one of those plots that's almost impossible to screw up (or 'britta' if you prefer) and proved that these guys can even make trying to be normal the comic highlight of an episode. I also liked how Pierce's dead father's hairpiece and the Kickpuncher costume made appearances at the conclusion of Troy and Abed's "de-weirding" session.

But...: Andre's sudden anger was necessary to create conflict for the third act, but it came out of the blue and felt a little out of place in the episode.

The Bottom Line: Urban Matrimony and The Sandwich Arts probably wasn't what people were expecting the first episode back to be, but it was quite enjoyable and a great return for Community.

Grade: 82% (Great)

Memorable Moments

-Andre: “I’ve loved you since there was a Soviet Union and one Damon Wayans.”

-Abed: “It’s cool that Andre and Shirley are going to get married again. There’s a whole generation of viewers who didn’t get to see the original.” Troy: “Let’s hope it’s more of a Bale than a Kilmer situation.”

-Jeff: “Someone tell Britta what an analogy is.” Britta: "I know what it is! It's a thought.. with another thought's hat on."

-Britta: “My 9th grade English teacher used to say ‘There will always be a reason not to follow your dreams.’ At the time, he meant I was under the age of consent, but his words still apply.”

-Annie: "[Jeff,] You once convinced Troy that turtlenecks were made of turtles’ necks.”

-Britta: "This may surprise you Annie, but I come from a long line of wives and mothers." Annie: "Many do."

-Britta: "I refused to give Santa a Christmas List because I didn't want to depend on a man for anything."

-Annie: "The 'Webster's Dictionary defines' intro is The Jim Belushi of speech openings: it accomplishes nothing, but everyone keeps on using it, and no one knows why."

-Even a normal episode of Community needs at least one meta joke. Troy: “There are a lot of layers to this.”  Abed: “It’s almost too conceptual to follow, but I love it.”