Tuesday, June 2, 2015

Community - Basic Crisis Room Decorum


The latest crisis hits Greendale Community College when Annie (Alison Brie) calls an emergency 3am meeting of the Save Greendale Committee after learning that City College has created an attack against their school. The ad attacks Greendale for allowing a dog to get a four-year degree at the college, a proposition several members of the group believe may actually be possible and no one is able to immediately dismiss.

While Annie wants to lead with the truth and take the higher ground, Jeff (Joel McHale) enlists the help of Abed (Danny Pudi) and the others to discredit the story by poking holes in the idea that the facts about the dog are circumspect and create an attack ad aimed at the dog rather than offer any attempt to defend Greendale (which Jeff argues is indefensible). With tensions boiling Annie even threatens to leave Greendale over the group's tactics which inspires an entirely new response from the school.

The fact that a dog could graduate from Greendale (if only he'd paid his library fees) is a storyline that fits right into Community's wheelhouse. Jeff's reaction is typical Jeff leading to the episode's second ridiculous attack ad while Annie, in the absence of Shirley (Yvette Nicole Brown), is left all alone to defend the moral high ground. "Basic Crisis Room Decorum" also includes the funniest B-plot of the season involving Dean Pelton (Jim Rash) texting a Japanese teenager who is pretending to be Jeff leading the Dean to continue to make odd gestures to Jeff (such as bringing him cans of olives he "asked" for) which Winger couldn't possibly understand. The subplot has a nice payoff as well in the epilogue leading to the strongest episode of the Sixth Season so far.

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