TV Recap: Community (03/22/2012)

So NBC's Community finally came back on last Thursday, and I neglected to write about it. Truth is, last week's episode was not all that special. Honestly I was a bit disappointed by it, as were a lot of fans. It wasn't that strong comeback people were hoping for. There was a lot of hype (including from me) during it's "off season"  trying to get more and more people to tune in. Now, if new people were chiming into the show last week for the first time...they would probably call us all crazy and delusional for liking such a show. Don't get me wrong, it had it's moments, but it didn't feel like "Community" and was a bad sample for newbies. It focused a lot on Shirley, and no offense to the actress, but she doesn't make a very amusing storyline. The bright spot for the show however, was that it raked in a season high 5 million + viewers. This was probably due to the fact that no one watches American Idol anymore and The Big Bang Theory was airing a repeat.

I was hoping this week would be better, and it was, it really freaking was. It went back to that quirky Community we all know and love. An episode that focused on the whole cast, which are usually the better episodes. This one was about the gang being invited to a bar mitzvah by a top notch entertainment impressionist, played by French Stuart (3rd Rock From the Sun) who wasn't actually playing French Stuart, just someone who looked a lot like him. Get it? Good. Abed owes a debt to this guy because during their break he hired a bunch of impressionists to re-enact scenes from movies...in classic Abed style. Troy gets the group together to work at this bar mitzvah as impressionists to pay back the debt. Troy plays a young Michael Jackson; Britta plays a post surgery Michael Jackson (HA HA!); Abed plays Jamie Lee Curtis (hilarious!); Shirley plays Oprah (of course); Annie plays Judy Garland; Pierce tries to play Burt Reynolds, but can only pass as a fat Marlon Brando and Jeff plays Ryan Seacrest.

While all this is going on, Jeff has seen a shrink who has prescribed him medication to be more care free and not be so egotistical. Much to Britta's disapproval. She believes he needs his giant ego to function and the meds will cause his ego to explode and he will go insane. So at the party, he is constantly confronted by women saying he's a more handsome version of Ryan Seacrest (the two of them have a comical rivalry on the E! Network). This of course causes an inner and hilarious struggle for Jeff who ends up going all Hulk at the party and stealing a trophy away from boy the bar mitzvah is for. In a side story Chang is told by the Dean that he can hire some students to be his security staff and give them college credits. So in Chang fashion...he enlists a couple of young teen boys.

This episode was miles funnier than last weeks. I don't know what happened last Thursday, but every show is entitled to have their off weeks. But last night was hysterical. I love the idea that Britta looked like a post black Michael Jackson. Now that we are back on track, I can't wait for next week! The sad part though...last nights rating dipped back below 4 million. Ratings in the 3 million is not good folks. Not good at all. I can't see the show surviving much longer. I hope I'm wrong though. It was the most watched comedy on NBC last night though. So that's good right?