Community: Chairs and Lava

Tonight's episode was an attempt a former glories--- elements of "Modern Warfare" (aka 'Paintball) and "Pillows and Blankets" were both fused together to create a spoof of post-apocalyptic epics like Mad Max, Book of Eli, and The Hunger Games. Abed sets the apocalypse in motion by setting up an epic game of  "The Floor is Lava", complete with "new names" for things (centipeding is working in teams to move chairs around to avoid touching the floor) and various factions ("The Locker Boys", a group of punks who avoid touching the floor by hiding in lockers and ambushing those who happen to pass by, are, of course, led by Chang--- while Shirley has created a sort of 'oasis' by building a fort out of chairs and tables for weary travelers).

You have to give the show credit for not recalling previous episodes without out-and-out repeating them.  At the same time, this episode doesn't work quite as well. Much of this is do to the fact that it feels far to early in the season for an episode like this; we're not even quite halfway through the season yet and concept episodes like this either work best as either the finale or the penultimate episode for the season. However, this was unavoidable as Donald Glover's departure forced their hand.

The emotional core of the episode is separation of everyone's favorite bromance: Troy and Abed. Honestly, it doesn't seem to have the emotional heft that it should have at this point. Once again, while I feel that this season has been spot-on with its genre/concept episodes in terms of look, feel, and pacing, this episode feels lacking in substance to me.

I also can't buy Professor Hickey's all-in approach to the game; maybe I'm just too used to Jonathan Banks as the no-nonsense Mike on Breaking Bad but I just couldn't quite suspend my disbelief for that one.  That's not to say that if I had been given a few more episodes to get to know the character that it could have become more plausible but, based on what we've seen of the character thus far, it just felt a little too silly for me.

Again, it was not a bad episode--- it was merely a competent one; I still chuckled at "Troy and Abed in a Bubble!" and the credits big with Troy and Levar Burton was adorable, but I have come to expect better from Harmon and company.  I had hoped that they would rise above the mediocrity of last season but, thus far, they are only matching it.