And so we have the first genre homage/parody since Dan Harmon's return--- this time, it is of the thriller/suspense/true-crime genre. And, to be honest, it falls a little flat. To its credit, the imitation is spot-on; it hits all the right beats and plays off of all the tropes of the genre but, at the end of the day, Community is a comedy and the jokes themselves fall flat.
Whenever a show has a unique voice, part of that show's appeal is its ability to surprise us, to catch us off guard. Any show, after a number of years, just isn't going to seem as fresh as it once did. Still, this particular episode seems like a wasted opportunity. Abed and Troy, two of the most dependable characters for breathing an air of authenticity to these types of episodes, barely appear. The focus is, instead, shifted to Jeff and Annie and the episode uses the opportunity for a bit of meta-textual commentary on the nature of their relationship.
It terms of the overall plot of the series, the episode is serviceable but, on a line by line basis, it could have been a lot better. The best joke in the episode is a direct rip from 30 Rock (Jeff's comment about liking Dave Matthews because he was alive in the 90's and had "two ears connected to a heart" is almost a direct quote of Jack in an episode of 30 Rock only in regards to the great Phil Collins. In fact, the joke was even funnier on 30 Rock because it was Tracey Jordan who wanted to make a mix CD for Jack containing Phil Collins....). I think the gag with Abed as the slightly-autistic-detective-who-is-a-genius could have been played for a bit more than it was. After all, it may be an overused concept within the genre but it is for that very reason that it needs to be used here.
At least on a conceptual level, this is far better than anything that was attempted last season, yet it doesn't quite match up to the best genre homage/parodies of the previous seasons.
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