Community: Bondage and Beta Male Sexuality

Last night's episode was another example of a solid, if not remarkable, episode.  The show continues to delve deeper into developing its characters (something Harmon is much better at than his substitutes from last season) and, while I appreciate character growth as much as the next guy, I just don't feel the show manages to be as funny as it used to be. 

Is this just an adjustment to the loss of the comedic genius that was Donald Glover? Perhaps.  The writers had made it common practice to end scenes by simply writing, "and then Donald does something funny."   Which leads me to another problem that stems from Troy's absence:  what do we do with Abed?  It seems the answer is to try pairing him up with other cast mates to serve as his foil.

In this episode, it was Jonathan Bank's Professor Buzz Hickey.  After Abed destroys some of his prized duck cartoons, Hickey chains him to a file cabinet so that he will miss a screen of the Kick-Puncher reboot.  The scenario ultimately leads to us seeing a softer side of the grizzled Hickey and an unlikely bonding (predicted by Abed earlier in the episode) between the mismatched pair.  Predictable? Maybe. But, then again, hasn't that always been at the heart of Community?

I have long questioned whether or not Community should be excused for its use of cliche since it is often the first to call itself out for its own use of cliches; the show has always been about deconstructing popular tropes and, since it is a sit-com, the tropes most commonly addressed are those associated with the sit-com.

The show has always toyed with the "will they/won't they" dynamic of the Jeff/Britta relationship and, while that has been on the sidelines for the last couple of seasons, this episode managed to both rekindle that relationship as well as begin to explore, for the first time really, the friendship between Jeff Winger and John Oliver's Professor Ian Duncan (a friendship that we have known about since the very first episode).  Does this mean that Oliver will now become a more integral member of the cast? If so, I'm all for it.

How these latest developments will play out remains to be seen but, thus far, this season has failed to impress me.  At the same time, it hasn't exactly been bad either; here's to hoping that, as usual, they're saving the best material for this season's home stretch.