After the triumph of last week's episode, there is only one way to describe this episode: disapointing. The original episode of Advanced Dungeons and Dragons is one of my favorite, if not my most favorite, episode of Community; this episode wasn't even an homage--- it was simply a pale imitation.
The original episode had real heart to it; even though the plot centered around a periphery character, "Fat" Neil, it managed to have some real emotional depth to it. Basically, Neil stood in for every nerdy kid who was ever picked on for their nerdy habits. In that episode, he got to be the hero. However, this 'sequel', despite being built around what should have been a more poignant concept (the relationship between Hickey and his estranged son) just felt phoned in.
More importantly, it just wasn't that funny. The original D & D episode wasn't just funny because of the stylistic homage to Lord of the Rings and other fantasy films, it had genuinely brilliant bits, like the montage of Annie, playing as "Hector the Well-Endowed" describing (in what was apparently great detail) giving Abed's 'Elf-Maiden' a night of pleasure (Donald Glover taking notes was priceless). The most this episode had to offer was more of Dean Pelton's unrequited man-crush for Jeff (which, quite frankly, has gotten a little old and, in this episode, just felt tired).
On top of that, David Cross! How can you have David Cross and be this unfunny? He was severely underused in this episode.
Perhaps my expectations were a little too high for this one but, when you go back to the well of one of your most beloved episodes, you better be able to do something a little better than this.
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