Community Review Episode 3.9: Foosball and Nocturnal Vigilantism

Posted by Ron Martin on 12.01.2011

Abed's Dark Knight special edition DVD goes missing, Jeff and Shirley spend time together playing foosball and more! 411's Ron Martin checks in with his review of the latest episode of Community!

As Community finishes up it’s half season run for the next month, we’ll see if it can improve on its run in November which was quite spectacular. Like seasons past, Community got off to a slow start, but then nailed a couple episodes and got on a nice roll heading into midseason. Storylines with Jeff and Annie have cooled considerably, while other storylines have picked up even giving us a season arc with Troy and the Air Conditioning Repair Annex. After a season of destruction, the writing staff seems at a loss for what to do with Pierce.

WHAT WE KNOW: From the episode two weeks ago, we learned the Luis Guzman is the most famous graduate from Greendale. Dean Pelton, because of his degree from an actual university, has secretly always thought he was better than the school and hid his arrogance behind enthusiasm for making the school better. Troy and Britta really enjoy hugging each other (a little too much) while possibly only Abed notices. The school now has a new recruitment video for the next 16 years featuring our favorite study group and Chang as Jeff as Dean Pelton.




This was an interesting episode in that it gives a look at what we don’t normally get, backstory for two of the characters. A German constituent takes over the foosball table in the Student Lounge led by Nick Kroll (The League). Jeff takes umbrage to their domination and gets his ass handed to him. While practicing we learn that Shirley has mad skills at foosball. In fact, she gave up the game after she broke some white kid at the YMCA when she was 12. She broke him so bad that he wet himself. We learn that said white kid was Jeff. Thus the adolescent nicknames “Big Cheddar” and “Tinkletown” come into play leading to a foosball battle between Jeff and Shirley which take place inexplicably in anime. After a truce, the two do battle with the Germans for all of a minute before landing the ball in a spot where no player can reach it and walking away from the game better friends for it.

The B-Story revolves around an incredibly limited edition DVD of The Dark Knight purchased by Abed who plans to spend all weekend with Troy watching it. After Annie accidentally steps on it, breaking one of the discs, she sets up a fake robbery to explain the missing disc. Abed goes into Batman mode (complete with costume) to find the culprit leading him to the apartment of their landlord, Rick. They discover Rick has a fetish for women’s footwear, stealing them and stashing them in his closet. Annie frames Rick for the broken DVD. In the end, all is right with the three roommates.

That’s it. That was pretty much the entire episode. The writing staff did a great job of throwing out the one-liners, especially early in the episode. I would have like the anime segment to not have been so abrupt and out of the blue, however. I understand that one on one battle thing, but it would have been nice to have been set up for the segment with some mention of anime beforehand. I love the interaction between Jeff and Shirley as we really haven’t seen these two together since Season One when they became gossip queens and when Jeff was holding back fighting the school bully on Christmas for Shirley’s stake. Anytime we can bring an oddball couple together (which almost always involves Shirley), I’m for it. The flashback and interaction between the two characters before they grew up was a nice touch.

Abed becoming Batman complete with fake voice was fun, but would have been funnier if Parks and Recreation hadn’t already done the full Batman costume earlier this season. However, it was completely in character for Abed to pursue the mystery as the Caped Crusader. Annie is always funny when she tries to be bad. Giving her Troy as co-conspirator only added to the funny.

Unfortunately, Britta and Pierce appear in the episode only in the first and last scene for a total of about five minutes and maybe three lines between them. I have been finding Britta extremely hilarious this season, so that part sucked. Add to that no screen time for Dean Pelton and Chang and this is about as linear as Community gets. Though we do learn that Britta’s cat has one eye and phone so old, when it takes photos there’s a flash cloud.

TAG
Leonard reviews Eugenio’s four cheese frozen pizza which you can purchase for $5.99 at Krogers. It’s a buy!


Tertiary Character Watch

Leonard makes an appearance for a quick one-liner which gives way to the fact that he reviews frozen pizzas on youtube.

Garrett gets creamed and made fun of after losing a game of foosball to the Germans.

Line of the Night



Jeff: Gentlemen, my name is Clarence Thaddeus Foos. My grandfather Fletcher Morton Foos invented this game for one purpose, to let the loudest, dumbest thing happen. It has. The game of foosball is completed. Now you can return to your undoubtedly hearing impaired families.

The 411: It was a funny is unspectacular episode. Annie and Troy's collusion brought most of the laughs. I enjoyed the story between Jeff and Shirley. It was a refreshing moment reminding us that every group member can bond with any other group member. I would have liked a little more Britta and Pierce. As funny as the episode is, I think it's entirely skippable storyline perspective. If you miss this episode, it really won't matter come next week.

Final Score:  7.5   [ Good ]