It’s official, Community just isn’t the same now that Dan Harmon (Community’s singular creator) has been fired from the helm. The show’s fans are passionate and probably always will be, but even they have to admit that if the show were ever going to be cancelled, the end of this season would be an okay stopping point. [You win, NBC, you’ve finally killed off one of your last quality shows!]
Tonight’s episode of Community was a take on the standard body-swap comedies that have been popular throughout the generations. It should have been hilarious to watch Donald Glover’s Troy and Danny Pudi’s Abed swap bodies, but it grew tired quickly, Pudi had a hard time getting Troy down, and——as has become so common this season——-they never really committed to it. A subplot involving Jim Rash’s Dean “taking” the form of Joel McHale’s Jeff Winger was a lot better, but that becomes less impressive when you consider that Rash wrote the episode.
To top it off, the episode saw the dissolution of Troy/Britta dating even though they never dated for as long as the show built up the romance, and they generally handled it extreeeeemely awkwardly. [They rarely ever kissed, never were very intimate, and barely did more than hold hands.] It’s sad that a show that prides itself as being so innovative still can’t help but botch a black man/white woman coupling. This episode: C-….[The much hyped puppet episode a couple weeks back is only B-worthy.]
Hannibal…Hannibal had tonight’s episode yanked because NBC thought it was too “disturbing” for the masses after the Boston bombing (although Molly Shannon’s schoolteacher trying to get kids to kill each other has less than nothing to do with the bombing), but what’s the point of a broadcast horror show that doesn’t push the envelope every once and a while?
Instead, NBC decided to edit out the main plot of the episode and release 30 minutes of poorly edited/non-sequiter footage online. I can’t say the scenes are really that necessary, but it sets up a nice tug-of-war between Hannibal and a good psychologist for the fate of a serial killer’s daughter (one wants to help her, Hannibal wants to mentor her). And Laurence Fishburn’s real-life wife gets introduced as his in-character spouse, which hints that the two are having marital problems. All in all, nice filler that maintains Hannibal’s atmosphere of free-floating dread. Grade: B