Community
Episode 10: Intro to
Knots
By: Carlos Uribe
Community
is a show about the senior year of a group of friends attending
Greendale Community College.
Spoilers
Ahoy!
Wow.
That
was...terrible.
The
only part that this episode got right was bringing Malcolm McDowell
back as Professor Cornwallis. The role he's given to play is one that
plays mind games with the group to test their unity. It's a great
part for McDowell to play as he's able to sell the character
completely. If there was a better script then I imagine that I would
have enjoyed this episode significantly more. It's the sad truth of
the matter that the writing sucked. There's been weak episodes of
Community before. The first three seasons were strong but there were
some duds in the mix. This season has been a lot more inconsistent
but I've generally been able to enjoy it. It's been on the right path
towards getting to the level of quality I expect from this show but
this is clearly an exception. This is flat-out the worst episode of
Community of all time. There's been episodes that I haven't really
found funny but I didn't laugh at a single joke this week. There's
been episodes where the emotional beats don't completely land but
this week it felt empty. I could say with certainty that I've never
actively been bored while watching the Greendale study group and
their wacky adventures until now. This episode was so dull that I
actually started playing Scramble with Friends in the middle of it.
It's bad enough when the jokes aren't landing and it feels forced but
I was so disengaged that I actually stopped paying attention to what
was happening. I had to force myself to finish the episode so that I
could properly write this episode even as I found myself not caring
what happened. Intro to Knots has the misfortune of being a complete
and total failure. I honestly have no idea how the writer of Pillows
and Blankets as well as some other Community episodes could have been
the one who did this script. So why was the episode so bad? Why was I
so disengaged from the plot?
I
don't really know. The humor sucking is clearly a failure in the
writer's room as they couldn't come up with funny jokes. The
emotional beats didn't land because they never felt real. Why was
that? The core of the episode is a solid one. The idea is that the
group have gotten so close that they're going to stick together no
matter what. This is proven by the episode's antagonist. When Annie
finds out they're going to get a bad grade on some group paper, she
invites the Professor to the group's adult Christmas party. This
basically leads to the Professor getting tied by Chang and the group
holds him hostage to try and improve their grade. The Professor
messes with their heads by trying to get them to split up. He claims
he's trying to teach them a lesson but he's clearly just bored. He
wasn't even tied properly as Chang doesn't have the skills to do
that. The Professor could have gotten away at any point but he chose
to stick around to mess with them. Which is a bit odd since his
introduction at the beginning of the season basically promised a
Professor that was actually normal. One who was qualified to teach
history and who was only at Greendale due to an unfortunate
situation. I guess it makes sense that he would eventually fit the
school better but it would have been nice if the season could have
built up to it better. I had kind of forgotten he had existed which
is a problem of pacing with this season. A common theme throughout
the season is how the group needs each other and has grown close.
This is one of many episodes in service of that theme. In this case,
the group has to stick together to collectively raise their grade
rather than only one of them getting an 'A'. As if to oversell the
point, there's a point where the group thinks there's a traitor but
Jeff basically states it doesn't matter because every member of the
group is flawed. That's why they're members of it and that's why
they'll always forgive each other. The professor fails in his attempt
to teach them a lesson but he does give them a 'C+'. So if the core
was strong then what failed?
I
think the episode just tried too hard. It tried to hard with the
meta-humor as Abed was easily overused. Abed goes as far as to get
popcorn because he sees this situation as entertainment. This season
has really struggled with Abed because it can't help but make
on-the-nose jokes about what's happening but it really shows this
week. The humor from the other characters is just as forced. I didn't
laugh a single time because they all were trying to hard. It's the
same with the emotional beats. The episode tried to have a nice
episode where the group sticks together and gets a small victory but
it felt so very manipulative. That the rest of the season has been
going to this well only reveals how beaten down the idea that this
group is tight has become. We get it, they're close. They can
overcome any obstacle. Even when one of them drags the rest down,
they'll forgive each other. So what? It could be argued that Dan
Harmon's version of Community was about the group coming together and
forming bonds. It was about a group of flawed people coming together
and slowly starting to make themselves more functional. This made
Community a good show and it tied into the show's name. It could be
argued this season of Community is taking that version and telling us
that they've reached their destination. The group is tight. The
characters are able to easily forgive the others. They have managed
to grow. What's next? There's always been a hint in the Dan Harmon
version of Community that the group would eventually separate. They
would outgrow it and leave Greendale better human beings because of
that. There is barely a hint of that this season. In fact, I would
go as far as to say that it really hasn't come up and I think it
should start to. It used to be that graduation would remove the bond
that brought them together (Greendale Community College) but this
season (and a bit of the end of the third) clearly shows that they'll
remain friends after they graduate. You get the sense that the group
is together and there's no place to go. This closeness seems to
suggest that graduation will not impact their friendships. Which is
fine but it needs to start showing signs that the group has stopped
needing each other or it needs to have a direction for the group to
go in. The season has struggled with trying to recapture the quality
of the previous seasons but I think a major problem is that there's
very little for them to really go. Would it really be the end of the
world if this was the final season? Not because of the quality but
because there's seemingly nowhere else to go.
People
have been complaining about this season as a sharp downturn in the
series. I don't agree with a lot of the old fans that claim this show
is bad now. It may not be reaching the heights of the original
Community but it's still a generally good show. It's not the same one
but there's no way it could be. These people who complain talk about
the whole season as if it's lost any edge if might have had. They
complain about how they don't laugh, how everything feels forced, and
how it doesn't feel the same. The last point is the only one I could
agree with but the first two have mostly been wrong. That is except
for this episode. Intro to Knots is really the first episode that's
as bad as every former fan claims this season has been.
Other Notes:
Also,
the Christmas episode is not only in April but months after the
Thanksgiving one. Really bad scheduling.
Pierce's
absence was noticed.
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