[rating=5.00]
This season of Community has been missing a whimsy that was lost long ago to the “gas leak year” of the series. This week’s “Laws of Robotics & Party Rights” did its best to bring back that familiar Harmon spirit, but fell short as the streaming community let out a collective “Meh”. Ultimately focusing (yet again) on the relationships between main cast members, “Laws of Robotics” is (…yet again) nothing more than a shell of what the beloved Community once was.
In the beginning, the episode does its best to showcase the newest bit of technology keeping society from ever having to interact with one another. Something Community could surely make interesting, or at the least, demonstrate a successful interaction outside of cultural norms. The school has been commissioned to allow inmates from a nearby prison attend classes at the college via tele-robots, i.e., iPads on roaming sticks. Initially on board with the project (there’s $300,000 on the line) Jeff quickly grows disillusioned by the roaming baby-proofed inmates. Only one of which causes guff, and portrays an actual personality, Willy, who of course, Jeff does not get along with immediately.
Willy is a convicted murderer who is aware of his sins, and does his best to “carry them” every day. The students are immediately smitten with the inmate, along with Dean Pelton who has an obvious crush on the man. Willy’s feelings about Jeff are quickly made apparent when he tries to kill him by pushing him down a flight of stairs using his three pound tele-robot. Eventually, Jeff retaliates and actually throws the tele-robot down the same flight of stairs effectively “killing” the image of his hated opposition. Jeff is then forced to take a paid sabbatical, because, why the hell not.
While it’s obvious the writers were doing their best to bring back the specific quirk needed to keep a show like Community alive, it again fell short. The storyline of a jealous Jeff vying for the attentions and approval of the Dean and his peers is tired. Where is the Jeff of old who could care less about anything aside from something that benefits only him? Yes, Willy was primed to take over Jeff’s teaching position while he was suspended. But Jeff had a paid two week vacation that in the old days he would have welcomed. It still would have been the group that eventually got him to ask for his job back, but not until he took a quick trip to Costa Rica or at the very least New Mexico. Additionally, the inmate Willy, is portrayed by an actor who was once on Abed’s favorite TV show Cougartown, something he failed to recognize as being a weird blip in the universe. Abed once had a walk on role to the show as himself, and the fact that he doesn’t even mention the inmate maybe looking like the actor is enough to call it quits on the writing staff this season.
On an adjacent storyline lies Britta. After finishing up midterms she requests to throw a party at the apartment that she now shares with Abed and Annie. Britta was once the sophisticated(ish), brink of maturation one of the group who had plans to help those who needed it. Now she lives with two community college lifers who are younger and less experienced, but now somehow more interesting than Britta. The party storyline serves as a reminder that Annie has the upper hand in whatever dynamic the writers are trying to shove down our throats. Increasingly the charm that once surrounded the innocence of Troy and Abed is becoming tainted by an Abed who has no place in this Community. Instead of carrying on the tradition of Abed, the pop culture fanatic and probable genius, he becomes an adult who seems mentally handicapped, or at the very least afflicted with a bit of Asperger’s disease.
Britta eventually gets her party, tricking the easily fooled Abed into thinking it was a movie that needed to be filmed. The scene is played out in their apartment all night, and again the next morning as Abed does his best to capture the moments on film. Britta cannot sleep, and immediately regrets tricking Abed as she now has to deal with repercussions like an adult. Annie ends up saving the day, reminding all involved that she has the power. Again, yes, Britta has always been slightly immature, but now seems to be emotionally aging backwards. Abed’s quick falling victim to Britta’s plan to pull off a party is not really in character for him. Instead of questioning the obvious ruse, he goes for it head first, filming scenes over and over for a party that never stops because there’s “no tomorrow”. Perhaps this is an observation by the character, and subsequently the writers, that the series just isn’t working anymore. Thus the no tomorrow.
By the end of the episode after the usual resolution and “I’m sorrys” are said, the audience has nothing left to give. The close of “Law of Robotics” should be a funny Abed based joke (he overrides the system and projects his face on each of the tele-robots) but instead it plays into the new Abed. Possibly handicapped, and lesser without his co-hero Troy. Not one joke in the episode landed with the timing it required, and it’s a shame. The overall story arc screams Community, and though it had good intentions, there was no saving it. At this point one can only hope the entire season is nothing more than a fever dream brought on by Abed’s refusal to grow past his community college days. At least then some of the character’s actions would make a little sense as they would be a part of his psyche playing out as idealized versions of the Community group of old.
Yes, change is scary, but in this case, Community should have perhaps stayed in the bins of NBC’s backlog as it died off with some dignity. At this point, unless there’s a shift in what the series has to offer its fans, it might just be time to write it off and start anew with a fresh batch of summer programming.
