[rating=6.00]
Have you ever had a recurring nightmare that slips back into your psyche regardless of all the triggers and fast food you avoid every night? You know it’s not totally indicative of your inner thoughts, but there’s still that creeping feeling that you will live in this nightmare forever as you’ve probably lost all sense of self to fear? I can only imagine that’s what it’s like to be Dan Harmon right now. The downtrodden material that I will hereby refer to as “The Series formally known as Community” finally acknowledged some of the problems the show is currently facing this week. Unfortunately for the most part, “Basic Email Security” continued the mediocre shamble that is T.S.F.K.A Community.
The Dean, having trouble with his email, flags down Elroy who’s cruising through the hallway wearing his best “I’m the IT guy, don’t talk to me” grimace. Turns out, Greendale has been hacked. The hacker demands Greendale cancel a comedy performance by a well-known crude racist performer who goes by the name “Gupta Gupti Gupta” (Jay Chandrasekhar) or, face the wrath of the Hacker who will leak the information of everyone who attends or works at the school. As a show of dominance they leak the lunch lady’s emails, which turn out to be incredibly racy. The school flocks to the emails, going through her personal information as an entertainment source. The gang finds the whole thing enthralling, except for Britta, who maintains that the lunch lady’s human rights are being violated. Though she is unhappy about Gupta coming to perform at Greendale, there’s a general feeling that the hacker is more in the wrong than a crude comedian. The group stands by Britta, doing their best to make things right by putting their own private lives on the line for the sake of free speech.
After a press conference standing up to the hackers and a promise to stay off the internet (and away from possible leaked information about themselves), the group meets back up in the cafeteria the following day to get ready for the upcoming Gupta performance. The moment the scene started it was evident that Britta and Annie had read one another’s emails. When Frankie arrives it becomes all the more apparent. The ladies are cold to one another, giving the side-eye at any available moment. As everyone else begins to filter in it comes out that yes, they all broke their vow and read one another’s personal files. Chang’s entrance seals their betrayal as he immediately begins throwing people under the bus for speaking ill of him. By the time the Dean brings Gupta in they are about to rip one another apart, secrets being spilled and confronted left and right. An additional threat is made by the hacker, prompting the group to reconcile, again standing together for the sake of free speech. Gupta begins to awkwardly perform in front of one audience member (recurring favorite Neil), and the rest of the school bangs on the door loudly outside to stop the comedian as their information is now at stake. Gupta continues, and the leak is made.
The episode felt like it was maybe ten minutes long. Serving as more of a Community vignette than a full day, secrets and tensions bubbled to the surface of the character’s lives in a way that is reminiscent of Mean Girls. Someone is playing bully, pitting everyone against each other in a power play to win control. Rather than a comedic scene, we’re subjected to a lot of yelling and one off throw away jokes that you’d miss if you blink too fast. What was an opportunity to explore and make fun of a realistic problem plaguing modern society becomes more of a burden, wasting the Jay Chandrasekhar cameo in favor of sub-par storytelling.
By the end of the episode the entire school’s information is leaked, putting everyone on an even playing field. Annie makes an off handed comment about “not seeing how they’ll bounce back from this one”. Abed then follows up with a comment about this personal information hack being only one of a three part series of the group’s past, beginning with the loss of Annie’s pen during “The Golden Age” of earlier episodes. Frankie then asks about Troy and Pierce’s absences, mentioning Troy’s mysterious disappearance after a “boat trip” and Pierce “masturbating himself to death”. With this comment she is confronting both the characters and the audience with the fact that what is happening in this moment of Greendale history, is now their lives (and the new life of Community). “If that’s one you guys bounced back from we might be ok” Frankie adds, reminding us of the implausible circumstances that once made up a passable half hour of comedy.
Here lies the possible silver lining in the darkness of this streaming mess: If Harmon and the writers have any sense, then by now they had to have noticed the dynamic of the show wasn’t working. By bringing to light passed incidents and the groups ability to “bounce back” it feels like a promise that things are going to get better. Now, this may be reaching as it’s getting harder to tune in week after week, but realistically, unless there’s a much needed shift, there’s no point in continuing to attend these weekly Greendale sessions. It wouldn’t take much; a character arc here, a running joke there. We don’t need the Community of old, but rather, new material well written to accommodate the characters as they’ve grown into their current personas. At one point in this week’s episode Frankie finds out that Chang was once a teacher, something that I honestly forget from season to season as his character has changed so much from when we were first introduced to him. And that’s ok, that’s what characters should do in long running series. Change, whether it’s for the best or worst, is what makes intriguing entertainment.
Again, I am going to mention the lack of whimsy surrounding the series as it was part of what made it so magical. Yes, we’ve lost many cast members to careers that needed to grow past Community. However, there is still a foundation that could have been rebuilt upon. Instead, it’s being squandered and shoddily rebuilt as the same unit that was falling down before. There’s even a noticeable lack in extras being used in the series as it appears the budget for filming has likely dwindled. One can only hope that next week’s episode takes a drastic turn, otherwise there’s nothing left to give T.S.F.K.A Community but criticism and crumpled up hopes of an entertaining 25-30 minutes with characters we used to love and identify with.
