By Matt Ern
Columnist
Community-“Herstory of Dance”
Grade: B+
It took a while, but theres finally been an episode of Community this season that felt like it had the heart of the old series. No gimmicks or weird self-parodies, just a story about the study group and how they need each other in order to be better people. This is largely a Britta episode, but wrapped up in all that are some nice moments for Jeff and Pierce too, plus theres a great B-plot about Abed.
Britta attempts to throw a dance to empower women, but mistakes singer Sophie B. Hawkins for Susan B Anthony and throws a Sophie B. Hawkins dance to combat the Deans Sadie Hawkins Dance. Jeff makes fun of her for Britta-ing the whole thing and keeps pushing her to admit her mistake, while Pierce councils her to stay the course. In the end, Britta pulls it off and Jeff finally gives her some genuine approval. Its a great moment for Jeff and Brittas relationship, brought on by Pierce–hes the one who points out to Jeff that hes always so mean to Britta, its no wonder she would rather insist on throwing a crazy Sophie B Hawkins Dance than admit she made a mistake. The last two episodes have had some great Jeff/Pierce moments, which were some of the highlights of the first season.
Over in the B-plot, Annie and Shirley each try and set up Abed with a girl, and he agrees to go out with both of them so that he can act out the sitcom trope of dating two girls at once in two different dances. Its a very Abed thing to do, and only gets more so when he falls for a third girl, Rachel, whos working the dance. She catches on to his game early on and helps him to continue the rouse.
Abed falling for Rachel is something of a sitcom cliché, but in a very Community way its wrapped in so many layers of irony and winking at tropes that it all feels very heartfelt and genuine. For me, this was the first time the new showrunners have really nailed the feel of old Community. In the past, theyve been too obsessed with sweeping parody episodes. Sometimes some subtle subversion of sitcom tropes is all you need for a great Abed storyline.
Mad Men-“The Doorway”
Grade: A
Death is surrounding Don Draper. It hangs over his conversation with the soldier at the bar; its evident when his doorman collapses in front of him; even his latest pitch is rejected by the client because it seems to suggest suicide. Its clear Don isnt taking all this meditating on death very well when he shows up drunk to Rogers mothers funeral and vomits during the eulogy.
Last year, Don Draper was a man who had his life more-or-less together. In this seasons premiere, we see a man struggling with an awful lot of demons. Megans success as an actress has given her newfound power over him, and her young age is yet another reminder of Dons imminent death. Hes having affairs again, reading Dantes Inferno, and drunkenly berating doormen about what they saw when they died for a few moments.
Rogers not having such an easy time this season either. He confides to his therapist that he doesnt feel anything, even after his mothers death (and then breaks down crying when his shoe-shine man dies and his family leaves Roger his kit). Life has become a meaningless series of events for Roger and hes meandering forward into death. Betty is as unfulfilled as when we last saw her–maybe even more so–and, after a harrowing trip to the slums of St. Marks Place, she dyes her hair black
Mad Men spends most of its two-hour premiere reminding us that there are an awful lot of characters on the show, and most of them are incredibly depressed. But everything isnt all doom and gloom. The show is approaching the 1970s now, and so everyone has crazy facial hair. Thats something to look forward to–you know, other than watching depressed alcoholics contemplate death for another twelve episodes.