TV REVIEW: Community Season 3 Episode 16 – Virtual Systems Analysis
Posted by brogen on April 23, 2012
Annie takes it upon herself to make Britta and Troy spend more time together. This leads to her having to spend more time with Abed in the Dreamatorium, and the two address their deepest fears and insecurities.
It seems that Community has been building towards pairing off certain characters for a long time. There has been resistance to this from fans as they feel it will make the show too much like Friends. It is a valid point, by the end of Friends it was hard to remember who had been with who, and who can remember who ended up with who? Troy and Britta have been dancing around one another for a while, but this episode is not about the potential couple getting to know one another better, but Abed and Annie learning to understand one another.
Annie and Abed end up in the Dreamatorium playing Inspector Spacetime – still love that joke! – but this does not last, as Annie becomes tired of being involved in games that she does not understand. She rewires the Dreamatorium, which results in Abed taking on the personalities of everyone in the group Abed learns to understand the people around him through empathising with them, and Annie finally vocalises that she is not really in love with Jeff, but more with the idea of being loved.
Not only does this mean that the audience gets to know these characters a little better, it means that they begin to grow and develop as people. The capers that Annie and Bed find themselves in are not only brilliantly funny, but they are also grounded in the ‘reality’ of Greendale, which allows the audience to relate to them. As well as this, while we may be gaining a new couple in Britta and Troy – that is definitely going to b interesting – it seems that Annie is not head over heels in love with Jeff as we have been led to believe. This could mean that the group is not going to pair off, thus removing the Friends – and every other sitcom – element. Phew.
Oh and also, the Dean shows up dressed as both a man and a woman and, brilliantly, thinks he has finally gone too far. Outstanding.
This week’s episode was a great one for Community. Instead of just being silly and full of pop culture references, we got to learn a little more about Abed and Annie, and by association, the rest of the group. Cool cool cool.
GS Reviewer: Brogen Hayes
