(This is the eighth part in an ongoing series, in which I am writing brief reviews of each and every episode of Dan Harmon's beloved cult- comedy "Community." Originally conceived as a response to the initial cancellation of the series, the show has since been saved by Yahoo! via their streaming service. However, as I had already started my reviews before it was "un-canceled", I will continue them.)
With some strong, intersecting story lines and plenty of great laugh-out- loud moments, "Home Economics" emerges a strong episode as the eighth in "Community"'s first season.
While Jeff (Joel McHale) deals with issues that have caused him to lose his home, he shacks up with Abed (Danny Pudi), leading to some humorous resulting changes in Jeff's behavior, look and demeanor. Britta (Gillian Jacobs), still dealing from a recent split with Vaughn (Eric Christian Olsen), ends up with more trouble on her hands after Pierce (Chevy Chase) gets pulled into Vaughn's band. All the while, Annie (Alison Brie) tries to help Troy (Donald Glover) impress and woo a date at an upcoming event, not wanting to let on that she has an enormous crush on him and is merely doing this to spend time with him, even though it is causing her emotional distress to see him so interested in another woman.
The performances in this episode are key to making an episode like this (arguably overstuffed for a 20-ish minute runtime) work. And it does work. Incredibly well. Everyone functions well, and makes the various plot lines contibute to a greater story that develops the characters.
The direction is also solid. The writing top-notch. And as always, the show has wonderful production and costume design and beautiful music. This episode also marks one of the cameos by the hilarious Patton Oswalt, which left me wishing he could make a few more appearances. He's perfect for the sort-of material creator Dan Harmon and his writers come up with.
I give this episode a very good 8 out of 10.
With some strong, intersecting story lines and plenty of great laugh-out- loud moments, "Home Economics" emerges a strong episode as the eighth in "Community"'s first season.
While Jeff (Joel McHale) deals with issues that have caused him to lose his home, he shacks up with Abed (Danny Pudi), leading to some humorous resulting changes in Jeff's behavior, look and demeanor. Britta (Gillian Jacobs), still dealing from a recent split with Vaughn (Eric Christian Olsen), ends up with more trouble on her hands after Pierce (Chevy Chase) gets pulled into Vaughn's band. All the while, Annie (Alison Brie) tries to help Troy (Donald Glover) impress and woo a date at an upcoming event, not wanting to let on that she has an enormous crush on him and is merely doing this to spend time with him, even though it is causing her emotional distress to see him so interested in another woman.
The performances in this episode are key to making an episode like this (arguably overstuffed for a 20-ish minute runtime) work. And it does work. Incredibly well. Everyone functions well, and makes the various plot lines contibute to a greater story that develops the characters.
The direction is also solid. The writing top-notch. And as always, the show has wonderful production and costume design and beautiful music. This episode also marks one of the cameos by the hilarious Patton Oswalt, which left me wishing he could make a few more appearances. He's perfect for the sort-of material creator Dan Harmon and his writers come up with.
I give this episode a very good 8 out of 10.
