NBC Thursday Comedies - Week 3

Just under the gun again, I really have to be better about posting these things closer to when the shows air.  Anyway, three good episodes this week.

Community - "Competitive Ecology"
We begin this week with the Study Group in perfect harmony, but then the evil Todd enters the mix and destroys everything.  That's not actually how it went, Todd is a nice, understanding guy, but from the perspective of our "heroes" that's exactly what happened.  I like the way this episode came back to the fact that these people may love each other, but their diversity of personalities makes it unlikely they would have ever hung out, making it harder for them to stick together.  The love, of course, will win out (this isn't an entirely cynical show), but they have to work at it.  In this episode, they do not work at it, and instead point out why each person should be considered better than the others in the group.  I think Professor Kane worked better in this episode than the premier, but I still think Michael K Williams was miscast.  I did like his little monologue about Lego.  And poor Todd, never taking offense to all the mean things said to him, just wanting to get the assignment done.  It's a testament to how well this show crafts secondary characters that most of the time I want them to recur.  I'd like to see Todd again, as well as the Poly-Sci professor and Other Annie from last week.

Now on to Chang.  Completely separate from the rest of the story in his own little film noir world.  It was just the right amount of crazy, and I loved it.  The funniest Chang has been in a while.  His leaps to conclusions and his crazy inner monologue (while moving his lips a little bit) were perfect.  The matchbooks, staring down the girl he called to in the hallway, having to "think fast", all great bits.  They then manage to top all of that with dueling inner monologues by Chang and the Dean.  The lightheartedness of this also worked as a good counterbalance to the A-story of the Study Group being douchebags.

Parks and Recreations - "Born & Raised"
I honestly can't remember the last time Parks and Rec had a bad episode.  It had to be somewhere back in season 2.  Tonight was another winner.  Leslie has written a book about Pawnee, but Joan revealing that Leslie wasn't actually born there has the town in a tizzy as only Pawnee can be.  Better yet, she was actually born in the hated rival (and much nicer) town of Eagleton.  Having Mo Collins back as Joan is always great, and I think this is one of her best appearances.  People on this show really know how to play drunk, and to be super funny when doing it.  Tom and Ben (a pairing I very much enjoy) babysitting drunk Joan was a nice sequence.  Ben bringing out the nerd talk was also awesome.  If it wasn't already obvious, there are definitely some hardcore nerds on the writing staff.

There were nice little touches all throughout the episode.  The return from the dead of Andy's FBI character, Burt Macklin.  Chris speed reading and literally loving the book.  Tom actually taking on an Entertainment720 client.  Ben's aforementioned nerd talk being about the J.J. Abrams Star Trek sequel.  Everything to do with Joan's "Gotcha," especially the Gotcha Dancers.  Ann trying to bond with two most unbondable people on the show and eventually breaking through with a gross medical story.  Ron's separation tactic of saying someone's name wrong, and then his smirk of satisfaction when April uses it on him.  The list goes on, good ep.

The Office - "Lotto"
This episode is where Andy is starting to distance himself from Michael.  Michael was a boss first and slowly over the years became a friend to the people in the office.  With Andy it is the other way around.  He was already friends with everyone before he became boss.  This worked very well when Andy had to give his pep talk to Darryl to bring him out of his non-lotto winning funk.  Michael giving that same speech may not have gotten through to Darryl to same way because they don't have the same history.  With Andy as boss now they probably can't do it as much anymore, but I miss the old Andy-Darryl-Dwight trio.  Darryl's funk was also a nice showcase for Craig Robinson.  His deadpan delivery of the taco basement story had me cracking up.  The rest of the episode was just kind of meh, especially the plot in the warehouse.  Dwight running into the wall and Kevin falling in the background did make me chuckle, though.  The Andy speech was really great, though, and elevated the rest of the episode.