I thought with Community being a two-parter and The Office still on break, I'd take a week off and do another double-up post. It turns out that while Community continued the Abed and Troy at odds story, the second episode was so radically different from the first that waiting didn't really mattered. Ah well, it was mostly and excuse to be lazy anyway.
Community
"Digital Exploration of Interior Design"
The first part of our story of two best friends at war. This episode deals solely with how that war came about, and how the seeds of breaking were sown by Vice-Dean Laybourne. Every time John Goodman shows up, he kills it. This time the he's "going through some stuff," which means a goatee and ponytail. This was a nice pick-up from last week where Troy comes to the realization that being friends with Abed can be hard, I guess he decided this was enough. Meanwhile, Britta falls in love with Subway, in a nice little plot about corporations being people, in this case, Travis Schuldt (Keith from Scrubs). The reactions of the Subway corporate man to the sex recording were priceless, as was the Dean's cluelessness as to why he didn't want to stand up afterward to get his coat. The Jeff and Annie plot was mostly just meh. Another take on how Jeff can be a douche, but it had the added touch that Annie was identifying with Kim until she found out it was a guy, then she didn't care anymore. It's always good when Annie comes down from the perfection she tries to portray.
"Pillows and Blankets"
If you've never seen Ken Burns' The Civil War, this entire episode may be lost on you. Then again, it's a format that's been copied so much, if you've ever seen a documentary I'm sure there's something you can take away here. On the scale of Community parody/high-concept episodes, not one of the highest, though. It was a pretty spot on send up of Ken Burns, but something about it just didn't come all the way together for me. It helped that in the end it was really all about Troy and Abed's friendship, and the reason they wouldn't give up the war was that once it was over, they couldn't hang out anymore. It was a nice touch for Jeff that he did go all the way back to the Dean's office to get the imaginary magic friendship hats. I liked Britta being horrible at getting pictures, and the Kieth David narration was a good in joke (six seasons and a movie!). I'm not crazy about the Changlorious Bastards (though I like the pun). I imagine Chang and his kids are going to cause some more problems, so we'll see where that goes.
30 Rock
"The Shower Principle"
30 Rock has always been good about the meta comedy, not going to the well too often, but doing it well each time. This Liz story was heavy on the meta, and once again done well. For a show in its sixth season, it's hard not to repeat itself every so often. This show tackles that head on by showing us that Liz has been in a rut for years. Some really nice callbacks to past plotlines in the flashback to all of Liz's accounting meetings. They even acknowledge that they've replaced one wacky page with another, though I love Hazel and wish they used her every episode. Her "take a picture" gag had me laughing so hard I had to pause the show. The rest of plots were retreads, but on purpose and done well. Jack's particularly had a different ending than usual, actual forward movement. Both the meditation sequences had me laughing, too.
"Nothing Left to Lose"
Pete! We haven't had a Pete story in a long while. 30 Rock is pretty much coasting at this point, and unlike The Office, they're coasting at a high level (had to get in an Office shot, it's been too long). The plots are familiar, but they're packed so full of jokes it doesn't matter because you're laughing so much. Dr. Spaceman returns and gets in a few great lines. Tracey becomes a good employee because Liz's scent reminds him of his father, but at a price for his family. Jenna is in a prank war with the writers, and Kenneth uses his new job to help her. The best story was Pete and Jack, with Jack trying and failing to mentor him. Only Pete would have a birthmark in the shape of a penis swastika. Just an all around good episode.
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