"Laws of Robotics & Party Rights"
Original Airdate: April 7, 2015
There are some things that I really liked about this episode and nothing I totally hated, but I was struggling to write this because there was nothing big I could actually grab a hold of and use to fuel a whole review. There were themes, but not broad ones or ones I think are meant to carry on throughout the rest of the season. The A and B stories only seemed to relate to each other in terms of two characters learning lessons at the end of them, and that's not exactly breaking new ground as far as sitcoms go.
Jeff and the Dean (and My Confusion)
The A-plot involves a bunch of convicts attending Greendale via remote devices that look like tablets on wheels called telepresence robots (actual things that exist by the way), and Jeff is initially very pro-convicts because if the school accepts them, it gets $300,000. The Dean fights him on it for about three seconds before caving, and then the convicts arrive. One of them, Willy, is in Jeff's Fundamentals of Law class and doesn't seem to enjoy the way Jeff teaches. That is to say, Jeff doesn't teach at all: he puts on a video and makes jokes about his life and how he ended up a teacher at Greendale, and how he's not that much different from a convict like Willy – other than the fact that Jeff's never murdered anyone, of course.
But then Willy tries to murder Jeff by nudging him down the stairs in the parking garage and when Jeff goes to the Dean, the Dean sides with Willy over Jeff. This sends Jeff into a spiral of irritation and anger because he's right and Willy is wrong but no one's listening to him. Jeff hates people not listening to him, and he hates that he loses control over his class because he lets Willy get under his skin. Because even though Jeff never cared about his class before, he did care about them thinking he was cool and funny and Willy ruins that.
This story was thematically all over the place. What was the arcing motivation/idea? Was it about Jeff's inability to cope with his feelings? (Jeff says to Willy: "I hear you have to have strong feelings for someone you kill. I try to reserve that stuff for myself," and that gets paid off later when his feelings of anger cause him to throw Willy's telepresence robot down a flight of stairs, thus "killing" him.) Was it another revisit of one of Jeff's key character traits: his hatred of being on the "losing side" of anything, especially other people's opinions of him? The way the story ends implies that it was about Jeff's friendship with the Dean and Jeff accepting that, yes, he considers himself the Dean's friend – but that's literally just the end of the storyline. The only instance of that particular theme creeping in is when the Dean sides with Willy over Jeff and Jeff gets mad about it.
One thing that isn't really dealt with in this plot is the thing that kind of started it in the first place: Jeff is a really bad teacher. Willy doesn't like that Jeff's a really bad teacher. It could be argued that Willy would have tried to murder Jeff even if he had been a decent teacher, but he wouldn't have had anything to hold over him and discredit him when he went to the Dean if Jeff had tried a little harder.
The way the narrative of the plot progresses gives the impression that Jeff's halfhearted methods of teaching Greendale students instigated Willy's murder attempt, and a logical conclusion would have been Jeff actually trying to teach the class about law because he's learned that caring about something is important and it is possible for him to care about things that aren’t himself. But that doesn't happen. We don't get a follow-up with Jeff actually teaching a class instead of putting on a video of Planet Earth and playing on his phone the entire time, and I think the storyline is missing something because of that.
Britta and Annie (And Abed)
The other story we're dealing with in "Laws of Robotics & Party Rights" involves Britta wanting to throw a post-midterms party in the apartment she shares with Annie and Abed. The problem: there's an established rule against parties with more than eight people in attendance, and Britta doesn't think eight people is much of a party.
So Britta convinces Abed to let her throw the party as a "movie" about partying like there's no tomorrow and Abed, of course, approaches this with extreme seriousness. He continues trying to get good partying footage well after the actual party Britta wanted is over, and it's implied that he'd probably keep trying forever and deprive Britta of sleep the entire time. Because Britta sleeps on the couch. In the living room, where parties happen.
Annie had predicted this would blow up in Britta's face as soon as the plot was laid out before her, because Annie knows Abed and she knows that rules exist for a very good reason and that skirting around them only ends in everything blowing up in your face (this episode lacks a cohesive connection between the two plots, but "skirting around the rules will end in everything blowing up in your face" could be considered a good running theme in
Community overall). She tells Britta that she's going to regret manipulating Abed later, and she's right.
Annie's a real badass in this episode and Britta's likable and foolish rather than an over-the-top screw-up and these are both excellent things. The B-story ends with Annie getting Britta to confess to Abed about her scheming and Abed likely going on to make Britta’s life hell for a good long while.
Annie and Britta’s story in this episode concludes with a weird handshake and another fake show title card, this one reading "Female Friends!" (accompanied by a cheerful little music sting), which is charming but almost as misleading as Britta's party movie script because the friendship between the two women is still shaky at best and always has been, and maybe the ship has sailed on it ever being anything
but shaky. That's incredibly unfortunate because this is a show about very different people finding a way to fit into a family with each other, and I don't think Annie and Britta have ever fit as well together – in different ways – as, say, Jeff and Annie, or Britta and Jeff, or Annie and Shirley (when the show wasn't ridiculously revisiting their brief season one rivalry, of course).
We got a brief mention of them shopping together a long, long time ago but nothing since then, and no other hints that they spend time with each other off-screen. Even on screen, we don't get many stories with Annie and Britta together or about their friendship and when we do they're usually at odds with each other in some way. There never seems to be much of a long-term resolution to their relationship, or an implication that they might one day become closer or could be considered “close” now, even after six years of knowing each other. Sticking a fake title card for a fake TV show about their friendship up on screen doesn't solve the basic problem of the writers repeatedly pitting them against each other for some inexplicable reason.
Aaaand, that's pretty much all I have to say about the episode, which was funny - don't get me wrong. I liked it, but it was a struggle to figure out what it was trying to say and what these things all mean in the long-term. Will a future episode have Jeff actually teaching his class because he learned his lesson in this episode even though that plot thread wasn't resolved within this episode? Will Annie and Britta have more stories together, or develop their friendship in some way? I have no idea. I'm thinking probably not - but
Community has surprised me many times before.
Other things:
- "I have a brain the size of Jupiter, I'm nobody's fourth Ghostbuster." I could quote pretty much anything Elroy says in the cold open. He's fitting in with the group incredibly well and I love it.
- BRITTA LIVED IN NEW YORK!
- "If I see any race gangs forming, I'll have no choice but to adjust the contrast on your screens until you all look the same."
- Jeff is a teacher! You guys - the show remembered that Jeff is a teacher! I think I'm more excited by this than I should be.
- Aw, a brief cameo from Fake Troy's arm. I miss real Troy's arm. And his face. I miss Troy. [Jenn's note: After re-watching a bunch of seasons 1-3 this weekend, I wholeheartedly agree. There's something missing without him and no one can convince me otherwise.]
- Now, I definitely wouldn't throw anyone down a flight of stairs, but - if I had a professor as careless and lazy as Jeff, I'd be pretty pissed too. Try harder, Jeff. Just think about Annie’s disappointed face every time you decide to put a movie on instead of actually teach.
- If Britta's script was just that one page Annie read out loud, what were the other thirty or so pages? Party plans?
- "When this is over, you'll beg for my forgiveness." All hail Annie!
- Was I the only one amused by Jeff’s repeated use of the word “murder” instead of, say, “kill”?
- I like Britta the Therapist Bartender so, so much more than Britta the cartoonish idiot. Like, she's still a bit silly because she's Britta and she doesn't know what a petard is, but she's a good kind of silly and she doesn't steal children's tricycles or poop her pants.
- Jeff attempting to “party like there’s no tomorrow” for Abed’s movie is a very simple, brief example of how Jeff has grown. An earlier version of Jeff would have given Abed an unamused look and walked away. [Jenn's note: It's also a hilarious example of how Joel McHale, much like Jake Johnson, cannot dance and the shows they're on both insist on forcing them.]
- "Don't question rules. Rules are good. I'm bad. All hail Annie." Jenn says "All hail Annie" should be the new mantra. And I agree. [Jenn's note: It's so true that I made it the subtitle for this review. Don't underestimate the Edison.]
- Why did Jeff steal an overhead projector, though? What is he doing with it? The roll of carpet, I get - rolls of carpet are very useful - but an overhead projector?
Did you all enjoy "Laws of Robotics & Party Rights"? Let us know what you thought of the episode in the comments. Jenn will be back next week with a very meta episode titled "Basic Email Security." Until next time, folks! :)