Quick thoughts on the third episode of "Community" coming up just as soon as I say "Shazbot!"... "Introduction to Film" was probably the weakest of these early "Community" episodes so far, but it was still enjoyable enough. Abed's the funniest character they have, and though he was oddly absent for much of his own episode, I liked the payoff at the end with his weird movie and the revelation that he'd been manipulating Jeff and Britta the whole time.
As the professor who's modeled his entire personality on Mr. Keating in "Dead Poets Society"(*), John Michael Higgins was his usual hilarious self. That said, I think the show is walking a really fine line with all the pop culture gags. I think it works when Abed does it, and at times when Jeff does, but if the entire show is going to be filled with jokes about old movies and TV shows, it's going to get old, and it's going to keep the characters too thin to be as funny as they should. By far the strongest part of the episode was the opening scene with the study group, with everyone predicting Pierce's racist comment, and that was rooted in behavior and what we already know about these characters, and not in a reference to "Mork and Mindy." (Though it was a nice touch for Jeff to try to ape another Robin Williams character to gain the teacher's approval.)
(*) And once again, I feel incredibly old to learn that movie came out 20 years ago. And can anyone explain Iwhy Robert Sean Leonard, Ethan Hawke and Josh Charles all went on to have careers, while the guy who played Charlie Dalton mostly didn't?
What did everybody else think?
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