Community: 1.02 “Spanish 101″

Troy: That dude makes a lot of announcements.

Abed: I like it, it makes every ten minutes feel like the beggining of a new scene of a TV show. Of course the illusion only lasts until someone says something they’d never say on TV, like how much their life is like TV. There, it’s gone.

Señor Chang: Hasta leugo! Come on, hands are 90 percent of Spanish!

The second episode of Community introduces us to a new character, Señor Chang. The first time we see him, he demonstrates himself as a quintessential anti-stereotype, in true Community style. He simmers with rage that better befits a WWE persona than a community college Spanish teacher. He is terrifyingly hilarious. And he only gets more intense, on both counts. We’re also introduced to Starburns, the man with sideburns shaped like stars, aka the walking sight gag (+10 points to the writers for establishing a backup recurring joke way early on). The A-plot of the episode revolves around Jeff and Pierce having to work together for a minor Spanish project that Pierce wants to take to a whole new level in an attempt to be as “cool” as Jeff, while the B-plot focuses on Shirley and Annie’s newly discovered enthusiasm for the political activism that Britta claims to love but keeps on the down-low to hide her insecurities. Also, Abed says some crazy shit. This is the best part of this episode’s plot.

A lot of this episode is spent establishing Community‘s comedic style and distinguishing it from the traditional sitcoms’ styles while still paying homage to them and its other inspirations. The most striking aspect of the show’s mish-mash of gags is their frequently self-referential and self-aware nature. Embodied primarily by Abed (who, for example, at one point in the episode says “Conflicts like this will ultimately bring us togther as an unlikely family”), this humour not only acknowledges that the audience knows exactly where the more overarching plot elements are going, but further allows the show to embrace those tropes wholeheartedly and add its own quirks, quiet humanity and realistic lightheartedness to them. Combined with equal quantities of wordplay gags and sight gags, this gives Community a distinctive style that it will grow and maintain throughout the first half of the season.

While it succeeds brilliantly on a comedic level, this episode falters in its telling of the show’s greater story. Jeff and Britta are the only characters explored with any real depth. Jeff’s a selfish douchebag who uses his friends and Britta has a shield of self-righteousness to hide her insecurity. Refreshingly, they don’t do away with those problems in the space of the episode, but rather come to accept a little bit more that they have those issues, taking the first steps to developing as characters, an integral element of serial storytelling that most television comedies neglect entirely. However, the other characters don’t fare so well. Abed is brilliant in his pop culture-centric humour, but at this point in the story, that’s all he’s good for; or at least that’s what everyone else sees him as – someone with an inability to separate reality from fiction. The depth of his character doesn’t show at all in this episode, which is a little shocking after having become so accustomed to it through the rest of the season. All the other characters merely bounce off our central three at this point, aiding their stories and their humour.

This episode also spends too much time explaining itself. Characters seem to do an awful lot of going around to each other and explaining the nature of that character’s arc in the episode to them. While it’s great to see television characters that aren’t oblivious to the personalities of the people they interact with every day, this really goes overboard here, making the whole proceeding far too simple and clear cut for the plot to have a decent flow. Besides, a little more focus on developing those character mini-arcs rather than explaining them would help us get to know the characters better.

Spanish 101 stays afloat on its fantastically-paced humour, and while Community‘s other most powerful feature – its development of compelling character-based stories – is only taking its baby steps here, it’s still a blast to watch. The montage of Jeff and Pierce’s performance at the end of the episode is a pitch-perfect demonstration of the show’s excellent sight-humour that is apparent but still subtle enough to not seem overdone. And who can ever forget Troy and Abed’s rap at the end of the episode that beings their epic duo of priceless non-sequitur-filled friendship?

7/10