NBC’s ‘Community’ season 5, episode 8 review: The legend of MeowMeowBeenz

The latest -It only took a few minutes on Thursday night for #MeowMeowBeenz to become a trending topic on Twitter, and for good reason. After all, it was at the center of the new “Community” episode on Thursday night.

Luckily, it also was at the center of the best episode since the departure of Troy many weeks ago. This was weird, post-modern, and also post-Apocalyptic in many ways just like the game of “Hot Lava” was. The difference was that rather than creating some sort of secret society out of a game, this episode was more focused on something that was much more of a social convention.

The alternate title to this episode really should be “this is why we can’t have nice things,” since that was mostly what it was about: Watching all of these characters become completely addicted to the latest (and greatest?) bit of social media. They were all ranked by a number of virtual kitties, but it was anything other than cute and cuddly. Instead, it allowed Shirley to rise to passive-aggressive power, and turned a popularity contest into a hierarchy. There were so many great moments in here, from Jeff working with the frat guys to Abed making small talk to Britta throwing mustard on her face to appeal to the commoners. It was completely ridiculous, but also funny through and through. Somehow, the idea of Chang as one of the chosen 5’s was even better, especially since we thought Annie and her addictive ways would’ve been the one in his place.

Also, how about a little shout-out to “Arrested Development” creator Mitch Hurwitz? He had an incredible little guest spot in here as a middle-aged man turned party animal thanks to the app, and this in turn led to one of the best end tags of the season. So hats off, “Community”: You are still the show that we love. Grade: A-.

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Photo: NBC

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