NBC’s ‘Community’ season 5, episode 11 review: ‘G.I. Jeff’ is weird (and wonderful)
Going into Thursday night’s “Community” episode “G.I. Jeff,” our expectations were a little mixed. Typically, the show’s animated episodes are extremely funny, but when you are doing something as specific as referencing “G.I. Joe,” it’s a little bit riskier. We never watched the cartoon as a kid, and felt like most of the references would be lost on it.
However, the episode just got more and more brilliant as it went on, especially when the walls were starting to be broken down and it was clear that this entire story was a delusion inside Jeff’s mind after a depression-related bender upon his 40th birthday. There were so many little wonderful moments in here:
1. Abed’s animated character being called “Fourth Wall,” and him referencing the various dimensions that exit within this animated world.
2. The fact that Jeff clearly tried to sexualize Annie … but they try not to sexualize Annie?
3. Dean Pelton playing a bizarre version of Cobra … who was also he hero … who was also multiple characters.
4. Abed mentioning that the 18-49 demographic is extremely “valuable to society.”
5. The fact that there were children who wrote “Harmon sucks” on a wrecking ball.
The biggest reason that this story worked for us, though? It all tied back to the fact that the people at Greendale love and support each other despite all of their differences. There was a sweet end to this story as Jeff tried to use a dream in order to get in touch with his youthful, more innocent side. It was just so creative, funny, and quite possibly genius. If we loved it without being a fan of the original cartoon, we can only imagine what “G.I. Joe” fans must feel after watching it. The best episode, by far, since the exit of Donald Glover. Grade: A.
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Photo: NBC