NBC’s ‘Community’ season 4, episode 5 review: The highlight of the year thus far

Somehow, “Community” has found a way to turn it around … and luckily, they did so with one of the most-important episodes of the entire series. After struggling to really find its tone for the first four half-hours this year, we really believe that showrunners David Guarascio and Moses Port really started to find their way again here by focusing on a story that we have been waiting to see for some time: the meeting of Jeff Winger’s father.

First and foremost, having a classy actor like James Brolin in the part was a smart move, since it gave Joel McHale the freedom to really play Jeff as something more than an egomaniac who just wanted to talk about how awesome he was. As a matter of fact, we think that his monologue about slicing open his stomach really was one of the more moving moments that we have ever seen on the show; it gave Jeff a more human side than he has ever had before, and while we would have stopped there and not continued on to him making everyone in the gang Thanksgiving dinner, this was still an extremely effective scene.

Even the idea spawned on Thanksgiving at Shirley’s place was pretty entertaining, as the rest of the study group all tired to handle the fact that Shirley’s family was unbearable, and Bed turned it into “The Great Escape” by trying to plot a way out of the part. Could they have done a little bit more to get a greater payoff here? Probably, and going crazy seems to be the biggest flow for Guarascio and Port at the moment. However, they did still achieve some great one-liners for Troy and for Annie, and gave us yet another example of how imperfect Shirley’s life really is.

With so many good things with this episode (which include the 1.5 rating in the 18-49 demographic that really make a season 5 renewal possible), the only major negative we have to say is that Chevy Chase really is getting the short end of the stick here. While his character was an inappropriate curmudgeon before, at least Dan Harmon tried at times to give him a little bit more death. Now, he’s just that awkward old guy you bring to the party so that he can say inappropriate things, and there’s no real reminder as to why exactly these people want to hang out with him.

Did you agree that this was the best “Community” episode of 2013 thus far, and do you think that Brolin especially helped to lift it to new heights? If you want to see some more of what is coming up this season on “Community,” you can do so by visiting the story over at the link here.

Photo: NBC