NBC’s ‘Community’ season 4, episode 6 review: The rise of Changnesia

Let’s fact it: everyone has wanted to dogpile “Community” throughout most of season 4. At times, it’s been a sick form of amusement since we are dealing with an easy target. Everyone knows that Dan Harmon is not around, and some of the episodes have not been particularly creative.

However, we have to say that we found Thursday night’s installment in particular to be the best of the season by a pretty wide margin. As a matter of fact, there were moments that we were almost reminded of the old days. Abed’s documentaries have always made for fun episodes, and this take on “Changnesia” provided some great moments in between seeing Britta once again be horrible at something, Annie and Troy put on their detective caps, and and Shirley’s big musical moment coming via a rendition of “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.” Ultimately, thoguh it was the Jeff Winger freakout that really won us over here. This was the best moment of pure insanity since his ego went out of control at the bar mitzvah, as he kissed Chang’s ex in front of him as a way to make him as ridiculously jealous as possible. That didn’t ultimately work, and Jeff fell victim to what is ultimately his biggest fear: loneliness.

Was this episode perfect? Far from it. Pierce continues to be written as a shell of his former self, and he’s really not going to be missed much if the show gets renewed. Meanwhile, we also still feel like the “aws” from Annie and Shirley are being completely overdone here. But if we are looking at “Community” is a very good but not great show, then you have to be extremely pleased with this episode. It felt like “Community,” and this is something we haven’t been able to say at times. Even though it was obvious that Chang was faking it, the reveal at the end was pretty funny courtesy of a little gag regarding throwing away his phone.

Was this the best “Community” episode of the season to you, and do the last two episodes help to make up for a pretty woeful start to the season? If you want to see some more scoop on what lies ahead, you can do so over at the link here.

Photo: NBC