Zombieland: Community Recapped

The day after "Basic Rocket Science" aired, I wrote that the biggest problem with Community is that non-fans don't know what they're going to get when they tune-in on a regular basis. The schizophrenic and risk-happy nature of the show works as a double-edged sword in that way: We, the members of Community's unofficial fan club, love when the show takes detours to the absurd; the rest of the television community, however, just shakes their head in confusion.

This is not to say that "Epidemiology" -- or, the zombie episode -- wasn't an excessively strong half-hour of television. It was (and not to get on Dan Harmon's bad side, but it fell just short of last season's "Modern Warfare"). It's just that looking big picture here, it seems like Community needs to find a tone and stick with it for more than just an episode or two.

But why am I talking about that, when there are ABBA-fueled zombies to slay?

It was Halloween at Greendale and that meant it was time for a school dance at the "Liscary" (to paraphrase Michael Bluth: "We just call it a library"). Also, it was time for costumes: Jeff as David Beckham, Britta as a "dragon turtle," Shirley as Miss Piggy Glinda the Good Witch, Annie as Little Red Riding Hood, Chang as Peggy Fleming, the Dean as Lady Gaga, Pierce as Captain Kirk and Troy and Abed as Ripley and the alien from Aliens (Troy later dressed as Dracula, which to him meant taking off his shirt and wearing a toilet seat protector that said "Dracula" on it).

The party was a smashing Greendale success, until tainted taco meat from a military surplus store (that wasn't actually taco meat!) started causing the students to turn into zombies. Fire up the Shaun of the Dead references, because away we go! Like "Modern Warfare," "Epidemiology" did well with its zombie-film tropes. It was never actually scary -- it's an NBC sitcom at 8 p.m. after all -- but it was certainly shot, edited and scored like a post-Romero zombie film. (I'll admit it: The Dean's ABBA-centric playlist made me want to raid iTunes.)

You'll see many people today placing this episode ahead of "Basic Rocket Science" on the Community spectrum of theme episodes -- this show is officially the Glee of sitcoms, BTW -- but it's not for the reasons they're giving. At AV Club, Todd VanDerWerff writes that "Epidemiology" was better because it mixed the character drama with the parody in ways the Apollo 13 homage failed to do. Well, apologies to Yvette Nicole Brown and Ken Jeong, no one cared about (nor wanted to see) Shirley and Chang have sex; their union wasn't a Jeff/Britta-level consummation. And while Troy's initial embarrassment over being a nerd (and his subsequent self-discovery) kept with his character arc, it felt no different than Annie's dissatisfaction with the group's immaturity in "Rocket Science": Tacked on. The only reason Troy's arc worked is because people like Donald Glover-as-Troy more than they do Annie -- especially in comedic situations.

Anyway, that's a nitpick, since I agree with VanDerWerff's main point: "Epidemiology" was better than "Basic Rocket Science," even if the final dues ex machina was a bit ridiculous. (Yes, I found the Men in Black mind erasing more ridiculous than zombies.) Hey, if Community is going to go down in flames, it might as well go down in flames. Kudos to Dan Harmon and company for having the guts to make this stuff work, even if it isn't the best thing for the show. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go buy ABBA and some whole milk.