Community has gotten to the point where every critic on the Internet will bend over backward to give the show glowing praise. As Emily Nussbaum just wrote on Twitter, "I laughed at literally every line of that episode of Community. Exhaustingly excellent." Well, that's one way to put it. Another way would be to say that while funny, "Conspiracy Theories and Soft Defenses" was a pale imitation of an Arrested Development episode, with a B-story that might as well have been left to an online deleted scene. Annie might have had a gun, but Community fired some blanks last night.
Let's start with that Arrested Development comparison. As anyone who watched that iconic sitcom knew immediately, the increasingly twisted gunshot reveals during the finale of "Conspiracy Theories" was a direct lift of the J. Walter Weatherman runner from AD. Yes, Community shares Anthony and Joe Russo with The Bluth Family, so this wasn't just some South Park-level rip-off; it was more likely either an homage, or just plan laziness in the writers' room. Maybe a bit of both.
The difference between the two is that Arrested Development earned the Weatherman runner by establishing it early and pulling it out whenever a lesson was needed to be learned; Community just did it without any soul or relevant reference. We can all marvel and laugh at Annie, Jeff and the Dean shooting each other to increasing levels of ridiculousness, but it doesn't mean anything. "Conspiracy Theories" was nothing but empty calories.
Which is disappointing since it comes on the heels of one of the best Community episodes thus far. The "bottle episode" (I cringe at using that most douche-y of terms) was like a finely-aged Arrested Development episode -- in-jokes and callbacks were littered throughout and it pushed the narrative forward. While "Conspiracy Theories" brought some more closure to the Annie/Jeff union*, it didn't really do anything important. Like "Epidemiology" and "Basic Rocket Science," most of what happened here won't be mentioned again, unless it's as some throwaway joke during season three.
(*Dear Dan Harmon: Joel McHale and Alison Brie have insane chemistry. Just put them together and take advantage of that. Thanks, everyone.)
I don't exactly know what I want from Community. I love the show, but I'm not in the bag for it completely -- I can readily acknowledge when it fails and/or when 30 Rock is funnier (something which has happened on every occasion possible this season). But there has certainly been some wheel-spinning this season. Community has been funny -- and it has featured some impressive set pieces -- but it hasn't told a consistently appealing story. Questions: Who's the lead of the show? Who are we rooting for? What is the end game? That the answers aren't readily available is one of Community's biggest problems.
Oh! How could I end a recap without mentioning the aforementioned B-story? Abed and Troy built a fort out of blankets. It became a city. The end. Like I said: Maybe that should have been left online. Maybe this episode should have been, too. Anyway, let's end this with a classic J. Walter Weatherman clip from Arrested Development.