Thom Bitches About "Community": Advanced Documentary Filmmaking

Left to right: Donald Glover and Alison Brie

Like most people, I was skeptical about what Community without Dan Harmon would look like. His inane fantasy of a community college was so meta and well structured that anyone who would come in would probably not do the show justice. However, it has happened, and Community is back with former Happy Endings show runners. Is it capable of finding its footing with new controllers, or is this the end? In Thom Bitches About Community, we will attempt to figure that out with sporadic thoughts on season four. Hey, maybe it's not all bad. Maybe it's better? Check back every week for further commentaries, and please feel free to add your own thoughts.

Well, well, well. After a few bumps in the road, we are finally looking at consistent quality turnout. Sure, last week's episode was okay and saw Abed (Danny Pudi) almost back to normal. However, what makes this episode particularly interesting is that we are once again at the mercy of Abed, and this time, he is filming a documentary on Chang (Ken Jeong) in order to help Greendale earn grant money to fund his possible "changnesia" or how he mysteriously forgot all about his old self and is calling himself Kevin.

To sum it up, Kevin works at Shirley's (Yvette Nicole Brown) food place at the school. Everyone but Jeff (Joel McHale) is buying it. Along with Abed, who is convinced that Kevin is a whole new person, they film everything. With a little bit of evidence going for and against him, it creates an interesting twist on the documentary gimmick after four seasons.

Of course, it isn't quite up to snuff with a cameo by Levarr Burton or parodying Hearts of Darkness, but it is a premise that manages to sell the entire episode. At very least, it shows the show post-Harmon break-up finally getting its legs. It is very much in the investigative mindset that the show has been known to do from time to time, and while there are some questionable things, a lot of it ends up working out, especially with Jeff trying to mislead everyone.

With this said, I have found Chang to be one of the show's worst characters. I felt he was only added to the cast on the success of the Hangover, and he has slowly regressed into terrible Asian stereotypes. With this said, his whole amnesia (I am NOT calling it that dumb pun) phase has been hit or miss. It was initially annoying to see him reduced to an imbecile. However, in this episode, I get a sense that maybe there is something justified in his portrayal of playing retarded.

He is more subtle and that is nice. Reducing the idiocy factor really plays in the show's advantage, as it helps it get away from lowbrow junk like the Hunger Games parody. It also advances character story, which is another plus. I also enjoy that Chang is convincingly borderline through the whole thing. There is evidence for and against him. I still believe he is faking it, but for once, I feel like Jeong pulls out a pretty solid performance.

Ken Jeong

I felt there was a strong drive for the whole episode and while the reveal that Chang was not faking it was a little bogus, nothing was more annoying than what followed. Over the credits, there is a bigger reveal that he was faking it and is in fact doing it for the money for someone. I have no idea, but I am annoyed that he is going to be the show's con artist/villain yet again. This cannot turn out pretty. At least with the paint balls concept, we had interesting stuff going on that while repetitive, was fun to watch.

There is little fun in the realm of Chang being a con artist yet again. However, I do enjoy that Troy (Donald Glover) and Annie (Alison Brie) got to spend some time working together on the case. True, it wasn't all that amazing, but it was a nice pairing that is not seen often enough. They both come off too innocent, and there is plenty of fresh material to reap from there. 

Solid episode and not much to bitch about. However, I am very much not a fan of Chang and I hope that this doesn't take up the rest of the already brief season. If it will, I may just have to quit this, or risk just turning this into an anti-Ken Jeong series. I kind of am on Jeff's side with this and am annoyed that things didn't work out his way. However, kudos on Abed doing yet another solid documentary episode.