Itâs not that Community hasnât been very funny the past few weeks, but â actually, it hasnât been. I professed my disappointment with last weekâs âVirtual System Analysis,â an episode that I thought didnât succeed because there was no The Scene. It needed something to tie everything together, a centerpiece, a Lebowski rug, and that never happened. âBasic Lupine Urology,â too, doesnât have a single Scene, either; the whole damn episode is The Scene. And it was great.
Even if youâve never seen Law & Order â I should rephrase. Even if youâve never seen an entire episode of Law & Order, like me, âBasic Lupine Urologyâ is still a great episode of TV. Sure, knowing that Shirleyâs mimicking Lt. Van Buren might add an extra, knowing layer to the proceedings (pun?), but everything worked because the show was so gung-ho with the homage. It just went for it, without any set-up. It never stopped to wink at the viewers (much credit goes to writer Megan Ganz and director Rob Schrab for making the show feel like Law & Order â even the act break fadeouts were perfect), and midway through, you realized you actually cared who smashed Annie and Jeffâs yam, no matter how ridiculous that statement sounds. Plus, there was no terrible Jeff speech. Win-win!
Honestly, the thing I found most refreshing about âLupineâ is that it ditched everything the showâs been doing the past few weeks (There is such a thing as too much sentimentality.) None of the characters really had arcs to speak of, but everyone still remained in character, without any increasingly whimsical Inspector Spacetime references. Annie was still the one who cared the most, and Jeff the least. Britta, in one of my favorite scenes of the episode, still tried to impress everyone with her psych knowledge and cool factor, before the camera cut away from her mid-sentence. Troy and Abed were still buddies, but with the word âcopâ following; they were allowed to pretend, but this time about something real, or at least as real as things get at Greendale. Nearly every recurring character made an appearance, too, from Neilâs spot-on scene as a overworked administrator, to âOmarâ making an Omar reference, to the Dean revealing his fetish with men in uniforms (âIâm shocked,â says no one), to Chang literally just standing around during the trial with his mouth agape, to Leonard arm wrestling other senior citizens in an illegal match fronted by Pierce, to Quendra (with a âQâ) not letting Starburns kiss her. Poor Starburns. Not just because of the kissing thing, but also because heâs dead.
âBasic Lupine Urologyâ was just a fun, brilliantly executed episode of TV, completely devoid of any of the recent hang-ups Iâve had about Community, and one/third of one of the strongest NBC Thursday nights in some time. (30 Rock and Parks owned â the taco C-plot of The Office, not so much.) Iâm sorry I was beginning to doubt you, Community. Wonât happen again. CLANG CLANG.