COMMUNITY, 3.6 – "Advanced Gay"

As I've said, Community's a show I'm happy to watch and enjoy without feeling any desire to review every single episode in-depth, but if you'd like to discuss this week's installment in the comments below, please do. Here's a collection of my own brief thoughts...

"Advanced Gay" was an amusing half-hour revolving around Pierce's (Chevy Chase) sudden celebrity among the gay community, owing to the fact his family's "Hawthorne Wipes" business have become a gay icon (even inspiring the viral video "Pocketful Of Hawthornes). This attracted the attention of his ludicrous father Cornelius (a Southern racist with an ivory toupee), and set in motion some "daddy issues" it was fun to see play out—especially with Jeff (Joel McHale), who wanted nothing more than for Pierce to end his relationship with his father, which Britta (Gillian Jacobs) read too much into because of her new interest in psychology.

The B-story was possibly funnier, though, with its continuation of the idea Troy's (Donald Glover) a plumbing prodigy, as a riff on Good Will Hunting. This story also benefitted from the long overdue return of recurring guest-star John Goodman as the Vice Dean, who put his baritone voice to great use once again, tempting Troy into agreeing to become an air conditioning repairman. I especially loved this subplot's wackier moments; such as a spartan room that's the "room temperature", and how Troy was kidnapped and taken to a room containing an astronaut making Panini's and a black Hitler, so any attempt to tell people the story would make him look insane.

I had a lot of fun with this episode, although much of the Hawthorne storyline began to lose me after a promising start, perhaps because Cornelius (Larry Cedar) was too off-the-wall... even for a show like Community. However, Troy's subplot was a delight to watch, and the whole episode was again full of some marvelous dialogue. My favourite being Shirley's (Yvette Nicole Brown) take on homosexuals: "I'm always nice to the gays. They may live in defiance of God, but I'd die before I let a woman touch my hair."

"Advanced Gay" was a real tonic after the previous few weeks' episodes—which I've enjoyed, but were very much driven by big gimmicks.

written by Matt Murray / directed by Joe Russo / 3 November 2011 / NBC