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Over at Digital Spy today, it's my latest article. This one fantasises about 12 "crossover" episodes of past and present TV shows, that would be extremely unlikely but incredibly fun to watch. Dexter meets Hannibal? Sherlock travels to Fargo? Justified visits True Blood? Click through to read more, and remember to share if you enjoy it!
This was potentially the last ever episode of Community; but that's been true of almost every season finale, so despite notably low ratings this year I'm optimistic it will return somehow and somewhere. "Basic Sandwich" was a much better episode than its predecessor, "Basic Story", and tapped into a style of writing I particularly enjoy about Community: where it's not only fun and amusing, but also creative, adventurous, and happy to take bizarre diversions.
Like most two-part episodes, it feels unfair reviewing the first half without seeing the second. "Basic Story" is potentially the last adventure for the study group (in the wake of dismal ratings, I'm less certain NBC will be kind enough to greenlight that fabled sixth season), and it worked in the sense it set everything up very nicely. The Save Greendale committee (which has been less significant to the season than I'd hoped) were successful when the college was valued by an insurance appraiser (Michael McDonald), but this unfortunately led to the school being sold to Subway (apparently the sponsor of choice for all struggling geek-friendly shows, post-Chuck).
I admired "G.I Jeff" more than I enjoyed it, and a lot of that was down to one simple thing: G.I Joe™ wasn't part of my childhood, and that's likely true of my fellow Britons (we played with Action Man™). While this was clearly a very loving pastiche of the 1980s G.I Joe cartoon, it was never going to tickle my funnybone in terms of Joe-related gags. I just enjoyed seeing the attention to detail in its 1980s-style animation (familiar to me more through cartoons like Transformers and He-Man), although that wasn't enough to see this episode transcend itself.
This was a decent sequel to the all-time classic "Advanced Dungeons & Dragons" from season 2 (when the show was arguably at its creative peak), and yet obviously didn't quite manage to surpass it. Some things worked in the episode's favour this time—as the stakes involved a mere background character known as Fat Neill last time, whereas this story was about Buzz (Jonathan Banks) reconnecting with his middle-aged nerd son Hank (David Cross), and the actual storyline and sound design of the group D&D session was an improvement.
I liked this episode, although it was my least favourite of season 5 so far. I didn't find either storyline very involving or hilarious, but everything rolled along pleasantly and (for those in-the-know) it featured some left-field guest roles.
I've always loved how Community runs with an outrageous concept and somehow makes it feel oddly plausible. "App Development and Condiments" concerned the Yelp!-like beta-testing of an addictive smartphone app called 'MeowMeowBeenz', which allows users to rate their social interactions on a five-point system. In typical Community style, the popularity of the app skyrocketed over night—even turning technophobe Buzz (Jonathan Banks) into an avid user—and Greendale College soon became a caste-based society.
