TV shows are uneven, and at certain moments, the quality dips. If someone turns on the TV and happens to catch a bad episode, they’ll be turned off to the whole show, and vice versa. I want to analyze this phenomenon and compare the best and worst episodes of the same show to demonstrate how wonderfully inconsistent TV can be.
Community ran from 2009-2015, and it always stood out as a subversive parody of sitcoms. Many episodes went over budget to the point of cancellation in 2014 before the show was revived by Yahoo Screen in 2015. The show stars Donald Glover, Joel McHale, Danny Pudi, Alison Brie, Yvette Nicole Brown, Gillian Jacobs, Ken Jeong, Jim Rash, and Chevy Chase. This show takes place in a Colorado community college but it is actually a parody and study of the tropes of the TV and film that came before it. In this inaugural edition of Best Of / Worst Of, I will be comparing “Remedial Chaos Theory” (best episode) and “Intro To Felt Surrogacy” (worst episode), two drastically different episodes in quality.
“Remedial Chaos Theory” (S3E4) is brilliant. It is about a housewarming party for characters Troy and Abed, but when the pizza is delivered downstairs, Jeff throws a die to see who will answer the door, and the story splits into six different timelines. In every timeline (except for the sixth), we see little inconsequential details that all blend together, and in the sixth and darkest timeline we see these details come together in such a way that everything that could go wrong, does go wrong. This creates many Chekhov’s guns that fire in various other timelines. It is a masterclass in storytelling. It is a shame that an episode like this was not appreciated at the time of release. This episode is a 10/10.
The central message of the episode might be that we are all operating within a framing device
“Intro to Felt Surrogacy” (S4E9) is terrible. It is about the study group experiencing an awkward moment. When the dean notices that they are behaving strangely around each other, he makes them participate in puppet therapy, and a Sesame Street-style puppet show starts. They go on a hot air balloon for some strange reason and crash, eat drug berries in the jungle, and tell each other their darkest secrets. In the end, nothing changes. It’s alarming how this episode has no logical plot and just seems to be an excuse for Community to do a puppet episode. This is one of the worst episodes of television history. This episode is a 4/10.
Community is usually very good, but if you watch “Intro to Felt Surrogacy” you will not be impressed. This is true with all television and it is fascinating to see the differences between a good episode of television and a bad episode of television. “Remedial Chaos Theory” (Best Of) and “Intro to Felt Surrogacy” (Worst Of) are the perfect examples.
Levi Jacobson Reviews 