Some of my favorite episodes from this season are "Basic Lupine Urology," "Digital Estate Planning" and "Remedial Chaos Theory." Community parodies a lot of pop culture, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen Law and Order get a better homage than in "Basic Lupine Urology." The group instantly takes on the classic roles of the detectives (Troy and Ahbed), commanding officer (Shirley), forensic tech and wannabe psychiatrist (Britta), and prosecutors (Jeff and Annie). The rest of the roles from the show are filled out by extra characters from around the school and in the faculty. I can’t adequately describe how spot-on this parody is, and how hilarious it is while following the Law and Order formula perfectly. Some shows will just go for the black screen with the white text describing the time of day and they’ll then play the classic Law and Order chime: that will be their "wink" to the audience that it’s a Law and Order parody. Community’s version is just ambitious, over the top, and brilliant.
"Remedial Chaos Theory" is an easy one to add to that list because of its ambition as well, but also because of how perfectly it executes its ambitious vision. The episode revolves around the group gathering at Troy and Ahbed’s apartment for pizza. They roll a die to choose who has to go down to get the pizza when it’s delivered. Ahbed points out that they are creating six different timelines with this roll, and the episode then goes into each timeline to see what happened. The outcomes are wildly different, with one ending in total disaster and even death for some of the group members, but they each reveal some small piece of information about motives and secrets of each character. It makes you want to see what will happen in the next timeline, as they all connect to tell a bigger story.
Then "Digital Estate Planning" is just a complete nod to gamers and an excuse to completely geek out. Pierce’s father created a video game that he had developed secretly over the years. As a part of his will, he makes Pierce and his friends play the game, allowing him to accept his inheritance if he can beat it. The game is remarkably complex, but the graphics and gameplay are stuck in the 80’s. There are plenty of video game tropes and genres wrapped into it, and any gamer will instantly recognized all the elements and easter eggs packed into this episode.
I only mention 3 episodes, but really you could put on a blindfold and point to a great episode in this season. However, since Community’s creator Dan Harmon will not be coming back to work on the next season, it’s hard to say if this trend can keep up. I can’t imagine this brand of comedy and brilliant writing can make it very far if anything changes with the current crew. It just feels too unique for anyone else to duplicate.
Either way, you’ve got Season 3, and a great DVD set to keep you going for now. The special features are very much worth the money, as always. There’s commentary on each episode, as well as lots of outtakes and deleted scenes. You can’t ask for much more, but then it doesn’t take much to make a good DVD with a show this good. If you’ve been waiting to pick up Community, Season 3 is a culmination of the talent and great writing that have made this show great.
