Community “History 101”

Season 4 of “Community” starts off without a bang, but thankfully it’s not a whimper.  Since the first season, the looming graduation of the characters has raised the question of how long “Community” could survive.  What stories do you tell after graduation?  They will no longer have classes together, the Dean will no longer have to give them news, and their adventures would be separate.  Where does the story go?

“History 101” draws off this fear when Abed realizes this is their last first day of classes.  He draws inside himself to deal with the pain of losing his friends so the episode becomes an inception of Abed’s mind.  Inside his head he imagines his own television channel, Abed TV, where “Community” is a three camera sit-com complete with laugh-track.  In the real world, the gang’s history class is too full because one of the history classes was cancelled.  The Dean creates “The Hunger Deans” which is a competition to earn your spot in the class.  Jeff, trying to get the whole gang in the class, spends the episode trying to win their spots.  Abed, still distraught over the gang starting their last year together, creates a second level of Abed TV.  This level is a cartoon depicting the gang as babies, because then they’d be in school for longer.  At the end of the episode, Abed’s imagination creates a speech for Jeff promising the gang will be together after their graduation.

This episode was pretty interesting, but in the end didn’t connect with me.  It was funny at times, with the laugh track satire and the alternate actor for Pierce in Abed TV, but for the most part this episode fell flat.

2.5/5