[kirant]

Well, found it.

Written as I was watching the episode:
- The "Community TV" component wasn't bad. It seems like an extended closing joke. At least, in its first level. Then it got weird.
- Definitely closer to a slapstick episode. Not really Community's strong suit.
- Overly long gags don't work. I think Family Guy proved it a while ago. I don't see why they decided to try it here.
- Characters feel a bit off. Almost feels intentional on some (Annie, who was just attempting to overdo...whatever it is she was trying to do...didn't catch that at the opening), others feel like they needed to make one up just so they still had a gimmick (Abed). Some just felt like wanted to have characters do something to pad the time (Britta, Troy).
- The show picks up to more like itself towards the very end. Too bad it was only 3-4 minutes in length.

It was a weak episode...probably the lowest I can remember since the Pilot (which seemed to be more of a conceptual thing than an actual episode), though I'd argue that's a testament to the quality of the series as a whole that it has been so consistent. Community is driven by meta humour and its seeming inability to ignore use of tropes and point their own use of it. I think with the loss of their TVtropes dweller, the latter will go unfortunately. Time will tell if the meta humour comes back instead of just arbitrary cultural references...well, at least that didn't change.

I have a bit of faith in the writing group though - it didn't seem like the online videos lost any steam from how it was before. Not to mention the end of the episode actually seemed like an actual Community story. Hopefully it was more early writing jitters than anything else. Or just some convoluted attack against sitcom plots.