One of the joys of Community is that it’s been able to take common sitcom stories, funnel them through the odd-ball world that is Greendale, and make them into their own creations. If it weren’t for Modern Family, Community would be the best new show of the season. The latest installment, “Basic Genealogy,” was another strong episode that, again, took bland stories and made them gut bustingly hilarious.
It was Family Day at Greendale, which in itself was pretty funny, but that meant we got to meet some of the Study Group’s family. We’d already met Abed’s dad, but we were introduced to his burka-wearing cousin, Shirley brought her kids, Troy his evil grandmother, and Pierce his ex-step-daughter Amber (Katherine McPhee). The episode started with Jeff getting dumped by Professor Slater, but in typical Jeff fashion, brushed it off. He immediately grosses out his classmates by sharing his plan to start hooking up with a random girl right away, which is when he meets Amber. Unfortunately, he’s blocked by Pierce, who is paying for Amber to go to photography school. Though he can’t remember her mother’s name, Pierce views Amber as the closest thing he has to a daughter, so he decides to keep Jeff around to get her to like him.
But Amber wants to hook up with Jeff, not hang out with her creepy ex-step-dad, so she goes along with it all, even through a hilariously bad Pictionary game, where Pierce’s swastika of a windmill offends Senor Cheng’s brother, Rabbi Cheng. When Jeff and Amber finally get their moment in a supply closet, Jeff discovers Amber is simply grifting Pierce. Jeff then faces a moral dilemma that doesn’t stop him from sleeping with her (“Yeah, but not twice. I wanted to do it twice.”), but Annie, who popped up to be the voice of reason for the episode, convinced him to tell Pierce. When he did, he revealed that Pierce’s friends are his family and that he was hurt by Professor Slater (and her irrational love of Glee). Aww.
Britta and Troy had my favorite story of the night, as Britta was brushing off Troy’s claims that his grandmother was the meanest woman you’d ever meet, insisting she’s probably a sweet old woman. She, of course, wasn’t, but Britta was so determined to be right, that she went so far as to get lashed by a switch she fetched for her, as Troy cried in the background. It was pure slap stick (see what i did there?), and provided some of the funnier moments of the episode. It’s been great to see the show change Britta from the righteous girl she was in the first few episodes, and her chemistry with Troy is pretty good.
Last, there was the weak link of the night, with Shirley and her kids Elijah (like the prophet) and Jordan (like the 14-time NBA All-Star) mingling with Abed and his disapproving father. Abed’s dad thought Shirley was a bad mother for letting her kids run wild, while Shirley didn’t like that Abed’s cousin wasn’t allowed to jump in the bouncy castle. It was a rushed plot line that just didn’t do it for me, thought it did produce a great line from Senor Cheng, who greets Abed’s cousin with, “Hey, Phantom Menace, how’s the trade embargo with the Naboo?” I’m still a little uncertain about Shirley’s character. She’s the most underdeveloped, so there’s a hesitancy that goes with each of her stories for me.
So all in all, it was a pretty funny episode. Like I said at the start, there were several typical sitcom tropes (The girl is using his affections to get money! Old people really aren’t so sweet!), but they were done in a unique way, which is what makes Community fun to watch. Katherine McPhee was a little shaky at the end when we found out Amber was evil, and the Abed-Shirley story was not my favorite, but the rest was pretty solid and enjoyable to watch.
Michael’s Score: 67
TUIW Grade: B
Michael
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