5 Awesome things from Community: ‘Origins of Vampire Mythology’

I found “Origins of Vampire Mythology” to be lower on the jokes per minute than previous outings (though it’s still a great batting average), and it wasn’t a high intensity send up like last week’s “Pillows and Blankets” but it was a very strong episode all around.

“Origins of Vampire Mythology” was about our character’s flaws, mainly Britta’s that played on a lot of the character’s flaws and the group’s dynamics pulling on issues/conflicts/encounters between the characters over the seasons. This episode has more mileage for those who are dedicated viewers who keeping track of all these moments, and let’s face it, with the strong and crazy fan-base, that’s probably most viewers. The payoff comes from understanding where many of these subtle reactions and small moments and running jokes are coming from. The great thing about this episode that pulls the characters together and apart in such a complex way is that nothing has to be contrived to get these characters into these situation, even the Dean shoe-horned in by Vice-Dean Laybourne comes from an ongoing story. The mythology of Community runs so deep and the characters are so detailed that all of this draws from moments over the past few seasons that making each interaction so rganic.

1) Dean Pelton, Always. It’s always a pleasure to get a visit from Vice-Dean Laybourne, his intimidation tactics were delicious, and his plan to get the Dean to convince Troy to join the school of air conditioning repair was a great way to get the Dean involved in the largely off-campus plot. Jim Rash’s subtle facial expressions match his expertise in big physical comedy and his distress over not knowing how to make a scotch and soda “Get me a book on how to do things” and continuously being asked “What are you doing here?” plus his engineer outfit and pajamas for boys night made for a great night of Dean.

2) Troy’s Moment. Over the run of Community Troy has become more and more co-dependent to Abed having less meaningful interaction solo with the other members of the study group. One of the benefits of his realization of this dynamic followed by a fight, then a war before a peace was found, is that Troy is once again finding his independent voice and given moments to be a more serious, grounded character.

Troy was able to see the problem with Britta that Annie was blind to (probably because she shares the weakness for the bad boy). He knew that kind words would push Britta away from Blade, in that moment we’re brought back to that hug from “Documentary Filmmaking: Redux” where Troy and Britta lingered a little too long. Troy and Britta have had their moments over the seasons, think about their shared love of dance dating back to season one’s “Interpretive Dance”. The sadness in Troy’s voice and on his face cut through the comedy and pierced the heart. It was interesting that the episode that seems to focus on Jeff’s feelings for Britta that bring up Troy’s, and his realizing that he’s a nice guy who isn’t going to get that girl.

It’s interesting that we never saw the text that Troy sent Britta, it would be nice to see that come into play later on. Knowing how well Community has been at picking up loose ends like that I predict that we will see something come of it by season’s end

3) It’s all about Jeff. Everything is always all about Jeff. I’m undecided as to whether this is an awesome thing or not. Jeff’s breakdown at the carnival felt too similar to his freakout while on anti-anxiety meds in “Contemporary Impressionists”. I love that despite certain developments in Jeff’s character, for example his moment with the magic hats last week, his character remains absolutely ego-maniacal. That kind of commitment to such an unlikable character trait is commendable. No one wants a soft mushy Jeff, in moments of weakness and temporary insanity sure, but we don’t want to change Jeff Winger for good, we need him that way.

Did get to see the fantastic Shirley and Jeff pairing, it’s something that we don’t see too often but they work very well together and something we can always use more of since their friendship was forged back in “Foosball and Nocturnal Vigilantism”. Differing from the sexual tension between the other female members of the study group, the understandable disconnect from Troy and Abed and well… Pierce, Shirley really gets him.

4) Britta Loves Blade. The girl is a junkie for the carnie named after a fantastic kickboxing vampire movie , Blade played by Kirk Fox (a.k.a Parks and Recreation’s Sewage Joe), turned her into a lying scheming backstabbing crazy person. It was an especially nice touch to play on the trope in vampire mythology where a vampire has a power over his prey causing her to fall madly in love with him losing all sense of themselves.

Britta’s descent into Blade-Madness was a great opportunity for Gillian Jacobs to really pull out her comedic chops, with some fantastic bits of physical comedy. She’s so wonderful it’s episodes like these that make a case for more funny, flawed Britta rather than all those times she’s the fun vampire.

The Blade story not only showcased Britta’s faults, but it shone a light on the flaws and insecurities of other members of the study group.  It was also a great opportunity to revisit Jeff’s feelings for Britta (though his feelings were mostly about validating himself), the potential feelings between Troy and Britta (see above) and it brought out a great opportunity to showcase Annie’s insecurities as she desperately craved Britta’s friendship while deeply understanding what was driving her to act out, y’know, as a former pill-head.  The Blade jokes even got Pierce included in the group…briefly.

Bonus, we got Britta to yell a stream of the worst insults she could think of “You’re monsters, you’re Hitlers, you’re racist pedophiles, you’re the opposites of Batman”

5) Abed does Standup. I would watch Abed do overly specific 90s style stand up for days. If NBC doesn’t release an “Abed’s Comedy Special” online I’m going to be super bummed.

Chang Watch 2012: I liked the idea of the two most unlikable characters on the show pairing off together to find best friendship. It had its brief moments (I can hardly resist a montage) but it wasn’t really the best use of either character and it was time that could have been spent with the other characters and Abed’s Stand-Up.

Runners Up (a.k.a Bonus  Awesome): Of course this calls for a Blade marathon because if Abed didn’t pounce on that the world would be wrong, mid afternoon wardrobe adjustments, and these:

 “Left unattended I will end up doing him like a crossword and I will regret it”

“I need help reacting to something”

“chain me to the radiator like a motherflipping carnie banging werewolf”

“She was born in the ’80s! She still uses her phone as a phone!”

“Sorry Britta, some things are funny because they make no sense and that is not one of them”

What were your favourite moments of “Origins of Vampire Mythology”? Let me know what you thought of the episode in the comments!