Community: Season 1, Episode 16 "Communication Studies" Review

 "Have you met me?!"

-Señor Chang

"Communication Studies" picks up with a happy Jeff Winger (Joel McHale) enjoying his low-maintenance relationship with Professor Slater (Lauren Stamile).  Slater has to chaperone Greendale's Valentine's Day Dance the next day and Jeff decides to join her.

Jeff gets a voicemail from a very drunk Britta (Gillian Jacobs) with Booty Call Implications.  When Jeff plays it for her to roast her, Britta gets very embarrassed and leaves.  Abed (Danny Pudi) overhears their conversation and is concerned that the power balance between Jeff and Britta has shifted too far.  Jeff is skeptical at first, but notices that Britta is acting weird and awkward around him, even when he tries to make her feel better.

Jeff asks Abed for advice on how to fix the situation with Britta and Abed suggests Jeff drunk dialing her back.  Jeff tries acting drunk, but isn't convincing enough for Abed.  Afraid that Britta might leave the group if the situation isn't fixed, Abed and Jeff get heavily drunk to make the drunk call believable and real for Britta.  The next day, they wake up very hungover and discover Jeff made a call to Britta and another to Slater, but they don't remember either one.

The Greendale Human Being is delivering Valentine's Day presents around the school and Pierce (Chevy Chase) and Troy (Donald Glover) are insecure about not getting any, so they make up fake ladies and send presents to themselves.  Señor Chang (Ken Jeon) calls them out and exposes them in class.  Annie (Alison Brie) and Shirley (Yvette Nicole Brown) are furious at Chang and decide to get him back.  The create a fake letter from Princeton offering Chang an associate professor position.  Chang doesn't buy it and believes Pierce and Troy were trying to get back at him, so he tells them they will fail his class unless they accompany him to the Valentine's Dance in elegant, ladies pantsuits.

At the Valentine's Dance, Troy and Pierce prepare to go dance with Chang in their pantsuits, but Annie and Shirley stop them and admit they were behind the Princeton letter and offer to take Chang's punishment in their place.  Troy and Pierce refuse and say that it is their manly duty to protect them from Chang and go out to dance with him.

Jeff arrives at the dance to a frosty reception from Slater, who reveals he ended his drunk dial to her when he realized she wasn't Britta.  Jeff explains himself, but Slater gets upset that Jeff is willing to put more work into his friendship with Britta than his relationship with her.  Britta arrives at the dance dressed to the nines and tells Jeff that he asked her out to the dance over his call.  Jeff is flabbergasted and tells her he doesn't remember the call. Britta laughs because she was just messing with him and plays the voicemail for Jeff and Slater.  It's Jeff talking about how great and perfect Slater is and how happy he is with her, which mends things between Jeff and Slater.

The episode ends with Pierce and Chang leaving Troy behind to go get frozen yogurt.

What Works:

I think this episode has really good conflict in the character dynamics.  Jeff has issues with Britta, Abed, and Slater over the course of the episode and I think all of these conflicts have interesting aspects to them and some really great dialogue.  All four actors give really good performances and it's fun to explore the relationships Jeff has with these people.  The main plot is very character driven and that only works when you have good characters.  That's something Community has in spades.

Danny Pudi is particularly awesome here.  I love seeing him in director mode while making one of his films.  It's something I would have loved more of over the course of the series.  He then transitions into directing Jeff in fixing the situation with Britta.  It's seamless and a really fun performance to watch.

The drunken montage sequence of Jeff and Abed is iconic.  I would love to party with them.  The random pizza guy joining in is just awesome.  And it leads to some something even more wonderful with Abed being hungover and forgetting all of his movie reference.  So good.

I love that Britta dressed up to mess with Jeff.  The episode doesn't show us at first what Jeff said in his message to Britta, so she is pranking us alongside Jeff.  Gillian Jacobs really sells it and it's fun to watch Jeff squirm.

Finally, the Chang storyline is another good one.  If you told me Chang would be getting revenge on Troy and Pierce in this episode, I don't think I would have guessed that pantsuits would be the punishment.  It's absurd, but gives us some great lines from both Chase and Glover.  And watching Troy dance through his tears is hysterical.

What Sucks:

I own this season on DVD and this episode has two versions; the TV edit and the the Producer's Cut.  When I rewatch the show, I usually watch the Producer's Cut because I like it better.  There's a little more breathing room for the jokes and the flow works better most of the time.  For this rewatch, I'm using the TV versions just because I want to judge the final product.  Because I'm used to the Producer's Cut, the TV version feels rushed at a few points.  I don't think you would notice if you hadn't seen the Producer's Cut, but I definitely do.  It's not terrible by any means, but it's noticeable.

Funniest Moment:

For me, the funniest moment of the episode is when Pierce and Troy stop Annie and Shirley from taking their place in Chang's punishment.  Specifically when Pierce says they need to handle this like men and they reveal their pantsuits and head out onto the dance floor.  Hysterical. 

Heavenly Human Being:

The Heavenly Human Being goes to the MVP of the episode.  For "Communication Studies," this Award goes to Abed Nadir for helping Jeff to fix the situation with Britta.  This is Abed's 5th time winning this Award, which puts him in 1st place all by himself.

Verdict:

"Communication Studies" is a very well-written episode with great use of conflict between various character dynamic.  It develops these relationships in interesting way, while still being hilarious.   Jeff, Britta, and Abed are all fantastic here and Chang's pantsuit punishment is so absurd, but I love it.  I do think the Producer's Cut is superior, but this episode has still got it going on!

 9/10: Great