Community: Season 1, Episode 19 "Beginner Pottery" Review

 "Pierce is going to be the only person ever to drown in a parking lot...twice."

-Troy Barnes

"Beginner Pottery" picks up with Jeff (Joel McHale) arriving at study group to announce that he has found the ultimate, blow-off class for the semester, which is Beginner Pottery.  You just have to show up to get an A.  Abed (Danny Pudi) and Annie (Alison Brie) agree to take it with Jeff.  Pierce (Chevy Chase) suggests a sailing class where you can learn to sail without ever leaving the Greendale parking lot.  Britta (Gillian Jacobs), Shirley (Yvette Nicole Brown), and Troy (Donald Glover) agree to weigh anchor with Pierce.

In Beginner Pottery, Professor Holly (Tony Hale) greets the class and tells them his only rule is that no one can recreate the pottery scene from the movie Ghost.  Jeff slacks off in class, but gets jealous of another student, Rich (Greg Cromer), who has incredible natural talent and receives praise from everyone else in the class.  Jeff goes back to the pottery classroom at night to practice on his own, but finds that he is terrible at pottery.

Jeff decides to fake an injured finger to avoid participating in class, but Rich reveals he is a doctor and examines Jeff's finger to find no injury.  Jeff becomes convinced that Rich is an expert potter and only taking the class to impress people.  This only becomes magnified when Jeff learns Rich is from Santa Fe, New Mexico.  Jeff ends up trying to call Rich out as a fraud, destroying one of Rich's projects, and inadvertently recreating the pottery scene from Ghost, which gets Jeff kicked out of the class.

In the sailing class, Shirley is made Captain, which makes Pierce jealous.  Professor Slaughter (Lee Majors) tells them that the parking lot pavement is the sea and anything that falls overboard is gone.  The class learns that they will pass or fail as a team and Pierce quickly causes difficulty on the ship.  When a "perfect storm" hits, Pierce is knocked overboard by the jib and Shirley orders the crew to abandon Pierce to save the ship.

Jeff finds Pierce putting together a row boat with wheels and the two have a heart-to-heart.  Jeff admits that he grew up believing he was special because his mother always told him so.  He has a hard time being bad at things.  Pierce tells Jeff not to let being bad at things stop him.  Pierce fails all the time, but calls failure living.  With that, Pierce rows back to his sailing class, but accidently gets stuck in the grass and hits a sprinkler, which causes his boat to start filling with water.  Shirley orders the others to rescue Pierce regardless of the storm, which they do.  Shirley tells Professor Slaughter that the boat may sink, but at least it will go down with honor.  Professor Slaughter praises her decision and gives the class an A.

Jeff convinces Professor Holly to let him return to class and he apologizes and explains himself to Rich.  They make peace and go back to making pottery.  Jeff imagines making peace with his mother, while Rich hears his own mother inside of his head who just berates him and wishes he had died instead of his brother.

The episode ends with Chang (Ken Jeong) returning to the locker room at the YMCA to discover his stuff has been stolen.  He leaves the locker room in just a Speedo and a bike helmet.

What Works:

Jeff has a wonderful character arc in this episode.  Jeff is frequently the "straight man" of the show and it's always fun to have him melt down and be the crazy one for an episode.  McHale does a fantastic job showing off Jeff's insecurity, frustration, and insanity.  His impression of Jeff Goldblum is hilarious and one of my favorite parts of the episode.

I also really like the introduction of Dr. Rich.  He's a fun character who shows up a few more times.  Greg Cromer gives a really likable performance and I love his rapport with McHale.  The disturbed face he makes at the end of the episode as he listens to his mother berate him is simply gold, even if the show never goes anywhere with it.   

Speaking of guest starts, Tony Hale and Lee Majors are both awesome in their roles as Greendale professors.  Neither get a ton to do, but they both have some memorable lines and I really enjoy their teaching styles.

The sailing class is an all-time for me.  The visuals of taking a sailing class in the middle of a parking lot are simply perfect.  They get a ton of hilarious mileage out of the scenario and I love how serious the cast treats the silliness.

Finally, this is probably the best Pierce episode of the series.  He's at his best when he actually gets to impart some wisdom on to Jeff.  His monologue about failure and the way he embraces it is truly inspiring, not just to Jeff, but to me as well.  It makes me want to get into a rowboat with wheels and row back to my sailing class.

What Sucks:

I got nothing for you.

Funniest Moment:

For me, the funniest moment of the episode is when Pierce crashes his rowboat and it starts filling with water.  Donald Glover gives a brilliant delivery of a perfect line, which is the one I used at the top of this piece.  It's so good that it's in the conversation for funniest moment of season 1 and even the entire show.

Heavenly Human Being: 

The Heavenly Human Being Award goes to the MVP of the episode.  For "Beginner Pottery," there are a few options, but I feel like I have to go with Pierce Hawthorne for the inspiring speech he gives Jeff and his refusal to give up.  I think it's Pierce best moment in the entire show and I want to reward him for it.  This is his 2nd time winning this Award, which ties him for 3rd place with Britta.

Verdict:

"Beginner Pottery" is one of the best episodes of season 1 and one of the episodes I show people to try and get them into the show.  Jeff and Pierce both have great character arcs with Pierce having his best episode of the entire show, the classes and the guest stars are a lot of fun, and everything with the sailing class is simply gold.  This episode has absolutely got it going on.

 10/10: Amazing