As much as I loved last night’s episode of Community, I think “Virtual Systems Analysis” is going to be pretty tough to write about. Luckily, I’m pretty sure most of you who readCommunity reviews do also watch the series, so I won’t waste too much time explaining the complicated premise.

The bulk of the episode took place inside Troy and Abed’s Dreamatorium, with Abed jumping from character to character, impersonating all his friends in an effort to explain how all this works to Annie. He was annoyed because Annie was pushing Troy and Britta together, but she hadn’t run to scenarios in her head to determine just how such a relationship would effect the rest of the group.

I read that Allison Brie and Danny Pudi had no idea what was going on as they filmed this episode, and I can totally understand why. Without the special effects it seems like it would be nearly impossible to grasp, so major props to Dan Harmon and whoever came up with this idea. I think the concept was a big success in execution.

Community has always been pretty boss at delivering wacky, out-there episodes that still have a lot of heart and reveal a lot about the complicated interpersonal relationships at play in the series. I loved how this dove into not only Abed’s unconventional personality, but his friendships within the group – particularly his friendship with Annie.

The episode certainly wasn’t the funniest Community has done, but that’s the thing that people either love or hate about Community. Sometimes the jokes fly so fast you need to watch the episode twice, and other times an episode is more about exploring characters more deeply, or looking at a new method of storytelling. And the actors/characters impersonating one another provided enough laughs to keep the episode moving.

There were other funny parts too, like the parody of medical soaps that we got when Abed played out Annie’s medical school fantasy and some of the things outside the Dreamatorium, like Dean Pelton’s half man, half woman costume.

A lot of this season has been about what the gang will do after moving on from Greendale, and a big part of that has been the Troy/air-conditioner repair school arc. This episode built on that, showing that Abed isn’t just worried about losing Troy. He’s worried about losing all his friends, even after three years of friendship.

What did you guys think about the episode? Did you enjoy it as much as I did, or was it not your jam?

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Couchtime/~3/3uQilgez-hY/