‘Community’ Breakdown: ‘Introduction to Teaching’

Community Introduction to Teaching

SPOILERS AHEAD, so study up cautiously, Community buffs…

Season Five, Episode Two: “Introduction to Teaching”

Written by: Andy Bobrow; Directed by: Jay Chandrasekhar

With this episode airing right after “Repilot,” NBC basically had a Jeff Winger hour. This episode follows Jeff’s struggle to become a teacher, a natural story to follow the previous episode. But how much of this season will be focused on Jeff?

Quick Breakdown

Jeff walks into his classroom for his first day teaching Fundamentals of Law. After a barrage of questions, Jeff realizes he has no idea what he’s doing. He doesn’t even have a syllabus! When he goes to his office, he finds that he shares it with Professor Buzz Hickey (Jonathan Banks, aka Mike from Breaking Bad), a grumpy professor who draws duck cartoons. He teaches Jeff to not give a crap about his students, encouraging Jeff to partake in the booze and cigarettes of their Mad Men-like Faculty Lounge instead.

As Jeff deals with his storyline, the rest of the gang joins Abed in a “blow-off” pop culture course called Nicholas Cage: Good or Bad? Professor Sean Garrity (Kevin Corrigan) starts the class by telling everyone that there is no real answer to this question. Abed immediately devotes himself to finding an actual answer, binging on Cage’s films with the gang. While watching Cage act crazy, Annie checks in with Jeff to see how he’s doing. All she hears is him having a good time acting irresponsibly with the faculty.

The next day, Annie joins Jeff’s class. When she sees how abominably he is running things, she tries to teach him how to teach. Hickey convinces Jeff to just give Annie A-minuses until she drops out of the course. “Teachers don’t have to explain minuses. Why do you think we invented them?”, he tells Jeff. He also tells Jeff that the school is a zoo and he needs to be extra cruel to the students to prove his superiority.

When Annie attacks Jeff in the next class, he beats her in an argument, and she storms out. The students are amazed that Jeff outmatched her, and he easily dives into teaching. Hickey gives Annie another A- and she gets depressed. Jeff fixes it for her, dumbly revealing to Annie that the minuses are just given to students that annoy the teacher.

This instigates Annie to lead a riot in the school for slightly higher grades. Jeff tries to calm down everyone by encouraging unity. It doesn’t stop the riot, but it does unify everyone into throwing their meatballs at him. The Dean likes Jeff’s idea of unity and puts Jeff in charge of a Student-Teacher Alliance under a real Save Greendale Committee. Naturally, the Alliance is composed of the core cast along with Hickey (Is he going to be a series regular? Is he Pierce’s replacement?).

As everyone searches for the answer to if Cage is good or bad, Abed goes berserk. He’s somehow unable to understand how an actor can be good or bad at the drop of a hat. In class, he goes into a crazed Nicholas Cage rage and storms out. Shirley eventually talks him down by describing Cage as both an angel and a demon, which somehow seems to make him understand.

Rating

A-

This episode was full of hilarity and spot-on pop culture references that I expect from Community. While I’m not necessarily on board with Jeff taking over every episode, he is becoming an ever-fascinating character. I’m interested to see if they give him a full story arc for the season. And the Student-Teacher Alliance is a neat gimmick to get everyone united again at the table.

Now for some random thoughts and my favorite moments of the night…

So many great Nicholas Cage jokes.

“Maybe he’s just good in good movies and then acts crazy in crap to make drug money.” – Shirley

“I think he’s a genius. He keeps getting hired for some reason and it’s not because of his hair.” – Troy

“If I was in 70 films over 30 years, and I spent each one talking at random volumes I might accidentally win an Oscar.” – Shirley

The board in the classroom says: Always Be Cageing

After Abed’s freak out, Troy chases after him saying, “Think of something safe like Holly Hunter or Don Cheadle.”

Two random asides:

1. What was with a French chick singing the Dean’s thoughts as he looked on at the gang?

2. Was the tag ending supposed to be funny? Troy and Abed are dressed as furniture in Hickey’s office and he ignores them as he makes phone calls that reveal how depressing his life is.

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One Response

  1. I don’t have cable so I wouldn’t have known there was a new season of Community if it weren’t for this blog. Thanks, John! Aside #1: the Dean’s French song was subtitled on Hulu. It was very random. As random as the tag ending. Highlight for me was Magnitude’s appearance. Pop Pop!

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