Jump to content

FJ Reviews & Recaps

  • entries
    488
  • comments
    466
  • views
    85,913

Contributors to this blog

  • crazyforkate 304
  • Maggie Mae 97
  • jinjy2 35
  • MarblesMom 33
  • Curious 9
  • GolightlyGrrl 8
  • kunoichi66 2

Worldly Distractions: Community 5.13 - Basic Sandwich


crazyforkate

243 views

blog-basicsandwich.jpg 

COMMUNITY -- "Basic Sandwich" Episode 511 -- Pictured: (l-r) Yvette Nicole Brown as Shirley Bennett, Jonathan Banks as Professor Hickey, John Oliver as Professor Duncan -- (Photo by: Justin Lubin/NBC)

Okay, I'm not going to get into the same wailing as last year, because I thought it would be the series finale, and we all know it wasn't. On the other hand, this really could be the end of the show. So, let's just say that it's been a really fun season (better than Four, anyway, but getting punched in the face is better than Four), and an incredible adventure all the way. Let's see how this season finishes.  Will they save Greendale? Probably.

 

We learn about the origins of Greendale via old video footage and narration from the Dean. Russell Borchert (Chris Elliot), recently wealthy through the invention of the 9-track tape, founded a computer school back in the day. However, he was forced out due to his unnatural affection for computers. The city took over Greendale, and a shitty community college was born. However, Borchert supposedly left a treasure on the property. It is supposedly hidden in a secret computer department on the campus. If they can find it, they can possibly buy back the school from Subway. The quest is on! Opening credits, after a few dick jokes.

While Chang listens at the door, the group finds the approximate spot for the hidden stairwell, but when Hickey breaks through with an axe, they only find wires. Duncan, of course, promptly electrocutes himself. They start to argue. Jeff chooses this moment to break the news about his engagement to Britta. Everyone is shocked, especially Annie and the Dean, but there's no time to argue. Abed has uncovered the stairwell, and School Board representatives are banging down the door.

When they do get in, however, they find Shirley, Hickey and a near-comatose Duncan cheerfully holding a tea party. The others are in the stairwell, hidden under the carpet. While Britta and Jeff bicker (oh, and search for the treasure), Annie admits to Abed that she's not so sold on saving Greendale now, with Pierce and Troy gone and Jeff and Britta getting married. Abed tries to comfort her with an extended sitcom analogy, predicting that the Winger-Perry spinoff will be cancelled in about six episodes - as long as they find the treasure. He also thinks Annie's about to kiss him, but hey, this ain't Star Wars paintball.

The Dean has unearthed some treasures, including a toy rocket launcher, but not the treasure. He chokes on one of the pieces. The gang blatantly ignore this, waving their flashlights around as Jeff and Britta engage in PDA and Annie rolls her eyes. The Dean coughs up the item and yells at them for ignoring his near-death experience. Solving a riddle involving a jukebox, they manage to open the door and find a perfectly preserved piece of 70's nerddom. It doesn't take long to find Borchert's gold. The only snag? Borchert himself is there to guard it. Abed updates him on major pop culture happenings. The mad professor charges. Fortunately, Jeff manages to subdue him in seconds.

Hickey, Shirley and Duncan have been apprehended, and are interrogated by the School Board. They give up nothing. One of the School Board members stares into their eyes, hallucinates, and has a revelation. The missing Committee members are on the roof. Apparently, they stole a hang glider and are now at a Greek restaurant across town. The villains run to stop them. However, they are interrupted by some mechanics, who tell them that they found a trapdoor next to the vending machines. Oops.

Borchert has come around a little, and tells them of his survival (huge stockpiles of food, toilet paper and cocaine). However, he refuses to let them touch his computer...which is named Raquel. BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Jeff almost convinces him to break up with the machine, but Annie is unsure of their goal at all. She asks them to respect Borchert, because Greendale isn't worth it. In exchange for their kindness, Borchert offers them his money stash - a duffel bag full of Gerald Ford Dollars. Greendale is saved!

Or at least, it is until Chang and the School Board catch up with them. They take the money and kill "Raquel" with a magnet, shutting the doors to the room and trapping the Committee forever. To pass the time, Borchert shows them his cool programming tricks (which Britta can defeat in about 0.8 seconds on her phone). Apparently, his computer can respond to human emotion. He mentions that he started Greendale in the process, which prompts an idea from Jeff. He digs around in some papers and finds out that the school legally belongs to Borchert. Wait, didn't they know he started Greendale already? Why didn't they pursue this before?

Anyway, he's found the contract, Greendale is saved, yada yada. The only problem is, Raquel is still frozen so they can't get the doors open. Borchert suggests that "a burst of passion" might revive her. Jeff asks them all to turn around. At first I think he's going to expose himself, but instead he puts on some sensors, looks at his friends, and remembers all the good times they had together. So the power of love opens the door, fortunately not frying Jeff's brain in the process (though it does give the Dean unrealistic hopes). They run to save their school.

Subway holds a ceremony celebrating the new university. Just as they are about to formally take over the school, Jeff shows up with an old contract and a tenuous knowledge of legal procedure. Borchert is the new Vice-Dean, and Subway has no authority. Since they "don't do conflict", they back down pretty quickly. Greendale is - finally - saved.

The School Board rants, Starburns puts on Dave Matthews, and everyone has a dance party. Duncan is back to normal, Jeff and Britta call off the engagement on a flimsy pretext, and Hickey expresses his sincere admiration for Shirley (and admits that he actually was thinking of a hang glider). A Native American man who looks exactly like the famous commercial claims that Greendale's only owner is the land. For his treachery, Chang is invited to join the School Board, then tasked with delivering the Gerald Ford dollars to the school bursar. It never gets there, of course.

Abed and Annie discuss how they never got to celebrate Halloween and Christmas, but they'll "definitely be back next year". Abed suggests that if they aren't back next year, it's because of an asteroid destroying the world..."and that's canon". Annie marks off the task of "Save Greendale" as done. Jeff bangs his gavel, and the season is DONE.

Tag scene: A fake promo for a new show starring the School Board and Chang, which basically spends its entire screentime poking fun at NBC.

So, as a season finale? It was okay. The story was interesting enough, and I liked Abed's meta commentary, though it does grow tiresome. At the same time, though, the episode felt as if it was painted by numbers. The Britta/Jeff thing was lazily written out, the storyline came to a perfunctory end - and save for what Abed said, there wasn't really a fun stylistic twist or anything to hold our attention. I've said this many times before, but Community is at its weakest when it gets too wrapped up in its own mythology. Here, it made exactly that error. Still, this past season has been good and I'm glad we've had it. With any luck, tune in next year!

FJ Discussion Thread

0 Comments


Recommended Comments

There are no comments to display.

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Posts

    • Xan

      Posted

      I always find these Trump fantasy worlds very bizarre.  He's never in a nice suit meeting a world leader or even in a fireman's suit saving a child from a burning building.  It's always some fake macho outfit and, in this case, driving a car with a Confederate flag on it.  Their heroes don't seem that heroic.

    • JDuggs

      Posted

      On 12/22/2023 at 11:51 PM, JDuggs said:

      It looks like Micah is in a relationship, or very good friends, with this Florida realtor Veronica Peters. I’ve seen photos of them together on Micah’s IG, but I always thought she kind of looked too old for him. Maybe not.

      This was on Moriah’s IG:

        Hide contents

      image.thumb.jpeg.e5583f82734714ccb023fc889e4f0f90.jpeg

      And this was on Veronica’s personal IG and professional IG:

        Hide contents

      image.thumb.jpeg.e637a588be2f14fc379935962e743f47.jpeg

        Hide contentsimage.thumb.png.bfaa9a4a2ac77388067acef5c5afb81c.png

       

      Quoting myself from six months ago. I think this really is Micah’s girlfriend. She doesn’t seem quite as public about their relationship as she did back then.

      This photo of Veronica didn’t get copied over from my old post.

      Spoiler

      image.thumb.jpeg.0ae44da117d43f1db49868c42924ea03.jpeg

       

      • Upvote 1
    • JermajestyDuggar

      Posted

      There was a post on social media talking about this recent interview with Ballerina Farm and asking what people think about some of the things in it. So many commenters were like, “it’s her business! It’s not your life so why do you care?” This is the type of thing that bugs me to no end. Ballerina Farm posts their lives willingly! They post their children’s lives! Of course people will speculate and care! If they didn’t put their lives all over social media none of us would know anything about them. 

      • Upvote 1
    • LongTimeLurkerOG

      Posted

      On 7/25/2024 at 6:47 PM, LilMissMetaphor said:

      Just FYI in case someone missed it the first time round, this is what Art wrote on Reddit a year ago addressing some of the concerns that were brought up.  It's very telling if you read between some of the lines.

      "I don’t lie or make fraudulent claims to get money. That’s what a grifter is. I’ve closed all previous fundraisers and not all of them were successfully funded – for instance my legal name change and wedding fund did not get funded, so I still haven’t had a chance to do those things.

      I’m unable to work for a variety of medically supported reasons. It’s not okay to ask disabled people for proof of their disability simply because it’s medical information. To entertain the question is to concede that it’s okay to go ask other disabled people for their private medical history. It’s a common misconception that people pretend to be disabled for benefits or monetary gain, but it’s rare and doesn’t really make sense to do because benefits and fundraising add up to so little.

      I have been going to Seattle to look at possible places to live because it’s literally unavoidable, and I’ve been in severe pain because of it. That doesn’t mean I could do manual labor on a consistent basis. I don’t even drive, so I’ve had to cover gas and ask friends for help with rides.

      Have you ever tried working at a call center? I have. They’re severely strict and demanding, and incredibly demoralizing without paying much. They’re not an accessible alternative for people who can’t do more demanding manual labor. “Get a job like the rest of us” is ableist and is a fundamental misunderstanding of how accessible jobs are. It’s no better than yelling it at someone panhandling on the street. The supposedly “easy” or “low-skill” jobs are still difficult to do.

      I do use what resources I can, but it’s a total myth that there’s a robust social welfare system anywhere in the United States. If there was, we wouldn’t have so many hundreds of thousands of homeless people here, with millions more just a few missed paychecks away from joining them.

      The toxic mold was confirmed. My partner is literally terminally ill from it. If you read the actual updates, the name of the illness and the research surrounding it have been detailed. We have a letter from the pulmonologist that we sent to the landlord explaining that the environment my partner was in was causing the illness. Again, you’re demanding medical proof that you have no reason to ask about. Some things can’t just be washed out.

      I am as clear as I can possibly be about specific needs so that people know what they’re helping to support. I have said again and again that people shouldn’t give unless they can spare it and want to help. I even said that in the post linked to in this comment thread. My patreon is explicitly to support my writing.

      So why am I still fundraising and making money off telling my story? Because I literally have no other real options. I’ve been formally diagnosed with PTSD, it’s not “alleged trauma.” If it was working all that well, I wouldn’t have to keep detailing my needs.

      The real grifters in our society are billionaires, not poor disabled people. You sound like you just hate us for trying to exist."

      I remember reading this before. Well, they can take all their reasons and Stop. Grifting. Plenty of people with disabilities work and /or receive assistance (as I mentioned previously, my exPOS, who has disabilities so I'm familiar with a number of options and money). Some family, have / had disabilities. I've been an advocate for services and staff training (and provided training) for Years with previous positions - because it matters to me. So, yea, Artemis get. a. job. 

      57 minutes ago, Ozlsn said:

      Art lists manual labour and call centres. And that's it. Not any jobs they could look at involving writing, from editing to writing student essays for money (yes it's dodgy but people do it). Not even playing video games for money (get character to a level where they have cool stuff for someone.)  Nothing about remote work, which there is more of now, and not even entry level white collar work.

      On the one hand I agree with them that the social support is inadequate, and that detailing your medical needs shouldn't have to happen - but they just grifted nearly $5000 to move and for a holiday, and with the amount of effort that took they probably could have held down employment of some description and to be honest would probably be better off.

      So many WFH/remote legit jobs now. Hell, you can play games on your phone and earn gift cards; donate blood and get gift cards. I knew a homeless couple that donated plasma for higher amount g.c.

      Absolutely! The amount of money; it's disgusting. And that amount of effort... At some point, even we don't want to or circumstances we don't want to deal with and adult, because... We're adults! Plenty of things I want to ignore or not deal with, just have go away but persevere because the alternative... not an option.

      2 hours ago, Bookworm1564 said:

      My all-time favourite Art post is the one where they say “Just for today, you can double the impact of your support with this opportunity” as if this was the moment we were all waiting for.

      Like a sale for limited-time-only 🤣

    • justpassingthru

      Posted (edited)

      So another page shared the Lott's story and this is a comment on that post. People believe "Fundy Snark" is a person. There are at least a couple other comments that refer to the sub as a person

      Screenshot_20240726_191210_Instagram.jpg

       

      Screenshot_20240726_191619_Instagram.jpg

      Edited by justpassingthru
      • Upvote 1


×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use.