Episode: “Introduction to Teaching”
Writer: Andy Bobrow
Director: Jay Chandrasekhar
Previously on “Community”:
After “Repilot” set the stage for “Community 2.0,” “Introduction to Teaching” settles into the new status quo as Jeff (Joel McHale) discovers that his new role as a teacher comes with a certain set of rules. For starters, Jeff can’t get away with leering at female students or verbally berating Leonard (Richard Erdman). More importantly, Jeff can’t simply phone in his job in the same way that he coasted through school. Even at Greendale, the students expect the teachers to actually teach.
There’s a certain vulnerability in Jeff’s demeanor during the opening scenes in this episode. Under the withering glare of the Greendale students, even Jeff’s snark can’t protect him. Putting Jeff in a position of authority at Greendale has actually reduced his standing on campus. Now his every action is scrutinized in a way that could actually affect his employment and his livelihood. As a student, he didn’t have to worry about any of that.
With Pierce out of “Community” for the foreseeable future, Jonathan Banks makes his debut as Buzz Hickey, the Criminology professor at Greendale. Hickey isn’t a directly replacement for Pierce, but he is part of the new incarnation of the study group (now called the student-teacher Save Greendale alliance). The biggest departure from the Jeff and Pierce dynamic is that Jeff actually likes Hickey. Hickey is the mentor to Jeff that Pierce could never be because Hickey actually knows what he’s talking about and he’s mastered the art of getting by at Greendale… even if he sees it as a prison rather than a fulfilling career.
It’s Hickey who inducts Jeff into the surprisingly luxurious teachers’ lounge and the benefits of not caring what the students think of him. Using Annie (Alison Brie) as the common link between Jeff and Hickey was an inspired choice. Annie may be the one of the most brilliant students in either of their classes, but Jeff and Hickey resent her because she pushes them farther than they want to go. Annie’s witness intimidation assignment was a terrific visual gag, as was Hickey’s half joking suggestion that Annie be rubbed out… of Jeff’s class by giving her an A minus and making her think that her grades are slipping.
As much as Jeff would like to deny it, Annie’s presence in his class actually leads to his first breakthrough as a teacher. His students are so impressed with how he won an argument with Annie that they intently listen as he shares his philosophy for practicing law. And it’s definitely an interesting perspective, although the unintended consequence of that may be the creation of several lawyers in Jeff Winger’s image.
Over in the B story, Abed (Danny Pudi) and the former study group take a new class dedicated to the question that has no answer: Nick Cage: Good or Bad? And it’s in this plotline that we find the patented Dan Harmon brand of comedic insanity as Abed is driven to another nervous breakdown after binge watching far too many Nicolas Cage movies. Pudi’s Cage inspired meltdown was an instant classic moment that could only have been improved if Cage himself had been in this episode.
Abed’s inability to derive meaning from Cage’s bizarre film career briefly causes him to lose faith in his true religion: movies. But it also leads to a genuine bonding moment between Abed and Shirley (Yvette Nicole Brown) over the Hellraiser movies. And despite what Shirley says in the episode, there are far worse Hellraiser movies than the one where Pinhead was in space. Let’s just say that Direct-to-video was not kind to that film series.
The unifying moment of the episode comes when Jeff let’s it slip to Annie that all minus grades are simply the teachers’ way of punishing students that they don’t like. Annie, Britta (Gillian Jacobs) and the rest of the Greendale students riot over this bit of information and not even Jeff’s impassioned speeches makes a difference. They actually turn on him and pelt him with food!
For once, Dean Pelton (Jim Rash) comes up with a reasonable solution by creating the student-teacher “Save Greendale” alliance, whose first official act is to ban the Dean from attending its meetings. And just like that, the former study group has a reason to reassemble in its new form.
As a setup for the new incarnation of “Community,” this episode was a little bit smoother than the season premiere. It was also funnier and there were a lot of memorable gags including Hickey’s increasingly aggressive treatment towards Leonard and the previously mentioned meltdown by Abed.
It was the right call to hold Hickey back for this episode since “Repilot” was already trying to accomplish the reboot of the series. This allowed Hickey to step into the spotlight in this episode and it gave the show time to establish Hickey as a human being. He’s not just some gruff teacher, he’s a man who has his own struggles in life… and the desire to be a cartoonist; which he is defensive about.
Playing off of Banks’ recent “Breaking Bad” notoriety, Hickey has a formidable presence that even makes Troy (Donald Glover) and Abed rethink a prank in the amusing tag scene for this episode. The trick will be to see how well Hickey interacts with the characters that we know and love. Banks’ presence on the show is a happy accident, considering that he was set to co-star in an NBC pilot that didn’t go forward last year. If Hickey works out, then Banks could be the right choice to replace Chevy Chase in this cast.
“Introduction to Teaching” was a lot of fun to watch, just like “Community” used to be. That’s a good way to kick off the season.
