Quick Thoughts: COMMUNITY, "Geography of Global Conflict"

Despite a mediocre season premiere, I begrudgingly came back to Community. "Geography of Global Conflict" was a decent episode with a few laughs, but it was ultimately uneven.

I'm going to sound like a broken record, but I would much rather have a spin-off that was just about Annie, Troy, and Abed. Episodes that tend to have a a story line that mostly focuses on these characters tend to be the ones I can tolerate the most, so I enjoyed most of Annie's breakdown. What I wasn't a fan of was how they made the whole Jeff and Annie tension seem creepy. While, I don't officially ship the two, I do think that Joel McHale and Alison Brie have crazy chemistry, but this show is too cool to know how to use it effectively. Thankfully, we got Troy talking in a Southern accent to make up for the wasted opportunity.

I understand why the writers keep yanking Jeff and Annie apart, but what I do not understand is how Ken Jeong still has a job. Chang has by far been my least favorite character and the show went to the well way too often last season. I was hoping they'd ease up a bit, but having Chang as a security guard does not sound like a promising idea. Also, what the heck happened to Britta?

Two of my favorite TV critics, Alan Sepinwall and Todd VanDerWerff, posted an exchange that they had about the state of Community where they discussed the merits of the "normal" and "high-concept" versions of the show. While it was an interesting read, I started to realize that I'm not really a fan of either flavors. I just want a show that's consistently funny and entertaining, and unfortunately Community is too hit or miss.

The thing is, much like last week, I know that I'm going to be checking out the next episode because I want it to be as great as others keep preaching. I still see the potential that Community has, but eventually I'm going to have to take the blinders off.