Review - Community Season 1 Episode 13 Investigative Journalism

Jack Black was in their class the whole season?!?!?!? Well, not really. It was a way to bring in a notable guest star and insert him into everyday life. I think the enjoyability of the episode was largely dependent on your opinion of Jack Black. On a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being hate him and 10 being love him, he'd be a 6.5 to me. His wild physical humor can be hilarious at times and way too annoying in other times.

After inserting himself into the new group, Black's character Buddy is a total nuisance no one except Pierce likes. Interspersed among Buddy's antics were discussions of what to do. Jeff comes back different, deciding to be cool all the time, or as Abed puts it, like Hawkeye of M*A*S*H. After some ridiculous deliberation, they vote to kick Buddy out, but he refuses to leave, so Jeff snaps and drags him out. Later, Jeff realizes what he did was wrong, so he invites Buddy back, because their study group is so cool. Owen Wilson shows up in the end, and invites Buddy to their group. Jeff's group isn't his first choice, so Jack Black won't be in the show anymore. It's very sitcomy and it works.

There was a minor subplot that was hardly noticeable. I can't remember an episode in which there weren't two reasonably developed simultaneous stories going on. The dean lets Jeff by the editor of the school newspaper, so he gives everyone self-indulgent assignments. Annie takes the investigative approach and discovers that the dean was racial profiling (in a good way) to tell only blacks that the Toni Braxton concert was starting early.

Score: 9.3/10