Community Review: "Competitive Ecology"
I'm a big fan of Community, so it's sad for me to have to give this week such a crap review. In "Competitive Ecology," the study group spent an episode arguing over who should partner up for a group project. Chang also lost his mind.
When the episode kicked off, Chang was living in the boiler room and had a mannequin's leg as a girlfriend. He named her Veronica. I found myself wondering if Chang is always this creepy because normally I find Ken Jeong hilarious.
Sorry to say it, but Chang has straight up gone bonkers. I mean, none of his dialogue even made sense here. it was complete jibberish.
Not only was it incoherent, but it was boring. I could barely pay attention to those scenes after a few minutes. Maybe it's the job as security guard. He is taking himself too seriously. I prefer my Senor Chang as the bitter, backbiting lunatic who greases himself up and crawls through the vents. What about you guys?
The new professor pointed out something quite true: the study group is the mean clique. Poor Todd, the eighth partner this week, had to endure the brunt of their meanness. It just seems like they're always fighting lately. Sweet Shirley even felt like everyone hated her!
I know people might take issue with this negative review, but it's only because I have seen this show at such a better level! C'mon writers, you can do it. Give Pierce some more good lines, put Jeff in an awkward situation that makes him squirm, give us more Abed and let Troy and Britta explore that chemistry they have going on.
Anybody else feel like there was some heat between those two?
Community will bounce back. I'm sure of it! In the meantime, check out the best quotes from this week's mediocre episode.
Leigh Raines is a TV Fanatic Staff Writer. Follow her on Twitter.
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Evil Abed: You're VH1, Robocop 2 and Back to the Future 3. You're the center slice of a square cheese pizza. Actually, that sounds delicious. I'm the center ...
October 14th, 2011 8:50 PM
The main thing i didn't like was the teasing of todd throughout the episode, and especially at the end. It kind of contradicts the message they tried to send with the D&D episode last year.
October 10th, 2011 2:21 PM
In my opinion,the Chang part was a tribute to point-and-click adventure games, like Broken Sword, Gabriel Knight, etc. Of course it's not easy to follow the humor when you haven't played such games but I think it must have been hilarious for fans of adventure games! I loved it!
October 10th, 2011 3:08 AM
Ugh this episode was so weak! The whole 'lab partners' argument bore me to tears. I normally enjoy community but I am tired of watching them argue about who is most/least popular. I was excited at the beginning when it looked like they might actually be paired up with other characters.
Rank: Regular Character
October 7th, 2011 5:51 PM
Chang's story was the best part. The lego speech was good. I didn't realize the professor is Chalky White until this episode.
October 7th, 2011 4:49 PM
This review reflected my thoughts exactly! This show is usually so well written. What happened? Did Annie's Boobs write this episode? :-(
Rank: Guest Star
October 7th, 2011 1:36 PM
See, maddie, I am very flexible in my comedy desires. My one criteria in comedy is that it's funny. The Christmas episode was a gimmick, it didn't further the overarcing growth of the characters, and it wasn't funny. What's the use of it? Now, some will say it was innovative and daring. I don't see either. Claymation is now a staple of the Christmas season, and so by doing Claymation here they have basically guaranteed the ep will play every Christmas. Seemed a safe bet. The "behind the scenes" moment from it a couple of eps later was much funnier.
But this isn't about the Christmas ep, is it?
When was the point of Chang to have him COMPLETELY insane? I submit it was when they ran out of good material for him. He was most effective as the Spanish teacher drunk on power. He had a method to his madness and was a strict, if bizarre disciplinarian. Remember the premise? Now he's having sex with a mannequin leg, wondering why his reflection keeps staring at him, and findi
October 7th, 2011 1:27 PM
I don't think I remembered laughing out loud or doing anything close to that while watching 'Competitive Ecology'...and that's a bad sign for me. Then I watched the episode again this morning and ended up getting a few more chuckles out of it. But again...that's a bad sign.
The whole cop noir thing with Chang totally did not work for me. Everything he said was just insane and it does seem like he's gone off the deep end. In the past, Chang at least was a working husband and later a struggling student which made it seem as if he had some sort of life. Now Chang appears to be a crazy who lives and breathes every moment of his time within the Greendale campus. Weird.
I know 'Community' is not a show for everyone. With the conflicts caused by the interpersonal relationships, odd idiosyncrasies, differences in beliefs, and egos of everyone in the study group, the show isn't usually a 'feel good' comedy. In the first episode of this season, Jeff proudly proclaimed that the stud
October 7th, 2011 1:15 PM
On paper I should have loved this episode. There was nothing too over the top and it was just the study group being their quirky selves. pretty much exactly what I wanted. But I didn’t. there is just some ineffable quality that they didn’t capture here but captured pretty much every episode in season 1 I liked it but didn’t love it. And of course I cant fault the writers for something I myself cant describe/explain but I just don’t love the as much as I did season 1 and some/most of season 2
The only two things I flat out didn’t like was chang, he was flat out too crazy for me. The film-noir stuff just didn’t do it for me. I think a film-noir spoof was a flop and could have been done WAY better. This is pretty much the first time I didn’t like one of their spoofs/homages Bottle epi, Conspiracy epi, and Apollo 13 were all terrific episodes/spoofs but this one fell flat. I didn’t find his storyline the least bit funny.
And Jeff, I get that he’s a pompous a$$
October 7th, 2011 11:41 AM
I like how at the end of the review, you personally petition the writers to give you the EXACT SAME THING they gave you all of the last two seasons. How is that good for a comedy? This is the third season, and I've already seen the main 7 people in the group do hilarious things. I thought this was the funniest episode of the season so far BECAUSE OF Chang, Todd and Professor Cain's bigger roles. Let the role-players shine every once in a while, and don't freak out when each and every single episode isn't the exact same.
October 7th, 2011 10:22 AM
like i said last week. season 2 was the peak of hilarious for this series. not expecting much this season nemore. im guessing it will not be seeing a fourth season. also, this ep has funny parts but the security guard story lines are a bore. chang needs to be teaching or in the study group. anywhere else is wasting his presence.