Community: ‘Basic Human Anatomy’

"This is wrinkling my brain!"

When I first heard word that a post-Harmon episode of Community was going to try and tackle one of the biggest movie/television tropes of all time (body switching) I wasn’t just worried that the episode would fall flat but that it would go down as the lowest point in the series. What happened though was a genuinely pleasant surprise as ‘Basic Human Anatomy’ was not only a great stand-alone episode but was able to eliminate some of the bigger problems that have stuck around throughout the season.

One of the most glaring issues that has hovered around the past 11 episodes was the ongoing romance, or lack thereof, between lovable man-child Troy Barnes and political/psychiatric wannabe Britta Perry. Over the course of the season it almost became a second thought that they were actually dating which made many Britta/Jeff one-on-one moments seem even more off with the questions of “wait aren’t Britta and Troy still a thing?” sitting in the back of your head. I’m not sure what exactly the writers had planned out for this couple but whatever it was it certainly never came to fruition. At least they had the wherewithal to do it prior to the finale as opposed to letting it linger any longer.

That being said I thought it was a very beautiful to end their romantic time together, albeit a time we never truly saw on screen, and it tied in well to the rest of the main group stuck inside a classically silly Community scenario. Troy and Abed’s body switching attempt was the perfect combination of funny and weird and the writers were wise to not let us think too long about whether they actually switched bodies or not. Also, Jim Rash was pure comedy gold when it came to portraying Jeff Winger and it was hilarious when his nonchalant bad ass attitude worked naturally for turning-on Annie.

Other moments of note:

• “We have paints, puppy paint. Yes there is a difference.” – Annie on the supplies she has for their history project.
• “He’s like the pick-up-sticks of people.” –Abed as Troy stuck in Abed’s body.
• I always love an Eddie Pepitone cameo: “They’ve seen too much, let’s kill them!”
• Well it really doesn’t hurt the show at all to not have Pierce in it. It’s still probably a long-shot Community returns for season 5 but I think the writers have shown enough glimmers of hope this season to prove they can keep the show going without Harmon and I like that if there is a next season it will be a different show for sure and one without the problem of Chevy Chase’s Pierce.

What did everyone else think? Comments are always welcome.