Community goes back to its season 1 roots and succeeds.
“Herstory of Dance” may just be my favorite episode of the season so far.
It’s been hard to sit through a lot of Community’s fourth season and not emerge somewhat dispirited. The show has tried like a yappy, overexcited dog to be just as lovable, just as zany and just as cutting a show as it was in earlier seasons, but the end product was too forced.
The absolute worst episodes of the season have tried to emulate the high-concept meta-hijinks of season 2 and 3. Instead of charting a new direction for the show to take, season 4 of Community has felt like it was trying and failing to capture past glories, with a few exceptions. “Herstory of Dance” is one of those exceptions.
The plot harkens back to the old season 1 shtick of Greendale hosting a dance. This time around, the Dean has planned for a Sadie Hawkins dance, emphasizing the novelty of having the women initiate the dates. Britta, as is her wont, takes offense to the Dean’s misguided enthusiasm and announces her intention to host her own Sophie B. Hawkins dance the very same night.
Of course, Jeff helpfully points out that Britta meant Susan B. Anthony dance, but Britta is too headstrong to admit error. Rather, she plunges forth in her quest to organize the greatest community college dance with Sophie B. Hawkins ever.
The trouble is, unlike the very late Anthony, Hawkins is still alive and kicking, so everyone expects her to show up and perform. Complicating matters further is that the dances will be held tonight, leaving Britta with only a few precious hours to convince Hawkins to come.
Meanwhile, Abed has decided to grow more as a character this season (quite literally). To that end, he lets Annie and Shirley find potential dates for the dance. Annie and Shirley, however, end up making a competition out of this, causing Abed to act out that take two dates to a dance trope to prevent hurt feelings.
For his part, Abed is genuinely glad to get the chance to engage in this sitcom-esqe escapade, taking both an incredibly religious girl and a hyper-manic pixie dream girl to the dance. It’s like his version of the American dream.
Britta’s dance, on the other hand, is hitting the fan, fast. All of the dancers grow steadily unhappy with the clear lack of Hawkins, while Britta desperately seeks advice from Pierce. Jeff and the Dean are convinced that her dance will be a total shitshow, and snark appropriately from a corner.
The reason why this episode works so well is that it hinges on characters behaving like themselves. Abed’s desire to grow more as a person has long been a facet of his character, and seeing his progression through “Herstory of Dance” with the similarly minded coat clerk Rachel is both satisfying and funny. Britta’s flailing about to make the Hawkins dance a success is quintessentially Britta, albeit the Flanderized post-season 1 Britta.
All of the humor in the episode comes from these character beats in way that doesn’t feel reductive or insulting. Britta’s clueless, headstrong resolution is played for laughs, as is Pierce’s naiveté, but the ending loops back around and suggests a flaw in Jeff for laughing at Britta and Pierce’s delusions.
Abed’s obsession with genre and conventions starts out as funny before ending up as a fairly serious character flaw that forms the core of his redemptive arc. Even the manic pixie dream girl’s quirkiness is suggested as stemming from deep psychological…okay, so the manic pixie dream girl stuff is just played for laughs, but that’s readily forgivable considering she ends up being.
Overall, “Herstory of Dance” feels like a throwback to season 1. We’ve got another freaking dance along with a tightly contained story. Unlike the sprawling mess of “Conventions of Time and Space,” “Herstory of Dance” only has two main threads, with a minor third involving Troy doing some background gags throughout the night.
It is one of the most heartening things to come out of Community of late because of its simplicity and surprising elegance. The episode is distinctly Community without ever resorting to outright pandering; funny yet also deeply sad at its core.
Going back to the kind of stories and structures used in season 1 proved to be a sound idea. Season 4 started off saddled with lingering season 3 plot elements that needed to be resolved – Jeff’s dad, Chang’s disappearance, Britta and Troy’s relationship – but it has already managed to wrap up most of these stories.
I hope that the remaining episodes, like “Herstory of Dance,” go back to Community’s origins to try and figure out which direction the show should take next. We probably won’t ever get something so schematically brilliant as “Paradigms of Human Memory,” but there’s still a lot of good stuff to be squeezed from this particular creative well.
Tidbits:
– I liked the sly reference to the tag with Pierce from “Urban Matrimony and the Sandwich Arts.”
– Speaking of Pierce, this may be the best performance Chevy Chase has given this season. It’s also Pierce’s least racist and offensive episode yet.
– “Let me tell you a story about a friend of mine who everybody called a liar. His name was Bernie Madoff.”
– Was the puppets preview at the end for real? I could get behind this.
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