I had high hopes for a Shirley-centric episode last night, and while I wouldn’t say I was disappointed at all in the end result, there still wasn’t enough Shirley for me. FREE SHIRLEY! To be fair, there was a lot of time given tonight to Shirley’s favorite subject: Jesus.
Unfortunately for Shirley, much more attention was paid to Abed’s interpretation of Jesus instead of hers. I do find it interesting that as a person who only knows about Jesus from his depictions in pop culture, Abed interpreted Jesus as kind of a slimy, Criss Angel-type magician douchebag.
Although I was looking forward to seeing Abed’s film, I really loved the way they ended the storyline. Any time someone like Shirley can prove her point with a baseball bat, it’s a good ending. Speaking of which, I adored the music that they used throughout this. It felt very epic and Passion of the Christ-y.
Having Pierce hang out with the old people was kind of amazing, because not only does Pierce always think he’s young, but I kind of get the impression that Chevy Chase himself hasn’t exactly embraced his current age. So someone finally saying, “dude, you’re old,” was an interesting way to go. Although I do wish that the gang would stick around a little bit more– at least let us see poker nights with Pierce. Not all the time, just occasionally, like the poker games on Castle.
The real star of the episode though was Troy’s Jesus rap. As beautiful as it was, it’s also the biggest disappointment for me, because for some reason it’s not on YouTube! They made the actual Old White Man Says Twitter account; why wouldn’t this immediately be available in its full form? This is pretty much the most disappointing thing that’s happened to me all week (to be fair, it’s been a pretty good week).
Overall, this was another great episode. What makes Community work so much is that they switch up the method of storytelling in nearly every episode. You don’t have to be a procedural to be formulaic, and it’s a trap that very few shows (even great ones) can avoid. However, each episode is truly a new episode, which is why Community keeps getting better and better.
Clacked by Kona Gallagher 
on Oct 22, 2010 @ 13:30 EST5EDT
The music was AWESOME. Abed looks hot with long hair. And the B-story with Jeff and Britta as Pierce’s parents was fantastic.
Although Abed’s interpretation was weird, he did have a potent metaphor going there (i.e., life is a movie in which we are the characters).