REVIEW: Community “Abed’s Master Key”

Abed becomes Dean Pelton’s assistant and is given a master key to Greendale.

Spoilers Below

Recently, a not-quite-as-brilliant, but nevertheless outstandingly-hilarious show, Bored to Death, got the ol’ axe as well. (If you haven’t seen or heard of this show, it starred Jason Schwartzman, Zach Galifianakis, and Ted Danson. The three smoked weed and ran around as Schwartzmen’s character solved mysteries. That should be enough.) It also tragically ended after a three seasons and a lifelong bout with the low-raties.

Alas, that brings us to Community; one of the smartest, wittiest, geekiest (and not in that awful Big Bang Theory kind of way) and overall best-written shows in years. Unfortunately, Community has steadily lost more and more viewers every week since its initial debut, causing the show to be yanked from its much-coveted NBC primetime Thursday slot in the middle of the third season, despite high critical acclaim and as a result something had to be done. Another critically-lauded show could not be allowed to fall in this three-season trap simply because ignorant Americans chose to just sit around and not watch it die. So after three-and-a-half long months, Community is set to return on March 15, and the creators are kicking it off with three 2-minute webisodes (collectively entitled “Abed’s Master Key”) that aired last week on Hulu.com and NBC.com for three consecutive days. Below, check out my recap starting with the first episode that aired this past Thursday:

The scene starts with when the study group notices their table is missing, and Abed (did I mention these were animated webisodes? Cuz that’s kind of important) begins the meeting. Of course it is instantly interrupted by Deal Pelton (who is played by recent Oscar-award-winner Jim Rash. Really. Dean Pelton won an Oscar for writing, “The Descendents.” Really, again.) who informs them that their special study table is gone and Abed is the new Dean’s Assistant (comma, unpaid). The webisode wraps up with a Chevy Chase joke, the way any good presentation should. If the Community music kicked in right after this webisode (and was live-action, of course) it would seem just like a regular Thursday night satisfier. Funny in all the right ways.

In the second webisode, Pierce (Chevy Chase) tries to bribe Abed (or A-bed) into using his newly-acquired master key for whatever general debauchery old man Chevy has planned. Also, Annie wants the library open late. And Shirley wants the school pool… You get the idea. Even Senior Chang has an appearance (which is always a win!) The scene cuts out leaving us wondering if Abed will use his powers for good or evil.

Lastly, in the third webisode the super-hot, pot-smoking, neo-hippie Britta uses Abed’s key to help the hungry homeless – who turns out to be just a student – and it’s brought to the attention of the Dean. Luckily, in a deus ex machina, Dean Pelton realizes online students are not counted in the total enrollment and the Greendale is temporarily saved – including the group’s greatly-missed study table.

Though these webisodes were nothing to rectally expel a ceramic masonry building-block over, they were absolutely enough to get the regular Community-watcher excited and anxious for the new episodes and even though the webisodes were not especially Earth-shattering enough to gain any new viewership, they were still enough to keep the die-hards wanting more. The animation was cute, the dialogue was witty, and pun-terful (a new word I invented just now that you should get used to) as a usual Thursday night would have it; making it a perfect example of why its one of the funniest shows in primetime deserves its due more than any another show.

Get ready for the return of Community, which starts Thursday night on NBC, check your local listings as I know I will be!

(8.0 out of 10)