Man, what a breath of fresh air. After last week’s unimpressive outing, I was approaching Community with something more akin to obligation than anticipation. I’m always happy to admit when I’m wrong, especially when it’s because of episodes like “Modern Espionage.” It’s ironic that Community gave itself a breath of fresh air by going back to the paintball well, but an idea is only stupid if it doesn’t work. “Modern Espionage” absolutely works, and is the best paintball episode since season one’s “Modern Warfare.”
The main difference is right there in the title – “Espionage.” The paintball game isn’t taking place out in the open this time; this is established by a damn good cold opening featuring a parking garage gunfight between Todd and Starburns (who gets in a pretty good dig at Todd: “You don’t have to sneak around to be weird. You’re weird at picnics) before they’re both taken out by a mysterious gunman whom Starburns dubs the Silver Ghost. Frankie is having none of this and orders Jeff to shut it down. There’s another nice reveal after Jeff appeals to the group, when he finds out that they’ve all been playing, and for once he’s the one out of the loop. Starting “Espionage” in media res is one of the show’s smartest ideas.
In fact, “Espionage” is pretty smart from top to bottom. Director Rob Schrab (a Community vet who will also take the reins of the Lego Movie sequel) stages the episode like a spy thriller, pausing every so often to undercut the serious execution with Community‘s trademark absurdity, such as Vicki’s one-woman show, Garrett’s one-man show mocking it, or Abed going undercover to the Club Club to buy paint from “Fun Dad,” who turns out to be Koogler (an always welcome Mitch Hurwitz). The action choreography is great, too; the Dean in particular gets the episode’s most exhilarating scene, a paintball fight in an elevator that pays homage to a similar scene in Captain America: The Winter Soldier.
What was most refreshing about “Modern Espionage” is that it allowed Community to cool its jets and just be a damn sitcom, without having to preach. Interestingly enough, the previous iterations of the paintball storyline have all come at the end of their respective seasons, almost as a palette cleanser. Maybe there was some rescheduling done here; perhaps “Espionage” was meant to close out the season, but Dan Harmon moved it after seeing how heavy episodes like “Basic RV Repair and Palmistry” and “Intro to Recycled Cinema” ended up being. Whatever the reasoning was, it works, and it restores my faith in Community‘s sixth season, which had been seriously faltering over the last three weeks.
But all this would mean nothing if the episode wasn’t funny, which it really, really is. The overlarge earpieces that the gang all wears are a reliably great sight gag; Kumail Nanjiani, as vice custodian (and bad guy) Lapari, kills it with his nerdy deadpan; and the ending, featuring the group all wearing bonnets and sucking on pacifiers, asking Frankie scripted questions (Annie: “How do you pronounce basketti?”) was one of the funniest things I’ve seen on this show in a long time.
A Few Thoughts
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“I guess to a custodian, a supply closet’s a place”
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“I thought you were mannequins! What a backfire!”
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Frankie looked amazing in everything she wore this episode. Good lord Paget Brewster is gorgeous
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Nice callback to City College bankrolling the paintball games in the two-part season three finale
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What a great credit sequence
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“Your steamy pipes won’t stop us!” “They’d be a pretty bad museum exhibit if they did!”
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