Community 4.2: Paranormal Parentage
Posted By Arturo Garcia on February 21, 2013
Cast members from NBC’s “Community.” Image via NBC/TV Overmind
The news here isn’t good at all.
Ratings for “Paranormal Parentage,” a Halloween episode shoehorned into a Valentine’s Day slot, were 42 percent lower than the show’s Feb. 7 premiere. And the scuttlebutt among advance reviewers is that the Feb. 21 episode “Conventions of Space and Time,” is a creative low point for the series.
Which is saying something, given how “Parentage” turned out.
Besides the unplanned(?) holiday mash-up created by the show getting pushed back, this episode was a missed opportunity. Given the show’s track record on Halloweens past (not to mention the title), you’d think the normally reliable Megan Ganz (who penned the classic “Basic Lupine Urology,” as well as last season’s heartfelt finale and the “Documentary Filmmaking” episodes, among others) would have gotten the chance to really unleash the Group on the rash of “found footage” horror films of recent years and decreasing returns.
Instead, we get the basics of the premise, thanks to the increasingly-isolated Pierce and his home-paranoia system, but there’s just no bite to these proceedings. When the heartiest laugh in the whole episode involves Annie’s misinterpretation of the term “Ring Girl” before the opening credits hit, that’s a truly scary prospect.
The episode does score better when it comes to advancing some emotional beats, thanks to Giancarlo Esposito, who makes the absolute most out of his brief return as Gilbert, and some deft work by Joel McHale as Jeff reveals how, despite himself, a part of him is still searching for family.
Aside from that, the episode’s most noteworthy scene, at least judging by critical reaction, involves Troy’s continued myopia/naivete in the ways of love, which gets pointed out when he discovers Pierce’s “secret swing,” to the dismay of a politely slut-shaming Shirley.
Over at Slate, the estimable Aisha Harris and Gene Demby expressed concern over Troy’s “re-infantilization.” It’s a good point in the context of his relationship with Britta, given the character’s relative ages and the presumed length of their relationship. But there is a hand-wave the current creative team has at its disposal, if it chooses.
The thing to remember about Troy — at least, until the issue gets addressed head-on — is that when we met him, he was part of the Jehova’s Witnesses, a religion that condemns sex before marriage. (How this jibed with his being a football player, alas, was never truly explained.) So it’s possible that the Barnes household either avoided the issue or steered him away from such thoughts. The other factor is from the creative side: both he and Abed have been portrayed as relatively asexual and “non-racial,” at the expense of their shared geekiness. Though they’ve each had (and in one case shared) romantic interests, their sexuality has been muted compared to the relatively “normal” Jeff. Making Troy and Britta’s eventual coming together (if you will) just one more potential pitfall in a season that, so far, can’t afford to stumble too much more.
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