Television

Community Review: Season 5 Episode 3 “Basic Intergluteal Numismatics”

January 10, 2014

This episode is a parody of the general murder mystery movie/serial killer film and/or show. ‘Twas written by Dan Harmon and ten other people, so let’s just again say Harmon and friends wrote it. Directed by same dude from episode 2, Tristram Shapeero. And holy crap, just went through the IMDB, and found out he directed a couple episodes of Peep Show. Sweet.

Within the first five minutes we get a rack focus shot (when the focus is on one thing in the shot, then switches to another thing, while the first thing is blurry but still in frame), of the nerdy fat guy (forgot his name), bending over to pick up his books, and then we see a hand in a leather glove holding a coin.

As a confessed serial killer nerd, anytime a show plays around with the now cliche tropes of the murder mystery/serial killer cat-and-mouse flick, it warms my heart of coal. And boy oh boy, does Community take their satire to the next level. A whole episode, and it’s hysterical. They even have an ass crack bandit themed song that plays on Greendale’s radio station.

I am the run-on sentence bandit. Oh, and Starburns is still alive.

9.5

Incredible spoof of serial killer/thriller.
Ass Crack Bandit song
Pierce is dead. Finaaally.

The fuck, why did Pierce have to die off screen in this episode?

Is it Good?

The only problem with this episode is that it gives Pierce one of the least dramatic off-screen deaths I can think of in recent television memory. And the gang is torn up when they find out, but it’s thrown into the end of an episode about a guy who shoves change down people’s ass cracks. I guess the point was to show that little things might seem important, but there is ultimately more important stuff to deal with in our lives. And that’s a fine message, except why did this need to be at the end of the ass crack bandit episode? It was going so well, and then they had to force a moral in there.

In any case, it’s great for fans of cat and mouse procedural films and spoofs of said genre, and it’s a great episode of Community. They even bring back a character! Good stuff.