And so we come to the last episode of Community Season 5, “Basic Sandwich.” We’ve lost cast members, and we’ve seen, uh, well a lot of strange stuff as per usual. We’ve followed the group as the remaining members have formed a committee to save Greendale. Unfortunately that committee worked a little too well, and was able to make the campus so great, the school board decides to sell the now hot real estate to Subway. This is the second in a two part episode arc that started with “Basic Story,” episode 12. So, the group is off to find the lost gold of the first dean!
The group finds a secret passageway down to a secret part of the campus from the 70s. Then they find Greendale’s first dean, Russell Borchert, played by Chris Elliot. He has a bunch of gold he was working with to build a robot with human emotions.
They get the gold and Russell goes up top and interrupts the sale of the school, citing some loophole where he gets some say in the sale of the school. Subway fucks off, and Greendale is free to be the shitty Community college it’s always been once again.
It’s funny, especially getting to see the original Dean, Russell, who’s been living underground since the 70s. Chang is evil again—he did something with the gold given to the school board, I forget, he just did some outlandish funny stuff, as always. Britta and Jeff decide to not get married, everyone dances to Dave Mathews, and season 5 is over.
Is It Good?
Dan Harmon coming back as show runner definitely helped the series. For one, the gang aren’t going off campus every damn episode, like it seemed that they did in season 4. However, maybe it’s just me, but it seems that the series, while still hilarious, is on its last legs. I think British television might have the right idea with the whole 3 to 6 episodes a season thing. American television has what, like 20 episodes a season? That’s great, as it gives you a lot to digest. However, it has its pitfalls, namely sometimes it feels like certain episodes are stretching when you are at 20 plus a season.
I wonder how many people who’ve told me this episode is so great really think it. I wonder if these people aren’t just excited that the original show runner is back. I’m not saying I hated this season. I enjoyed it a lot, for the most part. It just feels like there isn’t anything new to really do on the Greendale campus. But who knows, maybe with the distance of time this season will prove to be great. I’ll have to give it a rewatch before season 6. Until then, my overall summation is it’s still funny, but is starting to seem very forced.
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