Community is back folks! Can you believe it has been a whopping three months since we last saw our favorite college students? We here at PlayerAffinity had to quickly get re-adjusted to the quick wit and hilarious references, but once we did, we were laughing it up like Troy and Abed in the morning. In ‘Urban Matrimony and Sandwich Arts,’ we were all reminded what every character was all about. Everyone got a chance to be their goofy self because it was Shirley’s wedding, and that’s what weddings do to people.
Shirley was floating on cloud nine as she was preparing for the big day, again. Her big smile and good mood, however, weren’t enough for Britta and Jeff to jump onboard the bandwagon. In a heated debate, the two basically destroyed the concept of marriage, claiming no one really sticks to their vows anymore and that the whole idea of marriage is degrading towards women. It’s pretty clear whom of the two took which point of view. Community always does a great job tackling contemporary topics and this was no exception. Without ever getting preachy, the show lets its characters debate (and crack jokes) until everyone’s point of view is taken into consideration. The strength of the show is drawn from the fact that these are completely different types of characters who find a common ground. So while Britta and Jeff were hating on marriage, Annie was occupied with her wedding-themed scrapbook the size of an encyclopedia.
Jeff was asked to give a speech at Shirley’s wedding, which forced him to look inside his slot machine of a heart and figure out what he really felt. Britta, the non-conformist that she is, decided to help Annie with the preparations, only so Shirley could become an independent woman. Remember when Shirley joined college because she wanted a business? Neither do we, but the writer’s fortunately did. Britta proposed to open a sandwich shop in the cafeteria and Pierce had a lot of money to spend, so he wanted to invest in it. The only one who wasn’t completely on-board with the cafeteria idea was Shirley herself. With the wedding coming up (and doesn’t she have a baby somewhere?) she was leaning towards the idea of becoming a dedicated wife. Of course, Shirley wouldn’t be Shirley if she didn’t show some fierceness, so she confronted her ex/future-hubby with their roles in the marriage. This turned out to be one of the less interesting plot points in the episode. Shirley isn’t exactly the funniest character and the struggle she was dealing with was also not very interesting. There was a slight moment of honesty when Pierce confessed he was kicked out of his father’s business and just wanted to prove he was better than his old man, but that was kind of it. The relationship with Andre and Shirley is hardly worth shipping for and since the wedding took place in the study room, it wasn’t much of an event.
Luckily, there will always be Troy and Abed to brighten up the episode. The two actually made a complete 180 as they decided they couldn’t be their weird selves for Shirley’s wedding. To make sure they would behave, they locked themselves up, got rid of all their weirdness and behaved like gentlemen. Speaking of that, did anyone notice the awesome internet meme references this episode? Pierce asking for “all the ambulances,” Troy’s “I see what you did there.” Me gusta. It was also refreshing to see Troy and Abed behave like normal people. No sarcasm, no cool handshakes, nothing. Though it’s probably for the best that by the end of the episode they returned to their own tricks.
"Urban Matrimony and Sanwich Arts" isn’t one of the show’s star episodes but it was a great reminder as to why we need Greendale in our lives. It’s sharp, it’s straight to the point and it actually makes relevant topics funny. It can only be presumed that there’s a lot of great stuff coming up and that Community soon will be the highlight of our week, once more.