Community 1.14: "Interpretive Dance"

“What part of being a single, white slacker makes you people so jaded?”

-Shirley

Although I wouldn’t say it was one of my favorite episodes, I liked “Interpretive Dance” well enough. It featured an unconventional character pairing of Troy and Britta, and the plot gave both of those characters more dimension. Pierce was used sparingly enough to be funny instead of annoying. I wasn’t really thrilled with how Jeff and Britta’s relationship was handled in this episode (I think I’m the one person left on Earth who still wouldn’t mind seeing them together), but the good in the episode most definitely outweighed the bad. I don’t think I ever laughed out loud during this episode (give me an episode of HIMYM or The Big Bang Theory if you really want to see me laugh uncontrollably), but it was an enjoyable enough way to spend half an hour.

The episode opens on a meeting of the study group. Or the entire study group minus Pierce, to be more specific. Annie wants to address what she calls the “back door conundrum.” The back door to the library, which is much more convenient for the study group to use, is usually locked by the time study group starts. Annie first suggests they move study group half an hour earlier, but Britta and Troy mysteriously (and obviously) say that the earlier time won’t work for them. The group agrees that somebody will just have to hold the door open for everyone else. Once that’s settled, the group finally realizes that Pierce is missing. Abed says he tried calling Pierce and there was no answer. Just as the group begins to worry that Pierce might be dead, Pierce arrives at the study room. He guesses pretty quickly what everybody had been thinking, and he’s kind of offended. Offended that people don’t say they wish he was dead to his face anymore.

It’s soon obvious why Troy and Britta didn’t want to move study group up to 4:30. They both are taking a dance class. Troy is taking modern dance, and Britta is taking tap. The dance class plot was really a great opportunity for Donald Glover to show off his physical comedy chops and Gillian Jacobs to show a softer side of Britta. When Troy and Britta run into each other in the dance rehearsal space, they laugh, but they really do think it’s cool that they aren’t alone in their love of dance. Britta thinks it would be a great idea if they both “come out” as dancers to the rest of the study group at the same time. They can even invite everybody to the upcoming dance recital!

Jeff has been trying to keep his own secret from the group, and he fares no better than Troy and Britta. He’s been dating the statistics professor from the Halloween episode for several weeks now. Student/Professor relationships are taboo at Greendale, even when there isn’t really an age difference, so they’ve been trying to keep it on the down low. The secret starts to unravel when Britta discovers a brunette hair on Jeff’s shoulder. Jeff says he’s seeing someone, but he refuses to say who. The cat is out of the bag, however, when Professor Slater wants to make out with Jeff in the library. He thinks he’s hidden from the study group by the blinds that cover the study room windows, but the group isn’t in the study room. They’re waiting outside to be let in via the back door, and they see everything.

Once everybody’s settled in the study room, and Professor Slater has left feeling a little mortified, Britta announces that she and Troy have their own announcement. My favorite part about this scene is Annie gasping in horror when she thinks the announcement is that Troy and Britta are dating and Britta quickly shooting that idea down. My least favorite thing about the scene is that Troy doesn’t fess up to being a dancer. I guess it’s true to the character- it just didn’t impress me because plenty of TV shows have gone to that well before. There was an episode of Greek earlier this season, for instance, where Evan and Calvin were both supposed to come clean about their secrets to the rest of the Omega Chis, but only Evan actually went through with it.

Jeff is feeling some betrayal himself (so I really only just realized how many parallels there are between Jeff and Britta’s stories in the first half of this episode…interesting). Within minutes of his relationship with Professor Slater being revealed to the study group, the Dean barges into the room demanding to see Jeff and Professor Slater in his office. Turns out word gets out fast around Greendale- especially when somebody is stupid enough to show Pierce how to use Twitter.

Britta is really upset that Troy chickened out with his confession. Troy tries to explain that he has more at stake than Britta with the whole dancing situation, since dancing isn’t generally thought of as masculine. I thought the excuse was kind of pathetic, and Britta seems to agree. Shirley interprets Britta’s bad mood as being upset that Jeff is seeing someone else. Shirley does have a pretty good point- whatever Jeff had with Britta did help turn him into the person that could be ready to try a relationship with Professor Slater. Britta doesn’t agree with Shirley, though. She doesn’t really think Jeff is the problem here.

Jeff has his own problems to deal with. The Dean want Jeff and Professor Slater to fill out very detailed “teacher/student relationship forms.” Overall, I liked this scene because of the overt silliness of the forms. It reminded me of Emma’s helpful guidance counselor pamphlets in the early episodes of “Glee.” The Dean is getting a little too creepy for my taste, though. For all that he worries about the potential lawsuits stemming from professor/student relationships, he certainly makes plenty of inappropriate comments of his own. I’m sure plenty of people find the Dean’s antics funny, but it’s just a bit much for me. Anyway, the Dean’s creepiness isn’t Jeff’s only problem by a long shot. Jeff is hesitant to define his relationship with Professor Slater, and this, naturally, does not make the Professor very happy. She breaks up with him right then and there.

The break-up doesn’t last long, though. Jeff runs right to her office and tries to explain himself and make one of his trademark inspirational speeches. Professor Slater thinks his “afraid of commitment” excuse is weak, but after talking things out, they reach an understanding, and they are officially a couple. This wrapped up a bit too neatly for my taste. I think I would have found the story a little more compelling if Jeff had to work a little harder to win Professor Slater back.

The study group (plus a bunch of other random people Abed invited) show up at the big dance recital. Britta’s tap class does a number to “Tea for Two” from “No, No Nanette.” Britta is the star of the number, dressed in a kind of ridiculous teapot costume. Britta’s going through her routine just fine until she sees Jeff and Professor Slater happily sitting in the audience holding hands. She had expressed her disbelief several times earlier in the episode that Jeff could actually be in a conventional, committed relationship, and seeing him like that throws her for a loop. That might actually be an understatement. She kind of gets frozen in one part of her routine, doing the same step over and over.

Troy finally steps up and comes to the rescue, which I appreciated. He rips off his jeans, revealing dance clothes underneath. He guides Britta out of her feedback loop of sorts, and then they perform a quick modern dance number before leaving the stage. Nobody thinks less of Troy once they learn he’s a dancer. Abed even tries out a little tap himself once the auditorium is deserted. My favorite moment of the episode was when Jeff gave Britta flowers. He wanted to thank Britta, because being her friend made him think he might be able to handle a girlfriend. I know I mentioned early in this recap that I was irked by how the Britta/Jeff relationship was handled in this episode. I guess what irks me is Professor Slater. Sure she’s cool and funny, but she feels like a bit of an artificial road block. Artificial relationship roadblocks in TV shows always irk me somewhat. “Chuck” is a major offender in this category. I’m willing to ride it out for now, though, and try to enjoy the show for all the other fun character interaction and quirkiness.

White Collar 1.07: "Hard Sell"

“You could sell light switches to the Amish.”

-Peter

The first White Collar episode of the new year closes some old mysteries and opens some new ones, all while Neal has to solve a case to (once again) keep from being sent back to prison. Some things were solved in a way that was a bit too “bright and shiny” for my taste, but I don’t generally expect shows on USA to go to the dark place, except for the occasional episode of “In Plain Sight.” Overall, “Hard Sell” was a decent but not especially stand-out episode.

The case of the week comes from an FBI agent out of Dallas who has been tracking a group who has been running a “boiler room.” This basically means that they call people and try to get them to invest in a cheap stock to drive up the price. Then they sell their own stock, and the other people who invested are out a lot of money. The FBI already has an informant embedded in the boiler room, but because the informant is a woman, she doesn’t get much access to information. The place is pretty much an all-guys club (and a rather ridiculous one at that).

Peter thinks Neal (naturally) would be the ideal candidate for a second mole within the organization, because he can hustle with the best of them. The FBI is a little wary of Neal’s criminal record. Peter explains that Neal’s most recent prison escape exploits were all because of Kate, saying there’s “something special about Kate.” This was kind of tedious exposition and a time when I wish the writer would have followed the first rule of any creative writing class: show, don’t tell. This is a problem I have with Kate in general. We’ve been told how crazy Neal is over her, but we have yet to see why. Every time we’ve seen Kate, she hasn’t exactly done anything to either endear herself or seem at all interesting.

Neal himself is fairly agitated throughout the episode, which is understandable considering he is under the impression that Peter is the infamous “Man With the Ring” who is holding Kate “hostage” (I use the term loosely, since she seems to get around pretty well in spite of her situation). He does what Peter tells him to do, but he makes snide comments about Peter whenever he sees an opportunity. Peter definitely notices that something is up. Neal feels that his suspicions are confirmed when he is at Peter’s house and sees a picture of Peter wearing the ring. Peter explains to Neal that the ring is actually a pin he received for 10 years of service to the FBI, and most people who get the pin (and there are many) get it made into a ring. Neal remains somewhat suspicious, and Mozzie doesn’t help the situation, suggesting Neal run away rather than take the new case.

Neal makes a good first impression when he shows up at the boiler room looking for a job, mostly thanks to Peter. His would-be boss doesn’t do a traditional job interview. He sets up a call to see if Neal can convince some hapless person to buy the latest cheap stock (which happens to be for a dummy company set up by the FBI). The FBI takes control of the call so that Neal is actually talking to Peter, not some poor sap in Cleveland like he was supposed to. Peter gives Neal a little bit of a run for his money (I guess that makes it a little more realistic-sounding), but ultimately Neal makes the sale and gets the job.

The boiler room is really more like a frat house than anything else- and a really lame frat house, at that. Women are relegated to taking down “client” information after the guys make the sale. The guys do plenty of socializing (I wouldn’t exactly call it “partying”) while off the clock at what looks like a posh cigar club. Neal’s boss brings him to the club to meet Avery, the “man behind the curtain.” It’s quickly apparent that Avery is in a heated dispute with his business partner. Neal’s boss explains that the business partner isn’t happy that Avery is running the current boiler room scam all on his own.

Agent Cruz suggests a plan for taking the boiler room down. The FBI should have somebody pretend to be the CEO of the fake pharmaceutical company whose stock is being sold in the boiler room scam. Neal, being snarky, suggests Peter because he looks trustworthy but also like he could be bought. Peter is not at all thrilled with Neal’s comment, but he agrees to the plan. He basically blackmails Avery, saying he’ll go to the authorities if Avery doesn’t agree to give him a share of the boiler room profit.

Both Neal and Peter are invited to a weekend shindig at Avery’s waterfront estate. The whole thing continues the really lame frat theme. For these guys, their idea of a good time is standing around and…skeet shooting. They all seriously look like they need to hop on over to the yacht club. The guys keep egging Neal on to shoot something, and eventually he relents, shooting perfectly. I’m wondering why so many TV characters these days feel that they have to say that they don’t like guns but know how to use them. I mean, I, unlike one Colonel John Casey, don’t love guns, but I’ve definitely heard a variant of this line on several shows, including Chuck and White Collar, and it seems like it’s just going out of its way to be politically correct.

Getting away from the boys with their guns, Avery and Peter talk business…in Avery’s state-of-the-art comic book preservation room. The room has quite the extreme fire suppression system. If a fire is detected, all the oxygen is sucked out of the room. Later, back at the shooting range by the water, Peter and Neal notice goons pushing the female informant into the house. Clearly Avery is suspicious of her. Peter has a desperate play to save the informant, and he needs Neal’s help. After a bit of resistance, Neal agrees. Peter tells Avery that Neal is a spy for Avery’s unhappy business partner. He convinces Avery that the right course of action isn’t to kill Neal, but flip him and have him spy on the business partner instead.

The plan is for Neal to tell the business partner that the stock is going to be dumped a week later than it actually is. Peter thinks the whole thing will be most effective if Neal plays each of the business partners against each other, so Neal tells the business partner about the plan. Obviously, he’s not pleased. Neal and Peter didn’t realize just how not pleased he would be, though. He shows up at the “dumped the stock” celebration to confront Avery. This of course leads to both business partners realizing that Neal isn’t who he says he is. By that time Neal is already in the comic book room, where he and Peter suspect Avery’s ledger is kept. Peter sees trouble coming and runs to the comic book room to warn Neal.

The warning comes too late. Peter and Neal are trapped in the comic book room when they set off the fire suppression system to avoid being shot by Avery. Before the party, Neal had been given a mini-breather with five minutes worth of air in case of this type of emergency. They hadn’t anticipated that both he and Peter would be stuck in the vault, though. Attempting to trust Peter again, Neal gives Peter the mini-breather and starts frantically looking for the fire suppression system kill switch. He finds it just before he passes out from lack of oxygen. Peter draws his gun and hits the switch. FBI back-up arrives just in time.

Peter rewards Neal’s show of trust by deciding to reveal the full truth about his meeting with Kate. It turns out that he met with Kate to tell her to stop bothering Neal, not for any nefarious purpose. This was kind of disappointing to me. Now, I didn’t wholeheartedly support going the “Peter is really evil!” route, because that would mess up the extremely fun character interaction between Peter and Neal. I wonder, however, if it was really necessary to go so overboard on the “look how GREAT Peter is” bit. Kate actually told Peter what the Man With the Ring (now pretty positively known to be Fowler) wants. Neal purportedly stole an amber music box back in the day, and that’s Kate’s price. The only problem is, Neal never really actually stole the music box- he just didn’t correct people when they thought he did.

Chuck 3.04: "Chuck Versus Operation Awesome"

“I had to decapitate the bear. Self-defense. In order to survive. I’m just glad you weren’t there to see it. It was really grisly.”

-Awesome

I think that “Chuck Versus Operation Awesome” was my favorite “Chuck” episode of the season thus far. It had fun spy action, introduced a new character in an intriguing way, and it had heart. When Awesome is mistaken for a spy by the Ring, Chuck and his team have to come to the rescue. Yeah, I know, after all that complaining about the promo monkeys last week, I just spoiled Awesome’s fate. Ah well. At least I gave you this much time to worry about him! That’s more than I can say for NBC! Anyway, on with the recap.

Devon’s fate is actually immediately apparent as soon as the episode begins. Sydney (Angie Harmon), a Ring operative, has him tied up to a chair on top of a sky scraper. The exact building seemed distinctive enough that Angelinos probably know what it is, but being a life-long resident of the East Coast, I don’t. Sydney, presumably having seen Devon’s heroics at last week’s Costa Gravan gala, thinks Devon is the spy the Ring is looking for. Sydney, after threatening Devon a little, lets him go with a Ring phone and instructions to answer it and do what she tells him to do. Meanwhile, Team Bartowski is, of course, desperately looking for Awesome.

Big things are afoot in Morgan’s life, as well. Big Mike has promoted Morgan to Assistant Manager. I think it’s part Big Mike seeing potential in Morgan and part nepotism. Big Mike is still dating Morgan’s mom, after all. To Morgan’s dismay, Jeff and Lester no longer want to associate with him, and Lester in particular goes out of his way to make things tough for Morgan. I enjoyed this plot because it was a chance to really see Morgan grow as a character. He had to take responsibility and stand up to his goofy friends.

Chuck inadvertently makes extra trouble for Morgan when he flashes on his kung fu skills and knocks Lester out. It was cool to see yet another example of emotions triggering a flash (Lester was acting silly and faking fighting moves) instead of preventing them. Lester goes on and on about how getting hit made him feel like a man, and he and Jeff end up starting a fight club in the Nerd Herd cage. It’s pretty intense, with a car battery electrifying the cage and everything. Shutting the fight club down is Morgan’s big problem of the episode. Big Mike has been noticing all his employees walking around with black eyes, after all. Morgan ends up temporarily firing Lester. It was a good move in that the firing asserted his authority over the staff, while the rehiring regained his friendship with Lester.

After Awesome is released from captivity, he goes straight to Chuck. After feeling relief that his brother-in-law is back, Chuck then has to face the difficulty of explaining Awesome’s absence to Ellie. There’s no way he wants Ellie to be in on all the spy stuff too. I don’t think Awesome wants her involved in that, either. Awesome’s one weakness is that he’s a terrible, terrible liar. I like that he has this one weakness- perfect characters aren’t as interesting. Awesome’s original excuse for his absence is that he was running in the park, saw a bear, and “had to decapitate the bear.” It was so ridiculous that it had me laughing hysterically. Chuck comes up with a better cover story when Ellie doesn’t believe the original one. He tells Ellie that Awesome was trying to help Casey, who was arrested for getting drunk and exposing himself at the park. This was also hilarious, because Ellie doesn’t look at Casey the same way for the rest of the episode.

Sydney drops a package off at Awesome and Ellie’s apartment, and on the rest of Team Bartowski’s advice, he opens it. Inside is an earpiece and a watch. Sydney explains over the Ring phone that these are communication devices. Chuck, upon receiving a nod from Casey, tells Awesome that he should put on the ear piece. This turns out to be very, very bad advice. The ear piece is rigged with explosives, and Sydney will trigger it if Awesome doesn’t do exactly what she says.

The mission involves getting to the twelfth floor of a pretty secure building, but luckily Awesome has Chuck, Casey, and Sarah for back-up in the van. Awesome, however, doesn’t last long without help. He gets flustered by the very first security guard he encounters. Chuck takes his role as Awesome’s “handler” seriously, though, and he’s right there to help him out. With tranq guns. Chuck is actually quite badass with the tranq guns throughout this sequence. I always like it when Chuck is shown as somewhat competent. It shows growth from the bumbling, beaten down by life guy he was when the series first began.

After following Sydney’s directions, Awesome and Chuck find themselves in a CIA office, specifically the office of Agent Shaw. Sydney instructs Awesome to kill Shaw, and neither Awesome nor Chuck want to do that. Shaw tells them that they have to- they’ll all be killed otherwise. Then he downs a red pill, which was a big flashing neon sign that even if he was shot and appeared dead, Shaw would not actually be dead. Since Chuck and Awesome still won’t shoot, Shaw shoots himself. In shock, Awesome conveniently picks up the gun, and when Sydney enters the room, it looks as if Shaw was shot by Awesome.

After Sydney confirms Shaw’s death and leaves (she tells Awesome she’ll be in touch with another mission, of course), Chuck finally reads the note Shaw gave him. The pill Shaw took slowed down his heart, and the gun shot was actually not life threatening. Awesome, with the help of a med kit, is pretty easily able to revive Shaw. It turns out that Shaw is the CIA’s expert on the Ring, and General Beckman has now placed him in charge of Team Bartowski.

We learn some interesting things about Shaw in this episode, which is something I like. His introduction to the gang is clever and has some drama. He also has a refreshingly business-like attitude. He doesn’t like guns, but he knows how to use them and will use them when necessary. He tries to keep his personal stuff from mixing with work. He expects people to clean up their own messes. Until Shaw starts putting the moves on Sarah (which is kind of inevitable, considering this is television), he’s an okay guy in my book, even if he is somewhat at odds with the rest of Team Bartowski at first.

Chuck is determined to end Awesome’s involvement in the spy world for once and all, and he has a kind of crazy plan to make it happen. He plays with the Ring phone and uses it to call Sydney. He tells Sydney that he’s the spy she’s looking for and that he’s at the Buy More. He figures he’s going to have Casey and Sarah for back-up when Sydney and her goons arrive. He’s wrong, though, at least at first. Shaw won’t let Sarah and Casey help because of his “clean up your own mess” policy.

Unfortunately, Chuck half-way fails at dealing with the situation on his own (remember how I said that I like when he’s competent). When he finds out Casey and Sarah aren’t coming, he panics, and he can’t flash on the skills necessary to defend himself. He does manage to use the “run away” tactic favored by King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table, though, and he actually has one pretty good move near the end. He hides in the Nerd Herd cage and manages to take a few of the goons out by electrocuting them. That was also a nice way to bring the sort-of disparate spy world and Buy More plots together.

Sarah and Casey do eventually arrive to back Chuck up, and they are helpful in dispatching the rest of the goons. Chuck still can’t get away from Sydney, though. Sydney is about to wreak some serious havoc when she is suddenly shot. Shot by Shaw, of all people. I liked that when the chips were down, he came through. One other interesting character note for Shaw happened at the end of the episode. Chuck, Morgan, Awesome, Ellie, Sarah, and Casey are all having a friendly dinner and Chuck and Morgan’s place. Shaw watches wistfully from the Castle monitor and pulls out an old wedding ring. Presumably he learned the hard way that real life and spy life shouldn’t mix.