Community - App Development and Condiments

Owing more than a little to 1970s dystopian future flicks such as Zardoz and Logan's Run (and Aldous Huxley's Brave New World), the latest episode of Community plays on a tried-and-true theme of the show in the near-immediate overreaction of the Greendale campus to absurd levels. What begins as beta testing for a new app called MeowMeowBeenz that helps students rate each other and their professors spirals quickly out of control as a rigid class structure is adopted creating a dystopian future on the campus lorded over by the Shirley (Yvette Nicole Brown) and the rest of the "5's."

Unwilling to let Shirley's passive-aggressive behavior rule the day, Jeff (Joel McHale) becomes obsessed with proving just how stupid the entire situation is only to loose himself on his quest to unseat Shirley and take back his place as resident cool dude. Unwilling to let matters stand, Britta (Gillian Jacobs) takes control of the revolution (with a little help from smeared mustard) at least until the everyone realizes how insane they gotten yet again.

For a season that's already given us a similar set-up in "Geothermal Escapism," "App Development and Condiments" feels like leftover ideas (some of which are still quite entertaining) that didn't quite make it into the previous (better) episode. That said, there's quite a bit to enjoy including Mitch Hurwitz's turn as Koogler (an odd caricature of 80s too-cool college dudes which makes as little sense as the rest of the episode, but does generate some laughs including the closing credit sequence).