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It’s easy to hand out titles like “best show on television,” but a title is just a meaningless collection of words unless you can back it up with some evidence. In Best of the Best we pick the five best episodes of the finest shows on television to give you an example of what makes them so special.
If you were within earshot of a Community fan when the show was put on hiatus by NBC, then you’ve probably already heard about how creative, original and streets ahead this comedy is. Community is a TV show about TV shows for TV fanatics like us.
Contemporary American Poultry
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“As far back as I can remember, I’ve always wanted to be in a Mafia movie.” – Abed
In an effort to keep his friends flush with chicken fingers, Abed gets a job at the school cafeteria. It’s not long before Abed’s kickbacks to his friends spiral into an underground chicken finger racket in the style of Goodfellas. Underneath all this lampooning is a great character story about what happens to the group when someone other than Jeff is calling the shots.
Cooperative Calligraphy
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“Accidents don’t just happen over and over and over again, this isn’t budget daycare.” – Annie
Annie’s pen goes missing and it turns into one of the most frantic witch hunts ever televised. With nowhere to go and nobody else to accuse but one another, this character driven episode shows the characters getting raw and naked—literally. The episode ends with the gang forgetting about the pen and the audience finding out that Troy’s monkey was the culprit all along.
Advanced Dungeons and Dragons
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“This is why I wanted to play Chutes and Ladders.” – Troy
The gang plays a game of Dungeons and Dragons with a suicidal classmate in order to cheer him up, but Pierce crashes the party to punish his friends for excluding him. What follows is an epic tale of good versus evil that takes place entirely in the viewer’s imagination. Except for that haunting image of Chang looking as stealthy as a B-2 bomber in dark elf makeup– that’s something we could never imagine.
Modern Warfare
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“I thought it was paint but I’m just bleeding. Talk about luck!” – Jeff
Jeff takes a nap before a game of paintball assassin and wakes up to find himself in a warzone covered in paint. This episode had the monumental feat of riffing on every action movie under the sun, while also breaking the will-they, won’t-they tension between Britta and Jeff by having them hook up.
Advanced Chaos Theory
Only Community could deliver seven different alternate timelines in one episode. With the simple roll of a die, we get to see what Troy and Abed’s housewarming party would be like under different circumstances. Some of the results are grim, while others hint at things to come—but the final result is driven by choice, not fate, and ends with a happy gathering of friends.
