Inside Television with Alan Sepinwall

HitFix First Look: A 'Community' family reunion

Jeff Winger and his dad get together, with a little help from Britta

By Alan Sepinwall Monday, Mar 4, 2013 2:00 PM

Joel McHale as Jeff Winger on "Community."

Credit: NBC

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Dan Harmon didn't leave an awful lot of dangling threads for his "Community" successors to tie up, but one big one is Jeff Winger's search for closure with the father who abandoned him and his mother when Jeff was young. This Thursday's episode, "Cooperative Escapism in Familial Relations," finally brings Jeff face-to-face with the man he's resented for so long — in the form of an actor who's starting to specialize in playing estranged TV dads.

In this clip — exclusive to HitFix for the next few hours — Jeff and his father attempt to lay out the ground rules for how this reunion will work, with help from Britta, who's overjoyed by the opportunities this presents to test out her new knowledge (or lack thereof) of psychology.

Alan Sepinwall
Sr. Editor, What's Alan Watching

Alan Sepinwall has been reviewing television since the mid-'90s, first for Tony Soprano's hometown paper, The Star-Ledger, and now for HitFix. His new book, "The Revolution Was Televised," about the last 15 years of TV drama, is for sale at Amazon. He can be reached at sepinwall@hitfix.com

Related Searches: Community, Joel McHale, Gillian Jacobs, James Brolin

jstone77

Well, there goes my hope of Bill Murray as Jeff's dad...
March 4, 2013 at 3:10PM EST Reply to Comment
- adama1843 No, he needs to replace Chevy Chase if there's another season.
  March 4, 2013 at 8:41PM EST
- lazy iggy @jstone
  Mine too.Stripes has been on a lot lately, and I was keepin my fingers crossed we'd see a stripes inspired episode or bill Murray walking slowly down the halls of Greendale.
  Ohs wells
  March 4, 2013 at 9:30PM EST
- --bd No, you two. Abed has already answered that for us. It will be Fred Willard. And it will always have been Fred Willard. Something involving a shower or a snow-globe.
  March 6, 2013 at 10:37AM EST
jenfullmoon

Wow, Britta, "sleep with each other?" Damn, girl.
March 4, 2013 at 3:29PM EST Reply to Comment
Karen

That's not even funny.
March 4, 2013 at 3:40PM EST Reply to Comment
Daggor

The new show-runners have no idea what they're doing. That would have been a perfect time for Winger Sr. to say: "She's the worst."
March 4, 2013 at 5:10PM EST Reply to Comment
- hahahahaha! I think this might be my favorite over-criticism of Community 2.0 yet -- "Dan Harmon would've written a different line there and I know exactly what that line should've been!"
  March 4, 2013 at 5:22PM EST
- @HAHAHAHAHA!
  
  Internet fans are truly better writers than the writers of the very shows they watch.
  March 4, 2013 at 10:58PM EST
Irrational Cry Baby

THE NEW SHOWRUNNERS CAN'T DO GOOD CLIPS AND I KNOW BECAUSE I AM A TV GENIUS THEY ARE BAD AT EVERYTHING BASED ON A MINUTE OF VIDEO I DECIDED THIS EPISODE SUCKS BEFORE EVEN WARCHING IT WHERE IS DAN HARMON WAAAHHHHH WAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!
March 4, 2013 at 5:19PM EST Reply to Comment
- GRubi Lol. This comment made me laugh. But I will say that this one particular clip was pretty unfunny. But that doesn't mean the rest of the episode will be that way. I've more or less enjoyed the first four episodes
  March 4, 2013 at 5:49PM EST
- Jonas.Left That would have been a hell of a burn, if we hadn't seen four full epsiobes to judge the new show runners by.
  March 5, 2013 at 6:01PM EST
connor

well, i thought it was funny.
March 4, 2013 at 7:07PM EST Reply to Comment
Ethan Landa

He may not have said it, but he was definitely thinking it. Very funny clip! And there's always room for a your the worst later.
March 5, 2013 at 1:24AM EST Reply to Comment
Arthur F.

I'm interested to see what happens, if just because I invested in the beginning of the series and this storyline was important.
Pity that's what the series became for me, viewing out of curiosity the disjointed mechanics. Mostly out of respect just because there was a time it really surprised me and loved the combination of writing and characters.

Britta's entrance in the end of the scene with one of her psycholo-propisms bothers me because it tries too hard, delivered sitcom style, you can hear the laugh track afterwards, and not Community style, where lines were delivered in conversations that went by in real time and the convoluted Britta-logic (or Pearce or Troy/Abed isms) felt part of the mix and fit the tone (this did not) even as the scene goes on.

So yes the new episodes aren't awful, but Community was more than "not awful".

March 5, 2013 at 3:53AM EST Reply to Comment
Tobias

does that mean Jeff Winger and Rick Castle are brothers? That actually makes a letter sort of sense.
March 6, 2013 at 11:29AM EST Reply to Comment

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HitFix First Look: A 'Community' family reunion

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Comments

Option 1

Option 2

Option 3

jstone77 Well, there goes my hope of Bill Murray as Jeff's dad...

adama1843 No, he needs to replace Chevy Chase if there's another season.

lazy iggy @jstone Mine too.Stripes has been on a lot lately, and I was keepin my fingers crossed we'd see a stripes inspired episode or bill Murray walking slowly down the halls of Greendale. Ohs wells

--bd No, you two. Abed has already answered that for us. It will be Fred Willard. And it will always have been Fred Willard. Something involving a shower or a snow-globe.

jenfullmoon Wow, Britta, "sleep with each other?" Damn, girl.

Karen That's not even funny.

Daggor The new show-runners have no idea what they're doing. That would have been a perfect time for Winger Sr. to say: "She's the worst."

hahahahaha! I think this might be my favorite over-criticism of Community 2.0 yet -- "Dan Harmon would've written a different line there and I know exactly what that line should've been!"

@HAHAHAHAHA!Internet fans are truly better writers than the writers of the very shows they watch.

Irrational Cry Baby THE NEW SHOWRUNNERS CAN'T DO GOOD CLIPS AND I KNOW BECAUSE I AM A TV GENIUS THEY ARE BAD AT EVERYTHING BASED ON A MINUTE OF VIDEO I DECIDED THIS EPISODE SUCKS BEFORE EVEN WARCHING IT WHERE IS DAN HARMON WAAAHHHHH WAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!

GRubi Lol. This comment made me laugh. But I will say that this one particular clip was pretty unfunny. But that doesn't mean the rest of the episode will be that way. I've more or less enjoyed the first four episodes

Jonas.Left That would have been a hell of a burn, if we hadn't seen four full epsiobes to judge the new show runners by.

connor well, i thought it was funny.

Ethan Landa He may not have said it, but he was definitely thinking it. Very funny clip! And there's always room for a your the worst later.

Tobias does that mean Jeff Winger and Rick Castle are brothers? That actually makes a letter sort of sense.

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Community is updated

jstone77

Well, there goes my hope of Bill Murray as Jeff's dad...

lazy iggy @jstone
Mine too.Stripes has been on a lot lately, and I was keepin my fingers crossed we'd see a stripes inspired episode or bill Murray walking slowly down the halls of Greendale.
Ohs wells

jenfullmoon

Wow, Britta, "sleep with each other?" Damn, girl.

Karen

That's not even funny.

Daggor

The new show-runners have no idea what they're doing. That would have been a perfect time for Winger Sr. to say: "She's the worst."

@HAHAHAHAHA!

Internet fans are truly better writers than the writers of the very shows they watch.

Irrational Cry Baby

THE NEW SHOWRUNNERS CAN'T DO GOOD CLIPS AND I KNOW BECAUSE I AM A TV GENIUS THEY ARE BAD AT EVERYTHING BASED ON A MINUTE OF VIDEO I DECIDED THIS EPISODE SUCKS BEFORE EVEN WARCHING IT WHERE IS DAN HARMON WAAAHHHHH WAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!

connor

well, i thought it was funny.

Ethan Landa

He may not have said it, but he was definitely thinking it. Very funny clip! And there's always room for a your the worst later.

Tobias

does that mean Jeff Winger and Rick Castle are brothers? That actually makes a letter sort of sense.

Never miss a post - sign up now to get an e-mail alert whenever
What's Alan Watching is updated