“There’s nothing left to do now but heal and share the experience with as many reputable journals as possible.” – Professor Duncan
Ambitious as it always is, Community really takes it to another level with “Abed’s Uncontrollable Christmas,” an animated musical episode.
The action kicks off with Greendale Community College’s politically correct non-denominational holiday celebration. This is when Abed starts seeing everybody in Claymation / stop-motion animation.
He sees this as a sign that he must seek out the true meaning of Christmas, but the rest of the gang thinks it’s a sign of a mental breakdown. Greendale’s resident psychologist Professor Duncan sees this as an opportunity for a profitable book and some respect in his field, so he leads an innovative therapy session to find the source of Abed’s supposed distress. He takes the whole gang to Planet Abed, a winter wonderland of Abed’s imagination in which everybody is a fun holiday version of themselves (Jeff-in-the-Box, Troy Soldier, and the adorable Teddypierce).
Duncan wants to head to the Cave of Frozen Memories to continue his therapy, but Abed believes the only way to get to the bottom of his ailment is to find The True Meaning of Christmas, which he expects to be at the North Pole.
The episode is a strong homage to Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. It starts with just a casual reference to the classic film, but goes on to have characters expelled one at a time, each getting their own little Oompa Loompa song. The first to go is Shirley, and soon after Jeff is devoured by sarcasm-seeking humbugs.
Duncan finally gets all to the cave, but ends up only finding his own sad repressed memories. Abed continues on to the North Pole, and by the time he gets there, he is accompanied only by Pierce. In a box labeled “The Meaning of Christmas,” he finds only a DVD of the first season of Lost, and realizes that his distress is due to the fact that his mother has started a new family and won’t be visiting him this year as she has always done for the holidays.
This was another great episode in an increasingly long string of them, and I love that Community continues to be so ambitious and tries things that have never been done before. It was also as sharply written as any, and has the perfect mixture of laughs and spirit to make a great Christmas episode.
Some stats and info about Community, “Abed’s Uncontrollable Christmas”
TV SHOW – Community
SEASON/EPISODE – Season 2, Episode 11
AIRED ON – December 9th, 2010
NETWORK/STREAMING SERVICE – NBC/Yahoo! Screen
GENRE – Comedy, College Shows
CREATED BY – Dan Harmon
CAST – Joel McHale, Danny Pudi, Donald Glover, Chevy Chase, Gillian Jacobs, Alison Brie, Yvette Nicole Brown, Ken Jeong, Jim Rash
This review originally appeared on TV Geek Army.