Review: Community - ‘Basic Intergluteal Numismatics’

As Community continues its struggle to redeem itself after a rather mediocre season 4, they bring us ‘Basic Intergluteal Numismatics’, a crime-drama look at the horrible results of ass-cracking - i.e.: dropping a quarter in someone’s butt crack while they’re bent over.  And while this episode does have some laughs and more than a few clever tricks, I wouldn’t say it’s one of the stronger installments in the series as a whole.

We begin with a crime set years in the past - one poor student bends over to pick something up and ends up with some change in his crack.  Then the assaults continue, victim after victim being claimed by the “Ass Crack Bandit”.  Then, suddenly, the criminal disappears, only to resurface in the current season.  He’s back at it again and even poor Troy falls prey to his antics.

So it’s up to Jeff and Annie to solve the case.  They take center stage in this episode, playing the detectives that must fight the resistance of the Dean (who just wants to sweep it all under the rug) while tracking down the vicious criminal.  Their search eventually leads them to a still-living Starburns, living in Greendale’s stable.  He admits to the crime, but Jeff and Annie have their doubts as to his honesty and so head out to seek the truth.

There are several clever gags throughout this one, and the tone is perfect for the crime-drama genre that it’s attempting to mimic, but it didn’t really have enough to occupy my attention.  It’s about on par with the majority of the first three seasons’ episodes, nothing great but still a solid entry in the overall scheme of things.  Unfortunately, the last two episodes were in much the same vein, so the new season is showing us nothing spectacular so far.  If it continues in this way, I’m afraid that it will quickly become the second-most-hated season in Community history.  Hopefully, Harmon will bring something bigger to the table come next week.

For some reason the powers-that-be don’t believe that Community should have proper previews, so there’s no trailer for next week’s ‘Cooperative Polygraphy’.  If you’re interested in reading a brief synopsis, however, you can head over to this site.

Photo Credits -

Community courtesy of geekosystem.com