YMMV / Community S 3 E 08 Documentary Filmmaking Redux

• Fridge Horror:
  • Does the Dean simply own a copy of Jeff's underwear, or did he steal them from Jeff?
  • This may be a call back, since Dean Pelton was looking pretty closely at them during the billiards contest in "Physical Education."
    • And of course the previous episode showed that he's not above buying matching outfits.
• Genius Bonus: While Abed diagnoses Annie as having Stockholm Syndrome, she is actually displaying a phenomenon psychologists would call "insufficient justification." It all starts when someone goes through a lot of effort/pain, and doesn't have a really good reason for why they did it, so they try to convince themselves otherwise. She's basically reducing her mental distress by convincing herself that the Dean is a genius, therefore justifying all the work she's done, since there wasn't any real reason for her suffering at all.
• Harsher in Hindsight: Jeff Garlin yelling at a PA at the end of the episode is a lot less funny in light of his 2021 exit from The Goldbergs over alleged verbal abuse of the crew.
• Recycled Premise: A "brilliant", eccentric director evokes Marlon Brando in Apocalypse Now, goes mad during filming his magnum opus project, and takes everyone along with him? Yes, we've seen this before....
• Heartwarming Moments:
  • Abed's talking-head shot about how a filmmaker can't always stay detached.
  • The scene where the group forgives the Dean seems like it's leading up to a joke, wherein the Dean says or does something inappropriate, or Jeff insults him... and instead, the group's acceptance is sincere, and they leave to help him deal with his possum problem.

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