Furthermore, there was the question of whether the premise could be sustained for the entire episode. See, it’s a crime procedural about Annie and Jeff trying to catch someone lurking around campus known as the “Ass Crack Bandit”. It’s a guy (or girl) who waits for a person to bend over and then drops a quarter down their buttcrack. The golden age of television, fellow viewers! There were just so many stupid lines that made me cackle, like Troy’s plea to approve the Dean’s new security measure because “A camera in the bathroom is better than a quarter in your butt.” Speaking of which, it’s a little odd, considering our limited time with him, that we aren’t seeing more of Donald Glover for these episodes. But, though sparingly used, the times he did show up were truly fantastic. And that’s decently representative of why this episode, even more than the butt jokes, truly worked for me. The focus was on Annie and Jeff, but the rest of the study group all got to have their moments. Lending a little bit of light to her character’s situation, Shirley reopens her Shirley’s Sandwiches campus shop and takes advantage of “Ass Crack Bandit”-fever to sell overpriced sandwiches when all loose change is banned from campus. Britta gets some of the best moments with Gillian Jacobs delivering deadpan monologues on the current progress of the case: “We know that he hates money or loves it or doesn’t care about money and hates butts. Or loves them.” Abed gets to provide commentary on the recent trend of crime procedurals featuring semi-autistic prodigies. Buzz Hickey, woven pretty seamlessly into things, gets a few great moments too. Admittedly, premise-wise, “Basic Intergluteal Numismatics” feels a bit like worn territory for Community. There was already that Law & Order episode after all, which also featured Jeff and Annie teaming up (and the Jeff and Annie tension here may be getting old for some, but strikes me as fairly realistic and also wasn’t pushed so hard that it dominated the narrative). However, this episode seems to be more of a parody of dark crime dramas in general. The autistic detective TV shows Abed references are clearly being sent up, but other influences are less clear. The discovery of Star-Burns and the bit with the botany professor (played by Ben Folds of all people) almost felt Twin Peaks–ian. And, truly, I didn’t mind that this was another procedural parody partially just because of how pretty it was. That final shot of Annie and Jeff in the rain seriously looked just awesome. Also, the show is definitely familiar with its past. Astute viewers may have noticed that the season premiere, “Repilot”, was almost structurally identical to Community’s original pilot and even contained a few lines lifted directly from it. Similarly, this procedural episode, like the Law & Order one, focuses on a really dumb premise and then hits you with a shot of stark reality right at the end. In fact, it was that previous procedural parody in which Star-Burns was “killed,” so it makes for some interesting cyclicality that he returns right as another character is offed (though it was definitely better handled in that previous episode and felt sort of abrupt here).
