Now that the madness of sweeps is essentially over for the season, TV is slowly returning to something approaching normal, (unless you’re a Supernatural fan. What’s that about?) and Community once again graces our screens. It ought to be a joyous event, but Custody Law And Eastern European Diplomacy is a curiously downbeat return. A strangely friendless Jeff, still rooming with the saw-wielding ex-Senor, sees an opportunity to get his apartment back (he is a lawyer, after all) and convinces Chang that Shirley would take his parental aspirations more seriously if he got his life together. Cue nightmare visions of pipe and cardigan sporting 1950s archetypal fathers, child abduction, wrongful arrest, and a half-hatched plot to put Chang away for life. Which, apart from being harsh, leaves Shirley’s ex/current man as the only person in a 10 mile radius not out to get him. You know something’s up when Theo Huxtable is the voice of reason. Sadly, the almost unpleasantness continued with the b-story, which involves Britta way more than is ever necessary. Essentially revolving around Britta’s dating habits (read, treating Troy and Abed’s ever diminishing circle of male friends as her own personal escort service) and the duo’s efforts to stop her going anywhere near their latest game buddy, Lukka. It seems that in addition to ‘dating’ everyone they know, Britta is also something of a gossip, and can’t resist revealing juicy, and not so juicy titbits about her conquests, forcing the boys to never see them again. Hence Jeff’s current friendlessness. So far, so predictable. Thank God, then, for Troy and Abed, who prove the highlight of the episode. Their in sync Britta interactions are fabulous, and Donald Glover played the neckerchief gag to perfection. The duo have been getting better each episode, and this week they all but save the show. Even Chang’s usually hilarious madness doesn’t sit well this week, but Troy and Abed are pitch perfect. Custody Law And Eastern European Diplomacy is an uncharacteristic blip in an otherwise spotless run, so we’ll let them get away with one less than stellar episode. On the positive side, it’s great to see Malcolm-Jamal Warner back, and the crack about It’s Complicated is comedy gold and totally worth the wait. Fingers crossed, next week’s Pulp Fiction celebration (so it is rumoured) sees the show back where it belongs, at the top of its game. Read our review of episode 17, Intro To Political Science, here. Follow Den Of Geek on Twitter right here.
