The "paintball" episode is hilarious! After the usual pre-titles opening scene, the entire episode is shot to look like an action movie. That's what's great about "Community": the sense of heightened reality. It allows for some wonderfully absurd satire.
In this episode ("Modern Warfare"), the entire student body at Greendale is engaged in a last-one-standing paintball war. Everyone wants to win The Prize. (The prize itself is a great satire on the college experience.) Armed with paintball guns, our heroes make their way through a war-torn campus, ever wary of the glee club who might snipe them from the trees.
The episode is filled with classic action movie moments: slow-motion moves, jumping off walls, sliding on floors, tragic "deaths", suspicions of betrayal, hails of gunfire, and Mexican stand-offs galore.
Joel McHale runs around in a sweaty wife-beater while his buddies wear battle gear. People are dodging paint pellets, ducking for cover, ambushing their enemies, and avenging their fallen friends. Not your typical day at school.
The hilarity is topped off by Senor Chang's (Ken Jeong) appearance toward the end as a bada** mercenary for the dean. (The music alone makes his entrance priceless.)
"Community" has proved over its first season that it's a fresh new sitcom that knows comedy. Each character brings something different to the table and the show is witty and absurd and full of satire. I like some episodes better than others, but I absolutely LOVED this wonderful homage to action flicks. This is "Community" at its most inspired. Brilliant.
