5 Awesome Things from Law & Order: Community ‘Basic Lupine Urology’

“Greendale Community College is represented by two separate yet equally important types of people; the goofballs that run around stirring up trouble, and the egg heads who make a big deal out of it. These are their stories”

For this girl who  grew up on Law & Order (original recipe) “Basic Lupine Urology” was an absolute joy. Community veered away from the arc heavy structure to present a detailed homage to the show that cemented crime procedural in our culture.

There is a very specific formula that Law & Order adhered to in nearly every one of it’s episodes over it’s 20 season run.  It’s this familiarity found in the way the episode is structured, from the pacing and length of the scenes, to the on location shooting, to the methodical way the cases were examined every week that made Law & Order such a staple on prime time over two decades.

For a Law & Order lover like me this homage was heaven sent though hard for me to tell how much mileage a non-Law & Order junkie will get from this episode so after reading the “5 Awesome Things” let me know what you thought of  Law & Order: Greendale in the comments:

1) This is not a courtroom! It’s nice to be reminded once in a while  that Greendale doesn’t exist in a cartoon world, but are cartoon people existing in the real world. In this case it was Colonel Archwood (played by Canadian Michael Ironside) who enters the strange and terrifying world and Greendale and point out that they’re all insane (or out of order, ha).

“A pinky swear? This is ludicrous, this whole school is ludicrous, who honours a pinky swear of a degenerate over the word of a decorated soldier”

Okay, so maybe he didn’t quite call attention to exactly everything that’s insane about Greendale…and participated in the madness, but it was an appreciated gesture.

2) Dean Pelton and men in uniform. Jim Rash’s Dean Pelton made it back into the top 5 this week with his brilliantly over the top reaction to men in uniform*. Dean Pelton generally has a sensory overload just being in the same vicinity as Jeff Winger, but add a man in uniform courtesy of Colonel Archwood and the Dean has a reaction comparable to the squealing on the floor reaction to Jeff in aviators in “Contemporary Impressionists”. This time Dean has a desk to hold him up, but barely! It was a close race but the Colonel actually beat out Mr. Winger in this round.

*Chang in uniform has never, ever had this effect. No explanation required.

3) Good Cop Bad Cop..and switch. I’ll take Troy and Abed’s decision to split the roles of good cop and bad cop as a sign that their relationship is back on track. Abed’s inquisitive mind, attention to detail and obsession with committing 110% to a pop culture homage made him a perfect choice for one of the cops. Following that, Troy was a perfect partner. They play off each other wonderfully each taking turns lashing out as bad cop and apologizing for their partner who has been that way since they switched.

4) Lt. Shirley Bennet. Shirley made an exceptional Lt. Van Buren. She’s basically a vet of the Greendale force after her round of bad cop/bad cop with Annie in season one. Yvette Nicole Brown pulls off a wonderful iteration of Shirley as Lt. Van Buren intoning enough of the original character to make it feel real while letting the appropriate tough but fair shades of Shirley shine through. The way she supervised Troy and Abed’s investigation while doing what she could to help was great. The highlight may have been the revised version of the Miranda rights she insisted they use that include a please and thank you.

“You have the right to do whatever you want. Nothing you do or say can be used against you by anyone but we’d really like it if you came with us please and thank you.”

5) The Shocking Death of Star Burns. Seriously, I was shocked, like jaw dropped staring at the screen as it cut to commercial shocked. The levity of this scene was astounding, and possibly the moment in this episode that captured the feeling of watching an episode of Law & Order with the most accuracy. In the tradition of Law & Order, Annie, Jeff, and Prof Kane were unwinding from the case with a drink in the Dean’s office when the phone rings. This isn’t a weekly part of the Law & Order format but it has occurred often enough that the scene is immediately recognizable to the L&O trained eye. A suspect that was heavily involved in the case has died.  It was amazing how far the show was willing to go, killing off a recurring character in service of the homage.

Chang Watch 2012: Chang was utilized nicely in a smaller role as an officer of the court. If it had been Chang conducting this investigation it would have been a very different kind of homage.

Runners Up (a.k.a Bonus  Awesome): 

. Casting Leslie Hendrix, known for playing medical examiner Dr. Elizabeth Rodgers across the Law & Order franchise, as the Botanist.

. Michael K Williams always hits it out of the park as Professor Kane.

. Britta being cut off because her contribution to the case was irrelevant, Law & Order doesn’t waste time on anything that isn’t useful, snap!

. With Jeff Winger as the obvious choice for the role of district attorney (and sharing similarities with the educational issues of Linus Roache’s  Michael Cutter), Annie fit perfectly into the role of the rotating cast of pretty young A.D.A’s and allowed the show to play with their relationship a little more.

.The opening tag was both spot on as a stylistic ode to a Law & Order discovery scene, but the dialogue about the loss of the perfect dental hygienist (because he wouldn’t stop hitting on her) was hilarious as it was spoken in complete earnestness by the janitors. “She’s the one putting her hands in my mouth”

.“Kiss me, I’ll explain later”

“Explanation isn’t the issue”

. “Well well well. Look at this Abed, he weaves baskets and lies”

. Plus Fat Neil did it for love and we got the return of weird army guy Todd. Law & Order is well known for having about a bajillion people in bit roles, it only seems fitting that tonight was a big one forCommunity’s minor characters.

What were your favourite moments of “Basic Lupine Urology”? Let me know what you thought of the episode in the comments!