(S01E06) See, now that wasn't so hard, was it, Community? I knew you could give me another good episode. And finally a sympathetic side to Britta. So far she's been the annoying, self-righteous blonde that Jeff wants to sleep with for some reason. But that's about all we've seen of her personality. In fact, I couldn't even see why Jeff wanted to get into her pants.

This week, we got to get behind Britta's walls a bit and see her even take her first tentative steps outside of them. Shirley, as the social queen of the show, was right there to help her along the way. And Annie was right there, too, to give Britta the chance to be a shoulder for someone to cry one.

Which brings us to what Jeff's up to this week. I guess it's going to take a really damned long time for Jeff to "grow." Every time he seems to have a moment of self-awareness about his douchebaggery, he turns around the next week and is just as big an ass.

So I have no delusion that his realization that he shouldn't toy with Troy's life just to try and maintain his own means that he's learned anything. It didn't help that Troy ultimately realized that playing football was just what he needed. It fits with the personality already established that Troy sabotaged his own pro career by injuring himself intentionally. He's been plagued with self-doubt since the day we met him.

This is the kind of character moments that I need to fall in love with this show. It's so close to pulling me in. This week we got into the heads of Britta and Troy a little more and I like both of them more as characters. And I can more and more see the value of this group of eccentrics supporting one another on their community college journey.

And yet, Pierce still isn't being brought into any of the emotional connections the cast is having. He's had a few moments of his own, but for the past couple of weeks the focus for Pierce has mostly been on his ever-widening areas of "expertise." This week he has experience in graphic design and Y2K preparedness, among other things, making him perfectly qualified to create the Greendale Human Beings (love the name!) mascot.

And the Dean still hired him after the school song fiasco. The boards on the wall breaking down the various stereotypes were awesome, especially the color chart from Seal to Seal's teeth. "Not being racist is the new racism." Jeff nailed that one on the head.

With the look of some of Troy's new teammates, I would love to see a few moments of one of his games this season. I want to see the pregnant chick and that long flowing white beard coming out of a helmet. Even how pathetic the field is was so appropriate. The Dean is actually taking his one-trick; I want this to be like a real college; and milking it for plenty of laughs still. Even better that nobody we've seen seems to have any respect for him. Even his former therapist laughed at his profession.

With episodes like this, Community is back on track. Oh, I forgot to mention Abed... because he was mostly absent this week. I like that his "thing" is to be the self-aware member of the group. It was used to great affect in the cold open where he agreed to lay low for an episode, as was his cameo at the end as the "Human Being."

[If you missed a joke, you can look for clips and full episodes of Community at SlashControl.]