Advanced Documentary Filmmaking

"Advanced Documentary Filmmaking" is the sixth episode of the fourth season of the NBC sitcom Community, which originally aired on March 14, 2013. The episode was written by Hunter Covington, and directed by Jay Chandrasekhar. In this episode, Abed makes a documentary about Changnesia in order to receive a grant, with Jeff attempting to prove Chang is faking his disease.

"Advanced Documentary Filmmaking"
Community episode
Episode no.Season 4
Episode 6
Directed byJay Chandrasekhar
Written byHunter Covington
Production code408
Original air dateMarch 14, 2013 (2013-03-14)
Guest appearance(s)

Plot

Abed is making a documentary for Greendale about Chang in order to secure a $40,000 grant from the MacGuffin Neurological Institute to study Changnesia.

Dr. Ken Kedan (Marc Jablon) is studying the rare disease citing that it affects the memory, but not the ability to make forced puns. Dean Craig Pelton (Jim Rash) recounts his history with Chang, from his hiring as a Spanish teacher up to the overthrow of season three. Britta posits a theory that the current Kevin Chang is the real Chang and the power-crazy Benjamin Chang was the alter-ego and a hit on the head reverted Chang back to Kevin. She is quickly refuted by Dr. Kedan who is being interviewed alongside her and asserts that only a hit on the head can cure Chang if a hit on the head is what led to the initial ailment.

As Jeff asks Shirley to help him debunk the Changnesia documentary, he finds out that Chang has been hired by Shirley's Sandwiches. After being chided by Shirley about second chances, Jeff outwardly complies with the group in order to continue to secretly undermine the documentary. Britta interviews Shirley where it's revealed that Shirley was dead for three minutes at some point in her life.

Troy and Annie team up and call themselves Partner & Hoolihan, respectively. Troy and Annie, along with their cameraman, Garrett Lambert (Erik Charles Nielsen), interrogate a trout fisherman, Sully Sullivan (Mike Hagerty) who confesses to using Chang as unpaid labour for three months after seeing Chang come out of a trout tank.

Jeff is reviewing Britta's footage, which Abed says goes on for 12 hours and is mostly garbage. As they fast-forward through the footage they see Chang dialing a number and hanging up.

At the presentation in front of the institute, Annie believes Jeff will uncover the human trafficking, but to her surprise and everyone else's, presents Alessandra Chang (Andrea De Oliveira), Chang's wife. The owner of the phone number Chang had been filmed calling and hanging up on numerous times. This doesn't faze Chang and in order to elicit a reaction, Jeff kisses Alessandra. After seeing the opposition displayed by Jeff, Lorraine (Lisa Long) of the MacGuffin Neurological Institute grants the funds to the college.

Jeff ends up being ostracized from the group, but is welcomed back first by Chang who reminds Jeff of his former life and starting anew. The study group, along with the Dean and Chang, watch the completed documentary and after his apology, forgive Jeff for his undertaking.

In the tag, Chang calls someone to report that they bought it, "hook, line and Winger." Chang then throws his phone into a trash can, only to realize that was an idiotic move, which leads to him retrieving it before laughing as he walks down the hallway.

Production

During the filming of the episode, Chevy Chase became angry at the racist direction his character was heading. While venting his frustrations, he used the slur "nigger"; episode director Jay Chandrasekhar argued that Chase's use of the word was "political," and an attempt to point out how racist his character had become.[1] Regardless, the slur upset cast members, and Chase walked off of the set. He later returned to film some additional scenes, but later announced on November 21, 2012 that he had left the show.[2][3]

The episode was written by new series writer and co-producer Hunter Covington, his first writing credit for the series. It was directed by Jay Chandrasekhar, who directed four episodes previously for the series. Although aired as episode six, it was the eighth episode produced.[4] An early scene in the episode shows the "Archie" banner, which isn't actually produced until the following episode.

This is the third "Documentary Filmmaking" episode of the series, following season two's "Intermediate Documentary Filmmaking" and season three's "Documentary Filmmaking: Redux".

Reception

The episode was initially seen by approximately 2.58 million viewers.[5]

It was met with mixed reviews with Emily VanDerWerff of The A.V. Club rating the episode a B, saying, "[...] at every turn, it reminds me that it doesn’t particularly care to [make a fresh start], and that the past makes a warm, if smothering, blanket."[6] Eric Goldman of IGN gave the episode an 8.8, praising Ken Jeong's performance as Chang and that "It was the first episode this season that felt 100% "natural," if that’s the right word."[7]

gollark: It's the Rust mascot crab.
gollark: Well, I actually bifurcated the universe into two, one which has Discord's bot API allow arbitrary presence information and one where someone made the game "with numbers" in 2007.
gollark: Actually, no, bots can say whatever they want on presence information.
gollark: "with numbers", obviously.
gollark: ... possibly? I mean, you could make one.

References
  1. Nelson, Jenny (May 16, 2013). "Talking to Broken Lizard's Jay Chandrasekhar about 'Freeloaders' and the Chevy Chase N-Word Thing". Splitsider. Retrieved June 30, 2020.
  2. "Episode 6: Chewin' It #6 with Kevin and... Jay Chandrasekhar". Nerdist Industries. April 10, 2013. Retrieved June 30, 2020. Note: Pertinent information appears at around the 49:00 mark.
  3. Andreeva, Nellie (November 21, 2012). "Chevy Chase Leaving NBC's 'Community'". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved June 30, 2020.
  4. "Behind the Scenes: Advanced Documentary Filmmaking". NBC. March 15, 2013. Retrieved March 15, 2013.
  5. Kondolojy, Amanda (March 15, 2013). "Thursday Final Ratings: 'The Big Bang Theory', 'American Idol' & 'Community' Adjusted Up; 'Elementary' Adjusted Down". TV by the Numbers. Retrieved April 21, 2013.
  6. VanDerWerff, Emily (March 14, 2013). ""Advanced Documentary Filmmaking" S4 / E6". The A.V. Club. Retrieved April 21, 2013.
  7. Goldman, Eric (14 March 2013). "Community: "Advanced Documentary Filmmaking" Review - "Grant granted!"". IGN. Retrieved 3 May 2013.
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