Spoilers for Season 4, episode 11, "Basic Human Anatomy."
I loved the Freaky Friday homage. Abed and Troy have always been paired off as best friends, even within the study group, but each character maintains his own identity. Troy is friendly, a movie fan, and sometimes slow on the uptake. Abed is obsessed with TV and movies, socially awkward, and usually the most insightful person in the group. When they switch bodies, they are obviously different people. The credit goes to Glover and Pudi for mimicking each other's mannerisms and speech patterns so well. You can tell that the person who looks like Abed is talking like Troy, and the person who looks like Troy is moving around like Abed.
Troy and Abed are the perfect choice for two character switching bodies, but the Freaky Friday trope made something else obvious: Annie and Shirley are basically the same character now.
Both are up for valedictorian, as we've been hearing in every episode. They team up against the rest of the group (in this episode, as the banner approvers), and they say the same things at the same time ("Awww, that you remember?" and "Sorry."). Shirley even tells Annie to use "we" and "us" because Annie uses first person pronouns when she actually means both Shirley and herself.
The writers keep lumping Annie and Shirely together, and it stagnates both women. Neither character can develop when they keep sharing roles and goals.
"Basic Human Anatomy" is a fun episode, but the interesting developments with Troy and Abed are diminished by the redundancy between Annie and Shirley.
I loved the Freaky Friday homage. Abed and Troy have always been paired off as best friends, even within the study group, but each character maintains his own identity. Troy is friendly, a movie fan, and sometimes slow on the uptake. Abed is obsessed with TV and movies, socially awkward, and usually the most insightful person in the group. When they switch bodies, they are obviously different people. The credit goes to Glover and Pudi for mimicking each other's mannerisms and speech patterns so well. You can tell that the person who looks like Abed is talking like Troy, and the person who looks like Troy is moving around like Abed.
Troy and Abed are the perfect choice for two character switching bodies, but the Freaky Friday trope made something else obvious: Annie and Shirley are basically the same character now.
Both are up for valedictorian, as we've been hearing in every episode. They team up against the rest of the group (in this episode, as the banner approvers), and they say the same things at the same time ("Awww, that you remember?" and "Sorry."). Shirley even tells Annie to use "we" and "us" because Annie uses first person pronouns when she actually means both Shirley and herself.
The writers keep lumping Annie and Shirely together, and it stagnates both women. Neither character can develop when they keep sharing roles and goals.
"Basic Human Anatomy" is a fun episode, but the interesting developments with Troy and Abed are diminished by the redundancy between Annie and Shirley.
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