I wish this episode had worked for me the way it seems to have worked for others. The email/text message exchange between Troy and Abed in the middle of the episode was nasty, though, and I mean that in a good way. It's just that the first act got a little caught up in the Ken Burns stuff and lost track of the emotional stakes until then.
This episode was weird but since you leave Abed in the dreamatorium, this is bound to happen. Last week I only watched the last half and got so confused. Watched it on hulu the whole way through and loved it, Britta's story as an addict with Annie getting her cold turkey was pretty great.
As for the Seitz article mentioning Pudi's Emmy snub (I felt that Alison Brie was equally snubbed last year and I think Gillian Jacobs and Jim Rash should get serious consideration this season), I expect that with this show and cast will be on 'the snubbed list' but I hope the show's writing gets something. I also loved the article mentioning Spaced. That is definitely a show that can be pointed to as an influence if not kindred spirit to Community.
Man, I was so glad to see Annie getting good storylines this week and last, because before that S3 had been pretty barren for her, and she's awesome when given the chance. "Virtual Systems Analysis" was bizarre even by Commmunity standards, and I get the feeling that some fans are going to hate it, but I really enjoyed the thing.
This is the episode that Harmon was really, really worried about at PaleyFest, because they basically figured out what it was about in editing - and with all the post that must have gone into this, no wonder. Kudos to Pudi and Brie for performing so well in what must have been very odd circumstances, too.