Episode no. Season 6
Episode 11 Written by Mark Stegemann Original air date May 19, 2015 | Directed by Rob Schrab Production code 611 Running time 28 minutes | |
"Modern Espionage" is the eleventh episode of the sixth season of the television sitcom Community. It was written by Mark Stegemann, and directed by Rob Schrab. It is the 108th episode overall and was first released on Yahoo! Screen in the United States on May 19, 2015. The episode is the third "paintball episode" of the series after "Modern Warfare" (season one) and the two-part "A Fistful of Paintballs" / "For a Few Paintballs More" (season two).
Contents
Plot
Frankie's "Cleaner Greendale" initiative drives the school's paintball game underground as the group tries to discover the identity of a mysterious assassin.
Production
On March 15, 2015, it was announced that the series began filming a third "paintball assassin" episode following the season one episode "Modern Warfare" and season two's two-part episode "A Fistful of Paintballs"/"For a Few Paintballs More".
Critical reception
Joshua Alston of The A.V. Club gave the episode an "A" rating, calling it "fun and sharp", adding that "despite the revamped cast, [it] feels remarkably like old-school Community. Eric Goldman of IGN rated the episode a 9.5 of 10, stating "this quickly stands out as the best installment yet this year and a reminder of just how wonderful this show is. Overcoming the difficulties in doing yet another sequel episode to one of the most popular ideas the series has ever offered, "Modern Espionage" once again showed that paintball brings out the best in this series". Alan Sepinwall of HitFix claimed that the episode "made up in execution what it lacked in originality. It found an actual emotional story – the campus' reaction to all the changes Frankie has implemented, and all the responsibility she's taken away from the Dean – to wrap the paintball game around, and the various spy thriller tropes gave it a specificity in the same way that season 2's Spaghetti Western version had."