Entertainment

Gillian Jacobs’ New Role Is So 'Community'

by S. Atkinson

Gillian Jacobs has done a ton of great roles since she stopped playing Greendale Community College's foremost peroxided anarchist protester. She played flawed, difficult Mickey in the Netflix show Love. She played Mimi-Rose for five episodes and sent Hannah's relationships into a tailspin on Girls. But honestly, no role has really replaced the endless soft spot I have for Community's Britta Perry. So thank goodness Gillian Jacobs' new role is so Community-esque. Britta, I've missed you.

In Don't Think Twice, Gillian Jacobs plays one member of an improv-comedy troupe whose theater is closing (and who speculate a Trump building may be taking its place). On first viewing of the trailer, Jacob seems so relatable. But don't let that mousy hair or hoodie fool you. Although the trailer is short, in just over a minute Jacobs's character manages to misread the vibes of the room (so Britta), respond to her friends' jokes with the suggestion that they go protest the closure of the theater (hey there, Ms Perry) and then work herself up to such a fever pitch of excitement that she clambers on top of the table, knocking over everyone's drinks (this must be why "to Britta" on Community means to mess something up).

Weird conspiracy theory klaxon: is Gillian Jacobs even aware of our nostalgia and is repacking it and selling it back to us? The last scene we see Britta in the very last episode of Community was in the bar where she worked, with all their friendship group sat around a table drinking and chewing the fat. Heck, Jacobs had even stopped dying her hair and had introduced a mousy-haired Britta into our lives by this point. Coincidence? Or elaborate plot to reintroduce a Britta-esque character into our lives back in the same setting we left her: with her friends, in a bar?

Pfft, whether it's deliberate or not, I'm loving it. The entertainment landscape has been far too bland without the deliciously un self-aware Britta around. So thank goodness she's back, if only under a different name.

Images: The Film Arcade; Yahoo! Studios