User blog comment:Mattalamode/Improvable: "The Test" and Going Deep/@comment-26215750-20180825203255/@comment-31194372-20180826010558

I've never really thought about "The Test" in that regard. Sure, it's punching down on these specific tropes, but it does so out of a sincere affection, just as most of the show's best efforts at parody/satire do. The show doesn't create episodes like this out of some obligation to demonstrate the correct way to utilize television as an artistic medium, and to see the show go all out in spoofing another genre of television isn't particularly surprising (see "The Joy," "The Detective," or "The Vision"); my issues with "The Test" are less in its substance and more in its overall mechanics. When I say it uses the tropes as a crutch, I don't think the show is dragging itself to that level so much as seeing its abidance to those cliches as an easy way out, which still cheapens itself.

Interesting perspective, though! And while Season 5 often meanders that line with its satire of being borderline frustrating, I think "The Test" is more traditional in its approach than anything else.