Parks and Recreation, "94 Meetings": But a rich ain't one

A review of "Parks and Recreation" coming up just as soon as I alter a gazebo...

Ron Effing Swanson hates meetings. I know that. You know that. April Ludgate certainly knows that. But you can only put off the thing you hate for so long, and "94 Meetings" had a lot of fun with the idea of Ron trapped in a hellish day of meetings (and dragging April, Andy and Ann along with him), while at the same time doing some nice character work on both the budding April/Andy romance and the sweet, paternal relationship developing between Ron and April.

The meetings were a nice mix of the absolutely ridiculous (the purple bikini man, the guy who yells at 5-year-olds for lack of talent), eminently reasonable ones made absurd (Andy being unable to say yes to the woman) and unlikely left turns (Ann spending her day diagnosing moles). And perhaps the funniest part of all was Ron describing the situation as "a blood-saked, nightmarish hellscape. However, to Leslie Knope...," followed by the abrupt cut to a giddy Leslie declaring, "Oh, how fun!"

Leslie's own plot, however, didn't quite click for me, in part because they didn't tie the gazebo situation strongly enough to Leslie's fear of Mark and Ann getting married, in part because the show has been a little vague about where Leslie stands on that relationship, anyway. We've mostly moved past the idea that Leslie is crushing on Mark, but when she claimed to feel nauseous over news of a possible engagement, I began to wonder if she still had feelings for the guy that she's suppressed all this time for the sake of her friendship with Ann. Instead, it turned into a commentary on Leslie's fear of being a single person in a world of couples, but the idea was introduced too late in the episode, I think, for it to have worked.

On the other hand, Leslie chained to the swinging gate? Oh, how fun!

And any episode that can give us both Ron whittling a duck and an introduction to April's parents (who couldn't be less like her) and sister (who couldn't be more like her) is an overall winner.

What did everybody else think? Click here to read the full post

Parks and Recreation, 'Summer Catalog': You're in the picture

A review of last night's "Parks and Recreation" coming up just as soon as I do a photo shoot about the dangers of undercooked chicken...

When "Parks and Recreation" started, one of the show's big problems was that Leslie's exuberance for her job made her come off as sad and delusional (and/or like a female Michael Scott). Season two has very smartly recalibrated things (less in the way Leslie herself is written than in the way other characters respond to her) so that her enthusiasm becomes something to be admired, not pitied.

"Summer Catalog" told us a story about the world not matching up to one of Leslie's beliefs, but it was one about an illusion, not a delusion. Leslie assumes that all the previous heads of the Parks Department view the job as the same noble calling she does (even though she has ample evidence in Ron F'ing Swanson that not all holders of the job share her worldview), and is disappointed to learn that Ron's three predecessors are a stoner(*), a smug careerist and a sexist jerk. But Leslie recognizes how wrong she was almost immediately with each man, and it's clear by the end that this is another one of those instances where Leslie's right and the world is wrong: the Parks Department should be run by someone with as much passion for the parks and can-do spirit as Leslie Knope, not by any of these jerks (or even by Ron, who lets Leslie do all the work for him).

(*) Played by classic '80s sitcom dad Michael Gross, kind of taking the Steven Keaton character to his natural conclusion.

And what also made the picnic disaster story work was that it came in the middle of an episode where all the characters got a new look at the picture of their lives. When Ann and Mark pose as a happy couple for the summer catalog cover, Mark looks believable and Ann looks miserable. Andy and April's flirting becomes so blatant and fun (playing with food, sweater-swapping) that even Andy finally recognizes what's going on here. And though he's briefly scared off by realizing the age difference (April's still 20, Andy's somewhere in his late 20s), when he sees the catalog cover photo of them as an actual happy couple, even he can't seem to resist the inevitable.

So "Summer Catalog" was a nice character piece for most of the ensemble, but it also had a lot of good jokes, from the easy (Ron's hunger and famous obsession with breakfast foods) to the strange (Clarence's sexist ramblings) to the silly (Tom as demanding fashion photographer). All in all, a very satisfying episode.

What did everybody else think? Click here to read the full post

Parks and Recreation, "Park Safety": Schlemiel! Schlemazel! Jerry!

A review of "Parks and Recreation" coming up just as soon as I attack a criminal's beanbag...

"Yay! Making fun of Jerry's back!" -Leslie

Big guys farting in public? Played-out.

Big guys splitting their pants in public? Played-out.

Big guys farting and splitting their pants in public? While in a situation where everyone else in the room is desperate to not laugh at the guy? Brilliant!

Jerry's biggest moment of shame in an episode full of them was not only an explosively funny moment, but a reminder of how well "Parks and Rec" has built up its world and characters. Just as "The Office" season two began giving personalities to Stanley, Angela and Creed, this show has turned Jerry and Donna from glorified extras into characters who occupy their own specific space in the fabric of the show's humor.

I would say the funniest moment of "The Camel" that didn't involve Ron's shoeshine was when Jerry didn't get to make a presentation for his absolutely beautiful mural because everyone was too busy laughing at how he accidentally said "murinal." And everyone's treatment of Jerry as the office joke has continued to be a valuable running gag. But there comes a point where it starts to seem cruel, so an episode like "Park Safety" becomes necessary - and cleverly manages to both have its cake and eat it, by giving us so many opportunities to laugh at Jerry even as Leslie is thinking we shouldn't. I don't know that the tag at the end (where Jerry tells the documentary crew that he really doesn't care, because his mind's already on his glorious, peaceful retirement two years from now) entirely tracks with Mark's point that Jerry was so afraid of his co-workers mockery that he lied about being mugged, but if the show wants us to be okay with it, I can go along, because... the pants... with the fart... etc.

(Also, that story did a nice job of pointing out that, while Jerry's often unlucky, he does bring some of the mockery on himself. Mostly, though, like Leslie, I'm a generally-good person who just enjoys laughing at the guy, so I'll justify it however I need to.)

Jerry's misfortune in turn led to the spectacle of Ron F'ing Swanson speaking Yiddish (and correctly explaining the difference between "schlemiel" and "schlemazel"), and then to him teaching a self-defense class to everybody. Of course Ron would be a black belt in something (my money's on a martial art he invented himself, but is no less effective for having done so), and the class became a nice big pot for the tension between Ann and April to simmer, while Andy remains as clueless as ever. Going into the season, I never would have thought it possible that I'd believe Ann would ever want Andy back, but the show has done such a good job of rehabilitating Andy under Leslie's tutelage, and then April's friendship, that I buy it. This Andy is not the giant anchor who was dragging Ann's life down last spring, and while he's still an idiot, he's a sweet idiot. And we saw in the conversation about the ever-changing band names(*) that there are parts of Andy's world that still really appeal to Ann.

(*) Speaking of which, what happened to Tackle Shaft? Mouse Rat remains a better name, but Andy did act like it was gone when this subject last came up.

Rashida Jones was absent for most of the last two episodes because she was filming a movie, and with Paul Schneider leaving the show at season's end (see below), I know there's sentiment among some of you that Rashida's not really necessary anymore, either. But while Ann isn't the funniest character on the show, she can be funny when needed (the practice date, or here getting excited at the phrase "baby in a straightjacket"), she provides a necessary breath of sanity into this world (the problem with Mark and Ann is that we probably don't need both of them) and a friend for Leslie, and here a romantic foil for April. So I'm not ready to say goodbye to her.

Andy Samberg's park ranger character was a little too broad for this show's buttoned-down style - either make him an idiot or make him have no inside voice, but not both - but his part of the story led to a few very funny moments, like the Rule of 3's variation about which golf cart they were using, or Pawnee Today reluctantly putting up an "Avatar: Did it exceed the hype?" chyron after Leslie and Carl successfully hijacked the planned topic. And I'll always welcome an appearance by Mo Collins as big-fish-in-a-tiny-pond Joan Callamezzo.

In other "Parks" news, Paul Schneider is leaving the show after this season (which I suspected would happen when Adam Scott was hired), albeit in a way that will allow him to come back later. And Amy Poehler is pregnant again, which led to a good discussion on the blog the other day about how the show might hide it. Best suggestion, by far, courtesy of Rob S.: "They can always hide her behind Jabba the Hutt."

(If nothing else, that gives me an excuse to once again link to this, as well as a side-by-side comparison of it with the real credits.)

What did everybody else think? Click here to read the full post

Solving a belly big problem for 'Parks and Recreation'

A few weeks back, NBC renewed "Parks and Recreation" before any of its other Thursday comedies, citing specific issues with production and actors' schedules. Now we know what the specific issue was: Amy Poehler is pregnant again, and she and Will Arnett are expecting their second baby in late summer.

Production for season three will be accelerated so they can shoot as much as they can before Poehler goes on maternity leave. (The series launch was itself complicated because of the birth of Poehler's first baby, which happened in between her "SNL" departure and when she could start playing Leslie Knope.)

Now, given when Poehler's due, she'll definitely be showing for many of the episodes they film over the next few months, which leads to one of those age-old sitcom dilemmas: how best to hide the baby?

Some shows resort to big purses, or keeping characters seated behind desks at all times. There was an episode of "Cheers" where Shelley Long was stuck in the bar's ventilation ducts for the whole half-hour. "How I Met Your Mother" had to deal with two pregnant actresses last year and decided to embrace the ridiculousness of the gimmick, hiding Alyson Hannigan behind things like a rack of basketballs. "Frasier" did perhaps my least favorite take on this: when Jane Leeves got pregnant, they did a storyline where Daphne just got really, really fat.

Does anybody have a favorite hide-the-belly gimmick from an old show? And/or a suggestion for a means inside the world of Pawnee to keep Leslie's tummy obscured? Click here to read the full post

Parks and Recreation, "The Possum": Do you respect wood?

Another terrific "Parks and Recreation" last night, and if you haven't yet seen the "Return of the Jedi"/"Parks & Rec" opening titles mash-up, you simply must. You will never be able to get the song out of your head, but it will be worth it; trust me.

A review of "The Possum" coming up just as soon as I tell a man he can't fart in his own car...

"The Possum" was "Parks & Rec" clicking on all levels: broad physical comedy (various bits with the possum), political satire (the possum case turning into a death penalty allegory), romantic tension (April falling even more for Andy, and Leslie finding out), and just the characters being themselves, whether it was Leslie practically shaking at the thought of being on a mayoral task force, Tom decking himself out in golf clothes or another vintage Ron F'ing Swanson diatribe about the evils of government.

I loved virtually every beat of the possum story, from small things like the Animal Control burn-outs playing "Stop hanging yourself!" to Andy bluntly recalling Shauna Malwae-Tweep's dalliance with Mark to Leslie and April hiding from the possum in Ann's bed. (And, of course, Leslie blurting out the truth to Ann and telling April to run for it.) It was a nice case of Leslie's ambition(*) coming into conflict with her strong morals, and Amy Poehler was again wonderful at getting laughs out of playing Leslie's internal struggle. She's also great at being completely deadpan while delivering lines like "Mr. Campo-Piano, those are photos of three different possums," and at getting frantic while listing all the "can't"s in her life right now ("can't make a good soup, can't do a handstand in a pool, can't spell the word 'lieutenant'").

(*) One issue I have, though, with Leslie's dreams: she thinks she'll one day be president, but she's in her mid-30s at least, and she's still an unelected civil servant in a small Indiana town. The character has evolved past the occasionally-delusional version we saw in season one, so she should know that every day that passes without her running for some kind of elected office to use as a stepping stone to another job, and another, and another, the more remote her dream is becoming. And she wasn't even planning to use the mayor's favor to help run for something, but to help get the pit/lot park finished.That becomes one of those status quo balancing acts a lot of shows have to deal with: you don't want to take Leslie out of the parks department (and away from Ron, April, Jerry and company), but her career complacency becomes hard to justify every time she talks about wanting to be the president - and to wear "a huge beautiful blue hat."

I'm also still really grooving on the Andy/April tensions, which works because Andy is both so oblivious (which we knew last season) and so sweet (which we've learned since Ann rightfully kicked him to the curb), and because April is so guarded and cynical that she's not the type to just come out and tell Andy how she feels. (And Leslie only found out because April was panicking about Fairway Frank.) There are some shows that feel like they're just dragging out the romantic tension because they can, but I completely buy that these two wouldn't be capable of making a move yet, and am enjoying them inch ever so slowly towards each other.

As for Ron Swanson, libertarian and building code violator? Well, aside from being another amusing play on Nick Offerman's own love of wood-work, it was an amusing reminder of the limits of Ron's competence and political philosophy, and the first good Mark story in a while. He was still largely the straight man, but placing him in that death trap of a wood shop to point out all the wrong things about it (the oily rags over the burning fire was my favorite) was a reminder that being the sane man in an insane situation can be a funny thing on its own.

Jabba the Hutt... Jabba the Hutt... Jabba the Hutt...

...sorry. It's catchy. Anyway, what did everybody else think? Click here to read the full post

Adam Scott to Parks & Recreation - so what happens to Party Down?

Yesterday offered a development in TV that's the epitome of a good news/bad news situation. The good news: the very funny, versatile, likable Adam Scott is joining the cast of "Parks and Recreation," which is probably my favorite comedy on television right now. The bad news: this means Scott won't be available to be a regular on "Party Down" (one of my favorite comedies from last year) if Starz orders another season after the one set to debut on April 23.

Some thoughts on this - plus a comment from "Party Down" producer Rob Thomas on where this leaves his show - coming up after the jump...

Because "Party Down" is on a cable channel that's really just getting into the scripted TV business and isn't yet throwing around a ton of money, they've had to be creative about how they get actors. So the entire "Party Down" cast signed one-year contracts for the first season, which gave each actor the flexibility to go do something else (i.e., something more lucrative) if an offer came along a year later, rather than being locked in to a below-market contract. That's why the show lost Jane Lynch to "Glee" after the first season, though Lynch will guest star in one episode of season two.

The actors were again on one-year deals for season two. I interviewed Scott and co-star Lizzy Caplan back at press tour, and one of the things that was on both their minds was what they were going to do about pilot season this year. Starz just brought in a new chief executive in former HBO boss Chris Albrecht, and Albrecht hasn't seemed to be in any hurry to renew the show. And that, in turn, left the show's actors in a pickle: do they sit out pilot season and hope Albrecht would renew it down the line - and, therefore, risk not having a steady job of any kind next season - or do they go for another, possibly more secure job, even if it means abandoning a show everybody enjoys making?

Well, Scott clearly, and understandably, made his choice, and one show's loss is another's gain. He seems to make Paul Schneider redundant on "Parks and Rec," as he can do most of the stuff Schneider does, only funnier, but his dry, earthy style should be a really good match for what Amy Poehler, Nick Offerman and company have been doing this season.

And what does this mean for "Party Down"? Again, there's an entire season in the can with Scott as the lead. (I've seen the first five episodes, and they're very funny.) But losing the show's central, point-of-view character seems tough, so I asked Rob Thomas what his options are going forward, should a third season be in the cards:

"Adam will be allowed to do three guest star spots for us," Thomas said. "We can definitely still do the show without Adam, though we're all collectively entering about the third stage of grief over here. We'd much, much prefer to be doing the show with him.  Adam hated leaving the show, but they made him an offer he couldn't refuse, and in a world where our 'Party Down' future isn't guaranteed, he understandably felt like he needed to take the offer. We've been told that in order to return for a third season, our second season numbers need to come up from where they were. We're praying that, even with Adam gone, Starz continues with a big marketing campaign for Season 2."

I want to be optimistic, but the way Albrecht has dragged his feet on this - knowing full well that something like this might happen - doesn't fill me with hope. It's an unfortunate fact of Hollywood life that when a new administration takes over a channel or studio, they become invested in pushing their own projects, rather than supporting the stuff that existed before they got there. If "Party Down" were to turn into the cable-sized hit it deserves to be, Albrecht wouldn't get much credit, because it pre-dated his arrival.

So enjoy the season two episodes and hope for the best, but brace for the worst. And, if nothing else, three episodes of Scott in a hypothetical season three would be better than only one of Lynch this year. Click here to read the full post

Parks and Recreation, "Woman of the Year": Lady bicker

A review of tonight's "Parks and Recreation" coming up just as soon as I attend a shocking number of WNBA games...

"The IOW is a bunch of sexist jerks who need to get back in the kitchen where they belong and leave the feminist work to actual feminists like Ron Swanson!... Ohmigod, what is happening?" -Leslie

"Woman of the Year" does something very smart early on, in letting Ron tell the audience that he's just messing with Leslie because he knows he can, and that he knows how obviously she deserves this award over him. By letting us know that Ron's coming from a (mostly) good-hearted place, it makes it okay to laugh at him pretending to be a jerk and a sexist dipwad ("the Dorothy Everytime Smurf girl trophy for excellence in female stuff"), and also to see the lengths to which he'll go (paying for his own portrait) to bust Leslie's chops. It's a clever have-your-cake-and-eat-it conceit: Ron behaving like an ass out of love, because what greater tribute could Ron F'ing Swanson pay to a friend then to play a prank on them before complimenting their work?

They also didn't drag the story out too long, with Ron fessing up halfway through and then the story shifting into a more satiric gear as Ron and Leslie struggled to deal with a women's group determined to give their award to "the opposite of a woman" (aka "a mustachioed, masculine man") for the PR value. It was another fun, sweet two-hander for Amy Poehler and Nick Offerman. And if Leslie and Ron like and respect each other too much for their pairing to be as balls-out funny as some other "Parks & Rec" combos, the duo click so well together that I enjoy watching even when the laughs aren't as big as the breakfast buffet at the Glitter Factory.

The supporting cast (other than Ann, presumably absent for budgetary reasons) all had their moments as well. Andy announced that Mouse Rat had changed its name to Tackle Shaft (which has both a K sound and an over-the-top sexual connotation, but still may not be quite as funny a combination of words as Mouse Rat) and got to make April fall even more deeply in love with him by selflessly giving up his savings to help Tom buy part of a share at the new Pawnee club. Tom in turn got to get his d-bag on - and then surround himself with the spectacularly douchey return of Ben Schwartz as Jean Ralphio (last seen auditioning to be Ron's secretary). There were also small grace notes for Jerry (whose protestations about seizures were ignored), Donna (who understandably hated Jean Ralphio, then bought three club shares on her own) and Mark (whom Tom mocked for being boring, but who was revealed to have a history with one of the dancers Tom hired).

What did everybody else think? And when is NBC (which markets every single item of every other one of its shows) going to release a Mouse Rat/Tackle Shaft/Scarecrow Boat CD? Click here to read the full post

Parks and Recreation, "Galentine's Day": The intentional tourist

A review of last night's "Parks and Recreation" coming up just as soon as I pretend toys are people...

"Galentine's Day," written by "Parks" co-creator Mike Schur, wasn't as overtly comic by design as some other episodes this season, choosing instead to focus on updating the various romantic subplots: Leslie (with some help from Ron) realizes that she has to dump Justin, Tom finally tells Wendy how he feels, April dumps her gay boyfriends because she really wants Andy, and Mark makes a big effort to give Ann a proper (if intentionally-cliche) Valentine's Day, yet Ann seems unable to entirely let go of Andy.

And I think this far into the show's run, Schur and company have earned the right to do an episode like this, one that still had plenty of funny stuff - Andy's complete musical ignorance and running commentary about the senior center gig, John Larroquette's as the completely inappropriate dud of Leslie's mother's dreams, Tom reacting to Leslie and Justin's break-up like the son in a divorce ("Did I do something wrong?") - but that showed how seriously the show takes its characters, and how rich so many of them have become.

For the second week in a row, we get a glimpse of Ron and Leslie as work-spouses, a relationship that will never be romantic (and shouldn't be, right, folks?), yet where each one knows the other incredibly well and will look out for them even when they don't know they need it. And not that I think the show necessarily needs a love triangle(*), but Ann and Mark's conversation about how great things are "on paper," and her ensuing talking head, were a nice reaction to the general blandness of that relationship.

(*) It's also funny how, early in the series, it seemed that if we were going to get a triangle, it would be Leslie/Mark/Ann, and instead we're heading for the far less likely (but more alliterative) Ann/Andy/April grouping.

I was frustrated that we didn't get a clearer sense of what Tom and Wendy talked about before they hugged at the end of the dance, but beyond that, "Galentine's Day" was very satisfying. And Mouse Rat's rockabilly "The Way You Look Tonight" was really good.

What did everybody else think? Click here to read the full post

Parks and Recreation, "Sweetums": What's crackin', DJ Roomba?

A review of last night's "Parks and Recreation" coming up just as soon as I drop in a token and look at a duck...

"Sweetums" lived up to its name, not only in its high-fructose antics like the parks department turning the office into a rave after having too many NutriYum bars(*) or Tom introducing his co-workers (and the audience) to the hilarious splendor of DJ Roomba, but in its level of genuine sweetness.

(*) The actual NutriYum commercial reminded me very much of the sort of thing that Troy McClure would have done on "The Simpsons," and I mean that in a good way.

This season has made it clear that Ron F'ing Swanson(**) not only appreciates Leslie for making his job so much easier, but likes her as a person. So it was interesting to see her push her status as Ron's work wife too far (to his mind), then funny to see Ron try to prove her wrong (the hand-crafted harp, complete with photographic evidence, was a highlight), and then ultimately for him to realize(***) he was over-reacting, and to give a very Swanson-esque apology, complete with the terse, factual closing line, "That is the end of what I have to say."

(**) If you haven't seen it yet, the NBC promo department put together this awesome Ron-centric trailer for the show. Enjoy.

(***) He realized this after Leslie made what's at least the second "Dead Poets Society" reference on an NBC Thursday comedy this season, after the "Community" episode that introduced John Michael Higgins. I would like to hear more of a eulogy that begins, "Oh captain, my captain! Ron Swanson: a swan song."

The Leslie/Ron story also returned to a goldmine for the series: the civil servants having to deal with the insane questions and complaints from their constituents. (And this time, Ann had to suffer through it with them, in a pretty good comic outing for Rashida Jones, who also got to spray Leslie with water, Jim Halpert-style.)

Tom's story was impressive in that it made me feel sorry for him (for his inability to tell Wendy how he feels) at the same time he was being an inconsiderate jerk to all the co-workers who showed up to help him move. The episode was awash in Tom Haverford d-baggery, from his fashion show in the teaser (with the LED belt that said variations on "What's crackin'?") to his Canadian DVD edition of "Deep Blue Sea" to him having a box containing nothing but pocket squares.

We also got a continuation of the running gag about the Parks department's hatred of the library (and vice versa), and more movement on the Andy/April quasi-romance, with April feeling squeezed between her judgmental gay boyfriends and Andy's cheerful obliviousness.

Finally, in case you missed the news last week, NBC gave the show a very early renewal for next season. The ratings still aren't very good, so it's nice to see the network rewarding the show for raising its game and being so consistently good this year.

What did everybody else think? Click here to read the full post

Parks and Recreation, "Leslie's House": Party girl

I got to see tonight's very funny "Parks and Recreation" back at press tour when my mind was still fresh, so a review coming up just as soon as you guarantee fridge space...

I talk a lot in these reviews about the tone of "Parks and Rec," and about how the show needs to be rooted in a very mundane level of reality for most of the comedy to work. Some characters, like Andy and Ron F'ing Swanson, get to bend those rules a little, but we have to believe in Leslie's behavior, or else... well, you saw most of season one, didn't you?

So the series employing a farce structure for an episode like "Leslie's House" could have been disastrous, since farce typically involves a heightened level of reality. ("Frasier," much as I loved it, was always more than happy to trade believability for a good joke, so that show's periodic farce episodes fit in nicely.) But what makes "Leslie's House" fit into the framework and tone that this season has established is that it's a very Pawnee kind of farce.

Yes, Leslie's dinner party spirals out of control, thanks to her fixation on creating the perfect evening for Justin, and thanks to her moral weakness in letting the rec center teachers provide all the food and entertainment. But I believe that Leslie would try too hard, because we've seen so many examples of that in her work life, and I believed that the rec center teachers would get sucked into things based on the way small town politics and gossip works. Once Leslie had her moment of weakness and called the cooking teacher, it was only a matter of time before the bartender, belly dancer and even the accounting software guy would find out and try to pitch in. There was never a moment in Daniel J. Goor's script where it felt like things were spiraling too far out of control, too quickly, just for the sake of a laugh.

And I loved the idea that Leslie would then insist on a disciplinary hearing even after she had paid to keep all the rec center teachers employed, just so there would be an official government document in which Justin said the party was great. In a way, that's just as much an abuse of power as the party itself, but it's also an incredibly Leslie thing to do, and a nice punchline to the story that kept them from dragging the party on too long.

"Leslie's House" also offered some nice movement on the Ron/Tom/Wendy triangle, and on the Andy/April/April's gay boyfriend and his boyfriend triangle (quadrangle?), and it gave Paul Schneider some rare funny moments as Mark tried to cope with his jealousy of Justin. (Andy's jealousy was, of course, funnier, because Andy is the more innately broad and silly character.)

All that, plus Ron Swanson bringing his own plate of deviled eggs to a dinner party and making sure no one else gets to have any. As we know by now, Ron + breakfast food = gold.

What did everybody else think? Click here to read the full post

Parks and Recreation: "The Set Up": Saving all my love for Justin

I finally got to watch last night's "Parks and Recreation" late tonight. A few quick thoughts coming up just as soon as I watch "Swimfan"...

The big winner of the night was the C-story about Ron needing an assistant, and getting the perfect one in April. Not only does it provide an excuse for why April the "intern" is still hanging around, but it guarantees many more scenes between the delightfully low-wattage pairing of Aubrey Plaza and Nick Offerman - and it further progresses the very charming April/Andy flirtation. And Tom's search for an assistant who would be the exact opposite of what Ron wanted was a lot of fun.

The Ann/Mark story suffered from leaving the two largely on their own, which is tough to pull off when they're the show's two straight men characters. We know from "Practice Date" that Ann can be funny, and they gave Rashida Jones a couple of nice beats to play with the character's absent-mindedness (hanging onto the blood vial, giving Leslie the prescription), but the stars have to be aligned right for her to get laughs. And Mark exists on the show almost entirely to provide a voice of sanity when Leslie or Tom or someone else gets too crazy. Not surprisingly, that subplot's best scene was when Andy confronted Ann about her Justin love, and for a split-second tricked her into talking like she was still in a relationship with him.

As for Leslie's plunge back into the dating pool, I thought "The Set Up" went 1-for-2. Justin Theroux was both very charming as Leslie's ultimate date (and Ann's ultimate man), and also did a nice job with the talking head about Fire In A Can. Will Arnett, on the other hand, didn't quite fit into the show's low-key, naturalistic vibe. He was toned down from the way he plays GOB Bluth or Devon Banks, but there was still something off about him - and more than the script was suggesting. Still, we saw in last year's "Rock Show" finale and then again in "Practice Date" that Leslie's horrible romantic history is a rich vein to be mined by the writers and Amy Poehler (here playing opposite her real-life husband), and if I didn't love Arnett, I liked watching Leslie slowly realize what a bad idea this whole date was.

Overall, a very solid episode. If I were less tired by the time I watched it, I suspect my estimation would be even higher. (Comes a point in press tour in general, and at the end of a press tour day, where comedy starts to be wasted on me, but this still made me laugh a bunch.)

What did everybody else think? Click here to read the full post

Parks and Recreation, "Christmas Scandal": No-Mole-Butt

A review of "Parks and Recreation" coming up just as soon as the department deputy directs itself...

Though I ultimately enjoyed "Christmas Scandal," I thought the main plot about Leslie being embroiled in Councilman Dexhart's scandals didn't really work. The central conceit of the series is that Leslie treats her mundane, small-town civil service job as if it were a high-stakes national politics job, while everyone else sees their world for what it is. "Christmas Scandal" was the exact opposite of that. There were certainly some funny moments as Pawnee turned into a scandal factory - complete with its own tabloid and the cable access show turning into a cross between Nancy Grace and Fox News, and with Leslie dropping trou to make the problem go away - but it was all so counter to what the show is about that I was distracted by it.

What worked for me was the subplot that spun out of Leslie's problems, with the rest of the parks department (plus Mark) discovering how hard it is to fill in for all the things Leslie does in a given day. Ron running a public forum was a natural winner ("You don't have to know my last name"), but the problems all the characters had, and the joy on all their faces (and on Leslie's face) when Leslie returned to work in the tag, said everything about how important Leslie is to this place.

And that, in turn, makes me mostly okay with Leslie's decision to not go with Dave to San Diego. I'll miss Louis CK - who had another great talking head as Dave got confused by the documentary crew's question about loving Leslie - but he has an FX show coming up, so he couldn't stay around forever. And while Amy Poehler showed just how much Leslie had fallen for the guy with that wonderful smile she flashed him at the end of their lunch date, I also believe that she cares more about her job than anything else, even if it means saying goodbye to a really good guy like Dave.

All that, and movement on the inspired Andy/April relationship, compensates for the misconceived A-story.

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Parks and Recreation, "The Fourth Floor": Swanson's hungry man breakfast

A review of last night's "Parks and Recreation" coming up just as soon as I cover my emotions under a very thick layer of Axe body spray...

"The Fourth Floor" was, by design, more melancholy than some recent episodes, but it did the necessary job of humanizing Tom and following up on his final moments in "Greg Pikitis" (when he realized how much he enjoyed his fake marriage, and how sad it was that Wendy was the only thing most people liked about him). Nice to see that Aziz Ansari could tone it down and play a quieter, sadder Tom for once.

And with Ansari not available for comic relief, the laugh burden fell on the able backs of Amy Poehler and Nick Offerman. The Glitter Factory scenes(*) were a particular highlight, with Leslie horrified by the reality of stripping, and Ron once again extolling the virtues of strong women and breakfast foods, then dancing around the buffet.

(*) I have a very complicated love-hate relationship with "Unskinny Bop," the first song played in this sequence. On the one hand, like "Jersey Shore," it brings back horrifying memories of a certain time and/or place in my life, and it reminds me of how low humanity's ambitions can sink. On the other hand, it's a damn catchy song, and the perfect accompaniment for both pole-dancing and breakfast buffet-enjoying.

Also, the pre-credits sequence with a terrified Leslie making a trip up to the infamous fourth floor was wonderful. I know we've seen this joke before on "30 Rock" (when Devin demoted jack), in "Being John Malkovich" and elsewhere, but if the execution and the details are there - as they were here with the different lighting, the use of the shaky-cam, the blood stain on the floor, and the perfectly-timed arrival of the popcorn man - it doesn't matter how many times.

The Mark/Ann/Andy non-triangle wasn't as funny as it's been in some other episodes, but that was the only thing resembling a downside this week. Heck, they even threw a bone to continuity fans by having the back of Ron's hair still not filled in after he get shot in the head by Tom.

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Parks and Recreation, "Hunting Trip": The good wound

Spoilers for "Parks and Recreation" - and if you missed it earlier, go check out Amy Poehler's favorite moments so far (complete with clips) - coming up just as soon as I peg you as a user of mouth tobacco...

"Guys love it when you can show them you're better than they are at something they love." -Leslie

In this very good LA Times story, Mike Schur and Greg Daniels talk at length about the series' growing pains, and the ways in which they feel "Parks and Rec" is different from "The Office." Watching the very entertaining "Hunting Trip," another difference came to mind:

Leslie is very good at what she does.

Now, obviously, Michael Scott is a brilliant salesman, and can occasionally back his way into some clever managerial strategy, but for the most part, he's all hat and no cattle. He talks about being great at things that he's absolutely awful at (comedy, most notably), and the difference between his perceptions and the reality of the situation drives a lot of that show's humor.

Leslie has her own moments of self-deception (the quote above, to name one), but at the same time, she doesn't mess around. She says she's a good hunter, and she is. She can out-shoot, out-drink and out-anecdote any man on that trip - so much so that it starts to become annoying to Ron. And when Tom the unlicensed hunter turns out to be the one who shot Ron, Leslie immediately knows she has to take all the blame, and manages to play into the park ranger's sexism (in one of the better Let's Watch Amy Improvise For Multiple Takes sequences they've done) until the guy buys her story and goes away. And in doing so, she again wins Ron Effing Swanson's respect.

That's another key "Office"/"P&R" split. Ron could very easily be the Dwight stand-in, as they share a knack for saying insane things with conviction, but he's also sensible, and popular, and a good judge of character. He's his own man, incredibly funny at times - as we see when Ron is loopy on a scotch/painkiller combo and refusing to let Leslie and Ann make him puke - but also very likable.

Ron's hallucinatory freak-out was one of several bits of great physical comedy in "Hunting Trip," an episode that also saw Donna tackling Leslie for allegedly wounding her beloved Mercedes, Andy giving piggyback rides around City Hall, and Andy stumbling around the office while playing Marco Polo with April. (And kudos to whoever came up with the inspired idea of making April interested in Andy.)

There was nothing this week quite as hiccup-inducing as Ron's shoeshine or Ron talking of his love of pretty dark-haired women with breakfast food, but overall "Hunting Trip" was another strong entry in this great second season of "Parks and Rec."

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Parks and Recreation: Amy Poehler's 10 favorite moments (and one of mine)

Over at NJ.com, Amy Poehler picks her favorite "Parks and Recreation" moments to date, and I offer up one of my own (you can probably guess what it is), all with accompanying video. Click here to read the full post

Parks and Recreation, "The Camel": Creativity by committee

Spoilers for tonight's "Parks and Recreation" - once again the highlight of NBC's Thursday comedies - coming up just as soon as I go to Arby's and watch "Frontline"...

First, I have to say that the scene pictured above, in which Ron "emitted a noise" that horrified both himself and Andy, nearly caused a medical crisis in the Sepinwall household, as it sent me into a laughing fit that gave me a case of the hiccups so extreme I briefly became worried that my throat was closing up. The combination of Nick Offerman's usual deadpan minimalism with Chris Pratt's goofy exuberance with an incredibly disturbing situation led to something that made me laugh as hard as I have in a very long time. Profoundly, profoundly silly comedy, that was.

And the rest of "The Camel" wasn't too shabby, either, as it offered an at times sweet, at times ridiculous look at the creative process being undertaken by a group of very uncreative people. Everyone got a moment to shine, whether it was Tom falling in love with his shapes or poor Jerry's beautiful (and perfect for the purposes of the project) painting being laughed at because he made the mistake of saying "murinal" (and because he's Jerry, the office punching bag).

The entire thing felt like what I imagine the group writing process on certain sitcoms can be: everyone pushing for their own joke, even if no one else gets it, and the most inoffensive, non-specific idea (in this case, Mark's painting of the man on the park bench) having the best chance at succeeding, because it's the safest bet. (In this case, Mark's writing in anticipation of the network notes.)

The ensemble is really gelling right now (it was nice to see the entire staff bond over how ridiculous the camel turned out to be), and "Parks and Rec" is becoming the kind of show where I imagine I'll enjoy even the less-funny episodes just because I enjoy the characters. But an episode like "Camel" had people I like to spend time with, and it had laughs, including a few huge ones in and around Andy's shoeshine stand.

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Parks and Recreation, "Ron and Tammy": Amour fou

Spoilers for tonight's hilarious episode of "Parks and Recreation" - and if you're not watching what may be the best comedy on TV right now, you really should - coming up just as soon as I use political savvy and shushing...

"I'm a simple man. I like pretty, dark-haired women and breakfast food. But this stock photo I bought at a framing store isn't real. Today, I got the real thing. A naked Tammy made me breakfast this morning. I should've taken a picture of it." -Ron

There have been over 100 episodes of "The Office," and now 14 episodes of "Parks and Recreation," and I'm not sure a talking head segment on either show has made me laugh as maniacally as that one did. I had to pause it at one point to catch my breath, then rewind and start over, only to begin cackling all over again. (Eventually, several co-workers wandered over to see if I was okay.)

What made that monologue work - really, what made all of "Ron and Tammy" work so well - was that Nick Offerman and the "Parks and Rec" writers have combined to turn Ron F'ing Swanson into a man who can say completely demented things with absolute certainty, as if they were the most natural thing in the world. Dwight Schrute carries himself similarly, but with Dwight there's never any doubt that he's insane. Whereas when Ron goes on about his love of breakfast foods(*), or his absolute hatred of the town library system, he sounds reasonable - even admirable.

(*) "Parks and Rec" co-creator Mike Schur says the poster, and the talking head about it, were came from a happy accident of sorts. In season one, Ron had a poster of Bobby Knight up in his office, which they had to remove for legal reasons, so the production team spent a long time combing through the Corbis image library, "just typing in things we thought Ron would like. I saw that picture of the woman holding breakfast food and thought: perfect." And then it came in handy for this episode.

All throughout "Ron and Tammy," Offerman says these completely ridiculous and/or surreal things - saying of his ex-wife "I honestly believe that she was programmed by someone in the future to come back and destroy all happiness," or describing sex with Tammy as "like doing peyote and sneezing slowly for six hours" - but there's this incredible conviction to it all that makes it seem both rational and incredibly funny. (I swear, I'm having trouble going back over my notes for this one without laughing. If this show should ever become a big enough success for someone to publish "The Quotable Ron Swanson," they need to devote a whole chapter to this episode.)

Or maybe it's just the mustache that gives him the credibility.

And where some real-life spouses can have problems connecting on camera, there were no issues between Offerman and wife Megan Mullally as Tammy. Mullally won a couple of Emmys for playing way over the top on "Will & Grace," but she shows here that she's perfectly capable of coming down to a more realistic level (as in her first scene with Leslie), then getting ridiculous in a way that still matched the tone of this show. (Mike Scully's script also gave her a few awesome lines of dialogue, like Tammy telling Ron that Leslie is "jealous of me - and the things I got to do to your body and face.")

Though Ron and Tammy dominated the episode, Leslie played an important role in the story, getting played by Tammy at first - because Leslie takes people at face value until they give her a reason not to - and then triumphing because her innate selflessness woke Ron from his stupor. (And I love that we didn't actually see what happened during the couple's final confrontation, but just saw Ron running from the building missing part of his 'stache.)

Much like last week's vendetta against Greg Pikitis, Leslie and Ron's shared hatred of the library was a funny reminder of just how small-scale this world is - Leslie's two big enemies are a 16-year-old kid and the head librarian. The Ron/Tammy ring of fire relationship overtook the library hatred for a while, but Leslie's suspicious glance at the camera crew while Tammy was trying to make nice was a perfect moment from Amy Poehler in the middle of an episode where she was largely in support of Offerman.

A great episode for an increasingly-great comedy.

Some other thoughts:

• Chris Pratt is too funny for the show to abandon just because he and Ann aren't together and he no longer lives in the (non-existent) pit, so the writers are smartly bouncing him around different jobs in and around the parks department. My favorite joke of the Andy subplot had nothing to do with the shoeshine job, or his obsession with getting Ann back, but the gag of Ann explaining that Andy used to film lots of audition tapes for "Survivor" and "Deal or No Deal," followed by a video of a shirtless Andy gutting a fish and declaring that he'd be a great contestant on "Deal or No Deal." Structurally, that's an ancient joke, but very nicely-executed.

• Speaking of the pit (or lack thereof), it seems to me that filling it in has taken a lot of urgency away from the committee. Ann, after all, never really care about a park; she just wanted the dangerous hole in the ground taken care of. It's not a big problem for the series (we've seen this season that there are tons of stories to tell that don't involve the pit), but it does open up some story possibilities - like Ann trying to back away from the sub-committee now that the problem is solved to her satisfaction. I did like her confession that she'd prefer a library branch in the neighborhood to a park, followed by her trying to play along with everyone else's raging library hatred.

• One other nice Poehler moment: the loud indignation in Leslie's voice as she asks, "What kind of lunatic would rather be Cleopatra than Eleanor Roosevelt?"

• Just as "The Office" slowly started giving personalities to people like Stanley and Kevin and Oscar, we're seeing minor characters like Jerry and Donna start to develop. Donna had a nice moment where she slowly affixed the "Told ya so" post-it to the window of Ron's office while Leslie watched. And, like Ann's nursing buddies, she clearly prefers Andy to Mark.

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Parks and Recreation, "Greg Pikitis": The pump don't work cause the vandals took the handle

Spoilers for tonight's "Parks and Recreation" coming up just as soon as I send a peach pit to the lab...

"Greg Pikitis sucks and I want to destroy him." -Leslie

I didn't have major problems with the last two episodes, but "Greg Pikitis" felt much more like the version of "Parks and Recreation" that I most enjoy: silly, but also intentionally small in scale. The idea that Leslie's arch-nemesis would be a teenage vandal (with one of those names designed to sound funny every time Amy Poehler said it) was inspired, as was the combination of tightly-wound Leslie, deadpan Dave(*) and enthusiastic but inept Andy, who gets to stick around with the series as a part-time Parks Department employee.

(*) Seriously, how great has Louis CK been on this show? He always seems to know (and/or is getting great direction about) the right amount of time to pause between words to make a simple line like "I would be frightened to live in the town that she's a cop of" sound really, really funny.

The party storyline was also a case of taking something really simple and hanging as many jokes on it as possible, from Ron being oblivious about the message being sent by the combination of his mustache and his costume, to the "straight guy" costume being identical to Brendanawicz's regular wardrobe, to the realization that all of Ann's "watchdog" friends loved Andy. And does anyone want to set the over/under on how many episodes before Ron F'ing Swanson is hooking up with the soon-to-be-ex Mrs. Haverford?

Like "The Office" when it's clicking, "Parks and Recreation" this season works on two levels: it makes me laugh a lot, and it also makes me happy to spend time with these characters in their mundane but goofy little world.

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Parks and Recreation, "KaBoom!": KaMake My KaPit a KaPark

Spoilers for last night's "Parks and Recreation" coming up just as soon as I put on an apron...

I'm of two minds about "KaBoom!"

On the one hand, it had an awful lot of very funny moments - Ron asking Leslie "What the ka(bleep) were you thinking?" or Andy showing up naked at Ann's house (and the black dot migrating depending on his position, "Borat"-style) - and it moved the park subplot along significantly.

On the other, certain scenes - Andy getting dumped on by the backhoe, or the Pawnee city attorney (played by the always-reliable H. Jon Benjamin) cautioning Leslie about what she could say to Andy, or the revelation that the KaBoom! guy (played by Aziz Ansari's "Human Giant" buddy Paul Scheer) is an eccentric who likes to play elaborate pranks with pro-social consequences - while funny, felt very much like they belonged in a different kind of show. Specifically, they felt like something out of "Arrested Development."

Now, I worship "Arrested Development" as much as the next TV critic, and ordinarily I wouldn't object to a show striving to achieve that level of lunacy, particularly when it was as amusingly-executed as here. But Greg Daniels, Mike Schur and company have established a baseline tone and level of reality for this show, and it's worked really well at that level this season. And I don't want to see "Parks and Rec" suddenly get all wacky, right when they figured out that the series, and its lead character, work best on a more realistic, mundane scale.

Again, a good episode. I just don't think I want to see many more like it.

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Parks and Recreation, "Sister City": Viva Knope!

I gave some of my thoughts on tonight's "Parks and Recreation" in this morning's column, so I'm wondering what everybody else thought. You booking a trip to Venezuela anytime soon? And were you as pleased as I was with Tom's decision on what to do with the tip money? Click here to read the full post