This season of Parks and Rec is giving us a bunch of B and B- grades, and in previous years it was all As and B+s. (The Office isn't as bad as usual this year. We'd give it B and B- grades were we reviewing it, which we are not, due to laziness.) Onto the specifics of the episodes since the hiatus.
Two Parties- This is the one where the girls had a lame bachelorette party because of Leslie's obsession with the lot and the boys had the time of their lives because Ben is so easygoing. There's a lesson in there somewhere... Maybe all parties should just start off with beer and boardgames? We'd be so down. We loved Tom's latest stupid bar. Yes, there is a wrong way to drink, but it usually involves tampons. Good cameos in this one too. Why do politicians love being on this show so much?
In fact, everything to do with the bachelor party was funnier than the bachelorette party. Leslie and the girls seemed to be trotting out the same old jokes and personality quirks. You'd think a BAD party would be more fun to watch in a comedy, but no. They should have amped up the horny Donna factor. Native American Ken is always a welcome character though, and Babe Lincoln was gold. We don't like Chris with Shauna. No way, no way. Chris and Ann have to be endgame, right?
Episode grade: B
Women in Garbage- This is the episode where Chris tries to figure out his relationship status with Shauna, and Leslie tries to get more women in city government by working as a trash collector with April. Decent plot starting points. This is a good time to have comedies with likable feminists fighting unintentional sexism. Also, Ron watches Diane's adorable daughters and they cut their own hair off. We loved when they were chanting, "Ron loves Mommy." This relationship is the best thing about this season. Diane is just as chill as the wife of Ron Swanson would need to be.
As for Chris, we sympathize with his confusion about whether he was dating Shauna. The group hang and hookups don't do much for us either. Bring back the traditional date, society! What brings this episode down is the basketball B-plot. It wasn't funny or particularly original. The Office did the basketball episode with way more humor, and Tom not knowing even basic facts about basketball was unbelievable. Ern hates watching sports and didn't play basketball in school EVER, and even she knows that you can steal a ball from another player. Jeez.
Episode grade: B-
Ann's Direction- This is the one where Ann decides to have a baby and seeks out a sperm donor while Leslie does everything she can to thwart this plan. The best part of last night's episode was the fact that The Douche is actually a kind intellectual...by night. He's The Douche at his day job. It's a persona he came up with in college. You know, some things should stay in college, dude. We liked this A-plot and love that Ann might have such a strong storyline in the future, but the B-plots underwhelmed us. The food poisoning and catering auditions could have been funnier. The episode was almost devoid of Donna too, which is always a mistake.
Episode grade: B-
Picture by Amy_Poehler_2011_Shankbone_2.JPG: David Shankbone AdamScott08TIFF.jpg: gdcgraphics at http://flickr.com/photos/gdcgraphics/ Aziz_Ansari_2011_Shankbone.JPG: David Shankbone Rob_Lowe_cropped.jpg: Rob_Lowe_and_David_Spade.jpg: dodge challenger1 derivative work: KEN (talk) Rashida_Jones.jpg: Arnold Gatilao from Fremont, CA, USA Chris_Pratt_2009.jpg: Kristin Dos Santos Aubrey_Plaza_by_Gage_Skidmore.jpg: Gage Skidmore derivative work: Hunter Kahn at en.wikipedia [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
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