An Assortment of Things
A place where I can share my thoughts, talk about things I enjoy (or dislike) and goof off.
Review for Parks and Recreation, Season 3 Episode 13 “The Fight”
Note: this officially marks a change in my setup. No longer will I review shows in a good, bad, ugly format. As two negatives feels both arbitrary and unbalanced. In Parks case I have issues even finding a negative. So Parks episodes will be reviewed as Great and Less Great.
This week on Parks, Tom introduces his latest business venture “Snake Juice” to the world. And the entire gang pretty much gets sauced, which brings out a lot of pent up feelings.
The Great: Ann joining City Hall, the gang’s all under a single roof now. Which is a small detail, but I really appreciate the fact that I can watch Ann and Leslie’s lunch time chats without that nagging voice in my head wondering how a nurse finds such convenient times to drop in on her friend. Ann being a part of the city government hopefully also means big improvements for her character in the comedy department. She’s made big strides this season in terms of becoming more entertaining, and I think this might mark a leap forward. I hope I’m right *crosses fingers*
Everyone getting absolutely plastered on Tom’s booze, the whole Snakehole Lounge bit (which accounted for most of the episode) was genius, but it was the quick cut of most of the Parks staff (And Ann) gibbering drunkly into the camera that had me rolling. Nothing more so than Ron doing his happy dance in April’s hat.
-IGN
Andy and April’s roleplay, April in her typical “adult things suck” mentality attempts to make Tom’s Snake Juice release party more fun by adopting the role of some kind of high-class New Englander, which was golden. And Andy reprising his role as FBI special agent Burt Macklin was icing on a sweet adorable cake.
The Aftermath, everyone’s reactions and appearances the night after, hungover, hair mussed was great. Highlights include Ron’s incredibly good mood, April with two pillows taped to her head, Andy throwing up while chasing April down the hall and then there’s this:
O-M-G!
The Less Great:
Leslie and Ann’s fight, “You’re stupid, and you’re drunk and you’re stupid!” Ann and Leslie’s friendship is one of the greatest unsung elements of this show. It’s paved the way for some of the funniest moments on the show. So when things started to get ugly between them I was really looking forward to some hilarious dialog. And while there were some laughs there wasn’t anything particularly personal about the argument. Sure it touched on the issues of the episode but it didn’t really feel like an Ann and Leslie fight, it felt like two women fighting. So funny, but not as funny as I was hoping.
Donna and Chris, Chris has become a bit of a drag. His chipper personality and the way he delegated bad news to Ben was hilarious. And in his defense he tried that this episode. But for the most part he’s not as much fun as he was earlier in the season. And Donna’s cleanse wasn’t particularly interesting. It seemed more like a plot device to provide the rest of the gang with a safe ride home. I know there’s only so much you can fit into 20 minutes (in fact there’s a producer’s cut of this episode on Hulu it was so packed with awesome) but some actual story on this bit would have been nice. Especially since Donna is so underdeveloped. She’s the party girl of the group. It would have been nice to see her struggling to stay on her cleanse with all the fun everyone else was having.
There was so much hilarity packed into this episode. It was like two Parks worth of humor in one. And then it was followed up by another episode. Which I will review tomorrow. Thursday was indeed a special gift to Parks fans everywhere.