Mostly the experience made me wish that my blog had some similar kind of framing device that could deepen the experience and call attention to itself2. But I also thought a transcription of that scene as Leslie walks down a wing in City Hall housing the DMV, divorce court, and drug testing offices might get at just how on fire P+R has been of late:
“♪ominous music♪... sound of elevator doors opening... men speaking in foreign languages... Leslie screams”
It’s clear that in season 2, Parks has widened its scope to include lightly caricaturized portraits of the other departments in the city government. The Library Department is political and isolated by its faux-cerebral tendencies. The Sewage Department feels underappreciated and ____. And the DMV is simply a special circle of hell (with heavy Eastern European influences). Like I said, light caricature.
What’s impressive about this emerging environment is that it has been built in the midst of plots almost entirely focused on individual characters3. The specific story told tonight, and teased throughout the season, is Tom’s divorce to Wendy.
Whether or not Tom is really broken up about the end of his green card marriage, the avoidant attitude he takes up has no chance of satisfying Leslie. More than anything else her helpful measures- a singing “divorce horse”gram, a trip to the restaurant Jurassic Fork (actually most of them involve bad puns)- quickly bring him down to the level she had hoped for. And so ensues the main source of the episode’s hilarity, Leslie offering all manner of help and a Tom of questionable mood gladly accepting.
Not helping Tom’s mood is the fact that Rondoleeza Rice4 has laid plans to ___ in fact sizing up ____. Ron isn’t a pig (as long as there isn’t a free breakfast buffet at stake), but he takes all the depression indicators Tom displays at Jurassic Fork as _____. Classic sitcom mix-up.
At the risk of sounding like a pixelated crotch fetishist, the episode really picks up when Ron and Leslie take Tom to Pawnee strip joint “The Glitter Factory”. Not only does this scenario unite 3 of the 4 most effective comic actors on Parks, it’s ripe for parody as Leslie’s kryptonite and, I would guess, the sun from which Tom draws his energy5. Prime example: “If I had to have a stripper name it would be Equality,”- Leslie. eventually drinks himself into oblivion, but becomes funnier with each passing shot until he does
The complement to this plot, Andy’s plot (alternate meaning6) to “subtly chip away” at Mark and Ann’s relationship, is amusing, but I found a lot of it mean-spirited. Not
Episode Grade: A-
Standout Character: Tom Haverford
Standout Moment: “I know that legally Ann now belongs to me, but it weirdly doesn’t feel like it.”- Andy
Footnotes1. Leading theories are "grand cosmic event" and "I hit a button".
2. Personally I believe that all media benefits from this kind of explanation- obviously. Though I do question how easily performers like The Killers, Bush, and Dewey Cox could get by if we actually knew all of their lyrics.
3. It's again less impressive when you consider that a lot of these characters we don't care much about. (See: 50% of all the reviews of I've written.)
4. Because MC Ron Swanson wasn't an awesome enough rap name already.
5. I know it's not cool to toot my own horn or be such a nerd, but this truly was an almost-perfect, beautifully constructed metaphor... if you know the original Superman story.
6. As lame as my decision to include alternate meanings of the same word in one sentence was, I almost can't believe there's no existing literary device to describe the attempt. You can't tell me that's not interesting.
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