Parks + Recreation, Ep. 7: "Greg Pikitis"

Early in tonight’s Halloween episode of Parks and Rec, Leslie refers to the antagonist who gives his name to the episode as “an invisible James Bond villain”. Perhaps it’s a lack of cultural referencing imagination, but I was struck by another comparison. The ability to make you question reality and imperviousness to interrogation could be any criminal mastermind really, Professor Moriarty, the Joker, ie. But throw in the blonde locks and boyish looks? Clearly Pikitis is a stand-in for Nancy Grace.

When the one-camera shows I love have mimicked/parodied/alluded to the noir/mystery/crime genres in the past, I’ve almost always been won over¹. So nothing excited me more than “Pikitis” opening with a distinctly Western shot of Leslie standing alone in a highschool hallway. What surprised/borderline shocked me was that the writers were able quickly set up a worthy, if “turdish” nemesis and keep up a mock-serious tone throughout². All of this and they brought back Leslie’s boyfriend Officer Dave (Louis C.K.), a man who is a delight unto himself, but also serves as a great foil for Leslie because he’s so smitten and trusting of her.

Dave was necessary tonight not only as a check to Leslie’s antics (“I would not want to live in a town that she was cop of”), but as the one person in the A-plot able to step outside the deadpan seriousness of the cat-and-mouse chase. The characters who attended Ann’s party didn’t have this problem.

Rather their dillemma was how to make the party sufferable³. Just as I won’t make the “easy” joke here, I won’t take the well-worn road of praising Poehler and bashing the Ann-related B-plot, mostly because this time they existed on totally different orbits. As we'll see, the Pikitis plot elevated ordinary stuff. The party stuff, on the other hand, took the mundane and found what was humorous about it, which is undeniably a strength of the P+R/Office team- Ann’s “why are people always in the kitchen?” is a great example.


One of the other, mild pleasures of Ann’s party was the depiction of ER doctors as literal-minded men who don't get halloween- essentially concentrated versions of Ron Swanson⁴

. Then there were April's two boyfriends as the judging spirit of "Gay Halloween", nailing Mark on being totally straight. Still, the party threatened to fall into the narrative listlessness that sometimes grabs Parks[5]... until Tom arrived. 


Episode Grade: A-
Standout Character: Andy
Standout Moment: "I'm Bert Maclin, with FUCKING FBI!"- Andy


Footnotes

1. Not the case with horror spoofs. The Boy Meets World episode where Corey dreams that a Scream-like killer is picking off his friends is the one actual instance of jump-the-shark TV I watched firsthand.

2. Something I can barely do for one Boy Meets World joke.

3. def: Not good, but generally considered better than insufferable

4. A couple of years ago I actually asked a med student friend if I could borrow his white coat for Halloween. His main reason for declining? He was using it for his own costume.
5. I say this as someone 6 seasons into conference room scenes on The Office... so I understand the simple joys of throwing all your characters into a room and letting them interact.