Episode 11 - Jerry's Painting
6 March 2012
With Michael Scott leaving The Office this was a good time for Parks to play to its strengths and present an episode which showcased the different tone which makes the show such a pleasure to watch. Andy and April are not the most believable characters you will see on TV but when they are so adorable and entertaining to watch it's hard to complain. Ben was the perfect straight man to try and drag them from their childish incompetence toward having an adult household.
The two of them get derailed at Bed, Bath and Beyond and begin buying a bunch of products from the "As seen on TV" section. What followed was terrific writing. Instead of making Andy and April unbearable and foolish the writers had to find a way to have them grow up a little without losing what makes them so different. So it was Andy who pointed out that perhaps it would be nice to live as an adult. This made sense because he used to live with Ann and so knows how nice it is to live in a clean and well maintained home. Similarly though, April lived with her parents and so it is a bit of a surprise that she was happy to live in squalor. However she explained that she never wanted to become a boring adult, clearly implying that Andy's childishness is what made her want to marry him. They manage to find the compromise that could keep both dreams alive and returned to Ben with their marshmallow gun.
The scene that followed was short but perfect. Ben waits patiently to see what they have bought as Andy just relentlessly shoots him with marshmallows. The message was clear. Andy and April will grow up as characters but they won't stop being silly and having fun. If you enjoy the Office format of comedy but are tired of the awkwardness then Andy, April and Ben were a great advert for something different.
The Leslie painting stuff was fine. We have seen the Leslie v crazy people of Pawnee stuff quite a few times now so this felt like a retread. The details of the dispute were poor too which didn't help. It seemed fairly obvious that a paining with nipples on display, particularly one featuring two government employees, wasn't appropriate for a government building. Yet equally there seemed to be no good reason why the paining should be destroyed. However despite those problems the story served its purpose just fine which was to separate Ben and Leslie for another week and keep her feeling confident.
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