Episode 3 - Time Capsule
6 March 2012
I thought this was a fun idea which made a lot out of the Time Capsule plot.
The idea that Kelly was willing to chain himself to Leslie's office to try and impress his daughter was fine. Though I actually would have enjoyed it even more if he was just genuinely so in love with the Twilight novels that he felt this strongly about them. I thought his gentle activism fitted in perfectly with the world of Leslie Knope. She is a character who loves doing good. Her enthusiasm and tolerance wins people over and so I was easily able to imagine her adapting to having a crazy man living in her office.
In order to make him happy she decides to open the capsule up to the public. Again it's a simple act showing her desire to make the citizens of Pawnee happy. The herd of weird requests this unleashed was predictable and at times fun. I did like both Christian and secular groups objecting to Twilight for opposite reasons.
The other characters bounced along nicely on the fringes of the main plot. Andy's juvenile dislike of Eduardo was fun and his monkey impression really made me laugh. Chris Pratt plays that child-like quality so well and when the script matches him there is comedy gold there. Teaming him up with Mr Enthusiasm Chris was a great idea too and their brainstorming session on Andy's good qualities was a lot of fun. I also like the subtle implication that perhaps Chris wasn't helping Andy just because he's nice, but because it would help keep him away from Ann.
Parks is a show I have a very Jekyll and Hyde relationship with. There are so many aspects to the show that I think are great yet there remain a number of things which prevent me from really getting into the show. One thing I have never liked is the presentation of Pawnee as this slightly awkward backwards town. The references to Native American slaughter have always seemed an exaggeration too far to me. Similarly the residents of Pawnee, at least the ones who interact with the Parks Department, are almost all crazy or implausibly inconsiderate. At the public meeting we got a parade of these people, none of whom seemed capable of compromise and when Leslie is the sane one in the room I am always going to have trouble enjoying the comedy. Craziness needs normality to be funny.
A small example of this was Kelly squealing and screaming when the security guard came with a saw to cut through his handcuffs. The show had done a good job of presenting Kelly as a relatively normal guy and this sudden freak out just took me out of the moment. I suddenly looked at it for what it was, an attempted joke, rather than just accepting as part of the flow of the story. I think it was an example of the wider problem for the show in finding a balance between the surreal and the real. A big example of this problem would be the dumb list of former town slogans which Leslie reads out. Over on The Office I think a better balance is struck, so that when Michael interacts with the outside world people react as if he is behaving strangely.
Finally we have Lucy reluctantly dumping Tom because he is still hung up on Ron dating Wendy. I don't like the "call me when you work through this issue" idea which TV shows perpetuate. It doesn't strike me as something that really happens in real life. In my experience people either stay together through such conflicts or the break up is a result of not being able to deal with a problem. In this case we are left with the idea that Tom is not in love with Wendy anymore but is still hung up somehow on her being with Ron. I hope there is a real story that can be told from that. The writers did a horrible job with Tom asking Wendy out and I am now in the dark as to exactly how he feels. He ends up sitting happily at Ron's feet to watch Twilight in the final scene.
Despite spending much longer on the things I don't like about Parks, I thought this was a good episode overall. When the plot allows it the ensemble cast is really good and can be very funny.
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