Episode 12 - Campaign Ad
6 March 2012
Leslie's desire not to run negative campaign ads fit well into our understanding of her. She isn't naive but she does have rose coloured glasses on where she thinks politics really is about the best person reaching the top. The construction and debate over the commercials was enjoyable and gave Ben the chance to really add value to her work.
Bobby Newport (Paul Rudd) was an interesting choice to be her opponent. He is the anti-Leslie in terms of accomplishments and with the Sweetums money behind him we should be in for a fun underdog story. I'm almost never a fan of the Springfield-like aspects of Pawnee and I felt Bobby was in that category. I think you could write the same character but without making him so literally an overgrown child. It's one of those jokes which you get instantly and yet I suspect we may have to sit through many more tantrums from him.
Ron and Chris are another good pairing and I enjoyed their interactions here. I like that Chris had a real purpose in mind for spending time with him and the idea of promoting Ron has potential. I assume Ron has no interest in changing jobs because he might be forced to do some actual work. However I could see him being tempted by the thought of becoming a spanner in the works of local government.
I didn't like Tom agreeing with everyone all the time. Again that seemed too simplistic and I would prefer if he was a bit smarter about his disinterest in work. I did smile at him saying "The good news is there are only two pieces of bad news..." I did laugh at Bobby asking his security guard if he was running unopposed and getting no response at all. That was an unexpectedly believable moment as the guard stared dead eyed into the distance.
Finally we have Andy and April who also pushed things into cartoon territory too often. I did enjoy some of their antics, particularly Andy fretting over a Twix wrapper he ate once. However the constant pratt falls were too obvious and I was actually waiting for a diagnosis that might help Andy function better in future.
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