Episode 5 - Meet N Greet
6 March 2012
I wrote last week that Parks was feeling a little repetitious and this episode was an unfortunate exclamation point on that feeling. To be fair this was more predictable than repetitious but those feelings are in the same ballpark.
You knew Tom was going to embarrass Leslie. You knew she would forgive him. You knew Ben would eventually open up. You knew that Jerry was going to regret encouraging Chris to be open with his daughter.
That last story was the worst offender in that it was essentially just the same story as last episode with the exact same punch line. Chris is openly sleeping with Jerry's daughter and of course Jerry isn't happy about it. It was nice to see April do something nice for Jerry (by hiding Chris' car keys) but in general I remain less enamoured of the Chris Traegar character the longer he is on the show. I don't think the writers have defined him well enough when it comes to how he would approach personal relationships. You would think he would be bothered by making Jerry uncomfortable.
Leslie and Tom's story was as predictable and dull as Parks has ever been. We've seen Tom do this many times before. He uses an occasion meant for one thing as an opportunity to shamelessly plug his business. It wasn't fun to watch because unlike government business, Leslie's political career could genuinely be damaged by his antics. The fact that E720 is going out of business doesn't generate any sympathy from me because we knew he was flushing money down the toilet. When he began to make it up to Leslie you knew exactly where the episode was headed. It remains nice that the show is so committed to these happy endings for their characters' friendships but this was crying out for a change of pace. If Tom just comes back to the Parks Department then this storyline has been a waste of time.
I felt similarly about Andy and April constantly asking Ben to express his feelings. I was waiting for him to come out with something more important than just "you need to respect me." Was that it? Couldn't Ben have just gone to bed and talked to them about it the next day? I guess I didn't buy him just accepting the humiliation of Andy dragging him around the party in a headlock. I accept that it was a funny idea in theory it just didn't work for me.
Finally we have Ann Perkins, the least defined character on television. I have no interest in anything she does. The writers just seem to shove her into a story with whichever main character is left over.
This is the first sub-50 score I have given to an episode of Parks since the start of Season 3. A sad moment.
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