Episode 7 - The Treaty
6 March 2012
I didn't enjoy this. I appreciate the need to further explore Leslie and Ben's relationship but this story was pretty bad.
When two competent adults destroy an organized activity for children then you are watching bad television. It made both Ben and Leslie look immature and unprofessional. I'm surprised the Pawnee press weren't all over Leslie's failure to run a Model UN.
I don't think the writing ever touched on the emotions of love that would cause them both to react so angrily to the breakdown of their friendship. If they had done then maybe this story could have worked. Instead I think the writing misunderstood how this came across. When the two of them make escalating violent threats toward Denmark and Peru there was no comedy value in the situation. It was obvious that they were going to ruin everything and the emotion being generated in the viewer was sympathy for the students who were trying to participate.
I just don't think the writers understand how to make Leslie funny. She has essentially become a completely straight character. She is good at her job, she is kind and everyone loves her. When she threatens to cut Ben's head off and show it to his mother she just seems like an actress reading silly lines. Her angry exaggerated reactions don't have a strong enough basis in reality to make you laugh.
I feel the same way for much of the time about Chris. Once again we got endless jokes about poor Jerry having to suffer through the humiliation of having his daughter's sexual behavior analysed in public. Will Chris learn anything from this experience? I doubt it. It was nice to see Ann stand up for herself and what happened in their relationship but again I don't see that having much of a benefit to the show. The whole story felt particularly odd because Chris seemed to be using government time on a personal problem - something his character wouldn't do.
The Tom plot was an old fashioned sit com story. A character leaves the group, then a few episodes later they return. Somehow that feels a bit cheap for Parks and Recreation. Is he too just going to return to the same old shtick? Or is there a chance he will have grown and learned something?
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