Pawnee gets one step closer to their new park, Tom gets one step closer to being a real entrepreneur and Bert Macklin is sent into early retirement on this still, somehow, uneventful episode of Parks & Rec.
Leslie is out trying to get some help designing the new park in Pawnee and her only strong candidate is from the rival town of Eagleton. This architect quickly wins over Ben on a tour of Eagleton’s newest park, but Leslie is, obviously, skeptical. Ben is insistent to trust him and the architect also wants to bury the Pawnee/Eagleton hatchet, but just when Leslie is about to sign on to everything this seems to turn out to be another prank on Pawnee. The opulence of Eagleton has never been put on this much display and the extravagances are beyond silly. Happy trash collectors, Segways for everyone and balloon artisans can be found in any old Eagleton park and they do a good job of continuing to one up the absurdity. Leslie’s skepticism and disdain for the town is also always a treat, but there hasn’t been much growth for Leslie in that department. The architect turns out to be legit and planned a beautiful park for Pawnee, Little Sebastian fountain anyone? It will be interesting to see how much story they get out of this park because they really seemed to stretch this week even if it was fun to watch.
The other big story of the week was Tom setting up his storefront for his new Swag store and the results are surprisingly swagless. Tom is counting pennies at every turn and the store looks rather barren when all is said and done and that is about all the episode gives us for this storyline. The swaglessness is resolved by a chip in loan by everyone in the office, but story wise this was an inch worm of a movement. They sprinkled the humor around to the large group of the cast that is helping Tom set up the place, but again nobody really stands out even though no one is left behind. At least we got DJ Roomba back in the house!
The last plotline has Andy and April running around City Hall living out another Burt Macklin mystery. The thing is, as the show has slowly been showing us, Burt Macklin isn’t very good at his job. When April and Andy come across a lost boy it is Andy Dwyer, not Macklin, who helps find his mother and April smartly suggest retiring Macklin for good. The couple gives him quite the sendoff, and he will be missed, but I am excited at the prospect of Andy maturing a bit and moving forward in life. The sequence was also a great showcase for Aubrey Plaza who is hilarious as “Hitler’s daughter” as she wreaks havoc on Burt Macklin’s life around city hall. He will be missed.
Another funny episode of Parks & Rec this week, but one that sadly didn’t move things forward a whole lot. You have to take baby steps when you have twenty two episodes to fill, but I can’t help but wish there was a bit more to this episode this week. Still, it made me laugh and that is the least you can ask for and thankfully Parks & Rec rarely has any problems with that.
Notes and Ramblings:
-Conjoined Palestinian Sextuplets?
-I thought they were making a dog park?
-Worm Park, I’m Guilty; what?
-Not Eagleton.
-“Tommy b. shoppin.”
-Poor Jerry.
-“Hey, thank you for the trash.”
-Ben, loves, Eagleton.
-This park is ridiculous.
-“An entire town claimed they weren’t home.”
-That is one hell of a balloon artisan.
-DJ Roomba!
-“Do not blame me for the sins of my mother.”
-“We have a mural called ‘The Many Surrenders of Pawnee.’”
-Aubrey Plaza is great as Hitler’s daughter.
-“Before I started it was bigger.”
-“Or Lord Voldermort.”
-“If there were more food and fewer people this would be the perfect party.”
-“You have five seconds to get out of her or I will rip your throats out.”
-“They call their boogers, ‘Pawnee Caviar.’”
-Little Sebastian Fountain!
-Burt Macklin is no more, but quite the send off.
