Parks and Rec: "Time Capsule"

Once a write a compelling letter to the writers of Parks and Rec explaining why Jerry's mother's diaries would make a great historical resource, I will be able to give you a review of last night's episode, after the jump...


I have always liked Will Forte. He has been one of my favorite SNL alums over the past years (and I was sad to hear he got canned) and I usually enjoy when he appears in other shows. (I really enjoyed his spot on How I Met Your Mother's “Rebound Bro.” Less so with “Canning Randy.”) I bring all of this up because your enjoyment of this episode is going to hinge on how much you like Forte as a presence – and whether or not you believe that the Twilight focus of tonight's episode was a bit too outdated, even considering this episode was supposed to air in the fall.

I of course enjoyed Forte's performance; though he was particularly wacky, and that can sometime be distracting, Pawnee itself is full of wackos, and it makes sense that Kelly would belong to the rest of them. As far as the Twilight issue, I saw the oldness as part of the joke – or at least it made things seem funnier to me, as it added to this sense that maybe Pawnee is a little further behind the times than we were originally told, or than Leslie Knope would like to believe.

But regardless of all that, Kelley was ultimately at catalyst for two story lines tonight, as since both of those worked out well, I'm pretty sure was can all agree that Forte's appearance was justified. Starting with Tom's storyline (because I liked that one the best), we were treated to perhaps the best sides of a character that can at times be grating. I think Tom is at his most enjoyable when he is gung-ho about some new hobby/person/interest, and by having Tom get hooked into Twilight as a form of therapy for his broken heart, we again got to see him get excited over a fairly trivial thing. (Plus, the show got to mock how Twilight became popular among adults, but suggesting that only depressed, broken hearted individual would buy into that drivel, so it was especially hilarious to me.) Even better, as this storyline was ultimately about Tom being dumped by Lucy, we got to see Tom's emotional side, a well I enjoy the show going to every once in a while. (But why is Natalie Morales leaving? What else could she possibly have to do. Either come back, Natalie, or return to White Collar. Or go see if you can't get a second season of The Middle Man made. Those are your three options.)

The Leslie storyline had perhaps too much action tonight, as she had to deal with both Kelley, and then later the town en mass. The show should have either shortened Forte's scenes, or only picked one of the two parts to do. As to which one, I couldn't say. I liked the reveal that Kelly was just doing all of this grandstanding in order to impress his daughter, but I'm nor sure if we needed as many of his antics as we got. (But Forte was billed as a “Special Guest Star,” so whadyagonnado?) Plus, it gave us the image of Ron Swanson wielding a saw, and that was pretty badass. As to the town meeting section, I didn't really get into it until there ended up being nine separate time capsules. It took a little time to get going, and some of the earlier jokes were funny, but not funny enough to sustain early scenes.

The third storyline of the night had absolutely nothing to do with Kelly, thought it would be weird if it did. But it was a very effective and funny storyline, and thus my second favorite of the night. Since Rob Lowe was originally only supposed to be an extended guest star, the show has to figure out how to write his character into the show full time, which they did effectively tonight by having him play off Andy, and thus establish another character relationship. (Plus, this wasn't about Ann and her fears about her relationship with Chris, which is where the storyline seemed to be headed at first. It's too early for that kind of drama.) The other thing that this storyline cleared was the presence Paulo, April's Brazilian paramour. Figuring he would be gone based on last week's episode, I was a bit disappointed to see him in the cold open, so it was good that they wrote him out, and did it without making anybody seem like a jerk in the process.

When all is said an done, this was a very funny episode, and a very essential episode in order to establish the show's universe going forward, but perhaps not as good as the two episodes that have come before it.

What did everybody else think?


Additional Thoughts: 

“After the Nazis took Paris, out mayor kinda freaked.”

Can I just say how good of a job the show has done of hiding Poehler's pregnancy?

“God dang it. I cannot figure out who my boss is.”

Something about Lowe's pronunciation of the word “literally” cracks me up every time.

“Cool people make the rule, they don't break the rules. And it they want you to break the rules, then those people aren't really your friends.”

“Some guy has handcuffed himself to the chair in my office because we wouldn't put a copy of Twilight in the time capsule.” “Dammit, again?”

“He would forget about Skinny Legs McGee.”

Chris Pratt acting like a monkey = big laughs

Leslie Knope is more of a Harry Potter girl. Way to go!

April listens to The Smiths. Atta girl!

“There really is a tremendous amount of quivering.”

“You're really cute, and you're funny, and you're small enough for me to throw you around.”