Season 4, Episodes 16-17
The season, Parks and Recreation has fitfully dealt with the reality of what Leslie's campaign will mean for her position as deputy director of the Parks Department. Now, as a comedy, hell as television show, the writers has every right to disregard the rules of reality and instead play by rules that make for better piece of entertainment. However, because the show does seem to exist in a world that closely mirrors our own, and given that show's work best when they stick to their internal rules, Leslie and her cohorts should be sticking more closely to our sense of reality. The show still hasn't totally found a way to work in the legal hurdles in an organic fashion, but these past two episodes have found a way to make the human angle so believable.
“Bowling for Votes” was something of a divisive episodes for fans, as it took Leslie's hyper-competency and ratcheted it up to unbelievable, unbearable levels in her quest to win over just one single voter. It's was a low point for the show, as it tested the limits of just how far the writers could push each character's defining trait, and since then the show has wisely been doing some backpedaling, dialing down the characters to more believable levels. It's hard for a show to admit when it's wrong, and it's not a pleasant experience for viewers either, but it's been a step that the show needed to take in order for us to take it seriously.
Enter “Sweet Sixteen” and “Campaign Shake-Up”, two episode which tackle the show's biggest problem head on by revealing the downside to Leslie's hyper-competency in the manner that is most effecting. While we've seen how her strive for perfection can be off-putting and alienating to others – even those who supposedly love her – that can be off-putting to the audience, especially when it concern the audience identification figures of Ann or Ben, and Leslie rarely seems to learn from these instances either. However, when her hyper-competency proves to be problematic for herself, that's something that feel both and affects her in a large enough way that she begins to actively change how she attempts to reach her goals.
Now, to propose that her inability to give Jerry a proper birthday party would somehow cause Leslie to change her ways does seem to be a bit of stretch, especially given what I just said about Leslie's need for a more personal crisis to engender self-reflection, especially for someone like Jerry, who she may not actually like. However, if recall the events of “Citizen Knope”, where we learn that making her co-workers perfect gifts is something that is important to Leslie, and how much it would hurt her to know that she can't deliver on that implicit promise of her friendships. So regardless of how she feels about Jerry specifically, her inability to provide him with a proper party because she's so distracted by her campaign needs – to extent that she even forgets to bring Jerry – is a wakeup call as to how her priorities must change.
We see that shift continue in “Shake-Up”, as Leslie's continued absence in the office begins to effect everybody else. Ron's obviously perturbed at the idea of having to bring in more money for a new government employee, but in a interesting twist, April's just scared of brining in anybody new at all, and that she seems fast-track to become assistant deputy director is an interesting direction for the show to take the character. However, the more important revelation, if not the most surprising, is the chaos into which the department falls without Leslie around to coral the troops and get them to work together. Leslie's absence might make her feel bad about abandoning her friends, but the real damage comes from the trouble they get into without her.
And what about Leslie herself? Well, she's has to enact even more change in order to survive in the political arena when she meets political advisor Jen Barkley (played by the awesome Kathryn Hahn), who's been brought from Washington to help shape Bobby Newport's campaign. Jen is the standard two-faced political character that you've seen many times before on other shows, so her actual presence didn't bring about a whole lot of surprises, but it is interesting to see the change that she engenders in Leslie. Forced into a harsher political game than she's used to, Leslie has to shed some of her more extreme empathy and dig deep to bring out some of her darker tendencies. I'm not saying that Leslie's turned evil or corrupt because of the situation she's thrown into, but in most shows the protagonist usually learns that they can keep winning by choosing the most moral path. Leslie, by comparison, has learn to adopt some light mudslinging as a defense, and that opens her up to become uglier down the line.
Now Parks and Recreation has proved this season that it likes to operate within the same formula pretty much week-to-week (which is fine, when you consider how consistently that formula is delivering right now), so it's quite possible that these changes might not stick. But I sure hope that is the case, but a changed Leslie Knope is a far more interesting Knope over a Knope that stays the same.
Quotes and Other Thoughts:
“I volunteer for Wheels for Meals on Wheels. We repair vans for Meals on Wheels.”
“He's a mutt – half amazing, half terrific.”
“He slept better than ever.” “Did his leg grow back?”
“Jerry, what are you doing standing there? Water has poop in it!”
“What is 'Merkel'?” “She is the chancellor of Germany.”
“Crow for dinner tonight, Mr. Swanson.”
“I own more pairs of Uggs than she does.”
“I was kind of tired of listening to Tom and Ann complain about their relationship. Then I remembered that alcohol existed. Thank you, alcohol.”
“What is the big emergency? Did we lose more seniors in the woods?”
“We didn't get to the drug store for my liver medication.” “We'll you should have thought about that before you got out of the tub, Jerry.” “Yeah...”
“No, I'm drunk, don't listen to me. No!”
“Haverkins it is.”
“Jerry's work is often adequate.”
“Is this all the eggs we have?” “Yes. What are you making?” “Eggs.”
***********
“Issue number one...is the first issue we're going to talk about.”
“Doesn't matter; the point is, he's old.”
“Lack of ramps is the number three complaint among seniors – right behind 'everything hurts' and 'I'm dying.'”
“I couldn't choose, so I slaughtered both of them. And they were delicious.”
“As a campaigner I appreciate your mind, but as I women, all I'm interested in is your slight-but-powerful body.”
“Do you know Joe Biden? He's on my celebrity sex list. Oh who am I kidding? He is my celebrity sex list.”
“And now we move on to out next segment, which is a commercial.”
Enter “Sweet Sixteen” and “Campaign Shake-Up”, two episode which tackle the show's biggest problem head on by revealing the downside to Leslie's hyper-competency in the manner that is most effecting. While we've seen how her strive for perfection can be off-putting and alienating to others – even those who supposedly love her – that can be off-putting to the audience, especially when it concern the audience identification figures of Ann or Ben, and Leslie rarely seems to learn from these instances either. However, when her hyper-competency proves to be problematic for herself, that's something that feel both and affects her in a large enough way that she begins to actively change how she attempts to reach her goals.
Now, to propose that her inability to give Jerry a proper birthday party would somehow cause Leslie to change her ways does seem to be a bit of stretch, especially given what I just said about Leslie's need for a more personal crisis to engender self-reflection, especially for someone like Jerry, who she may not actually like. However, if recall the events of “Citizen Knope”, where we learn that making her co-workers perfect gifts is something that is important to Leslie, and how much it would hurt her to know that she can't deliver on that implicit promise of her friendships. So regardless of how she feels about Jerry specifically, her inability to provide him with a proper party because she's so distracted by her campaign needs – to extent that she even forgets to bring Jerry – is a wakeup call as to how her priorities must change.
We see that shift continue in “Shake-Up”, as Leslie's continued absence in the office begins to effect everybody else. Ron's obviously perturbed at the idea of having to bring in more money for a new government employee, but in a interesting twist, April's just scared of brining in anybody new at all, and that she seems fast-track to become assistant deputy director is an interesting direction for the show to take the character. However, the more important revelation, if not the most surprising, is the chaos into which the department falls without Leslie around to coral the troops and get them to work together. Leslie's absence might make her feel bad about abandoning her friends, but the real damage comes from the trouble they get into without her.
And what about Leslie herself? Well, she's has to enact even more change in order to survive in the political arena when she meets political advisor Jen Barkley (played by the awesome Kathryn Hahn), who's been brought from Washington to help shape Bobby Newport's campaign. Jen is the standard two-faced political character that you've seen many times before on other shows, so her actual presence didn't bring about a whole lot of surprises, but it is interesting to see the change that she engenders in Leslie. Forced into a harsher political game than she's used to, Leslie has to shed some of her more extreme empathy and dig deep to bring out some of her darker tendencies. I'm not saying that Leslie's turned evil or corrupt because of the situation she's thrown into, but in most shows the protagonist usually learns that they can keep winning by choosing the most moral path. Leslie, by comparison, has learn to adopt some light mudslinging as a defense, and that opens her up to become uglier down the line.
Now Parks and Recreation has proved this season that it likes to operate within the same formula pretty much week-to-week (which is fine, when you consider how consistently that formula is delivering right now), so it's quite possible that these changes might not stick. But I sure hope that is the case, but a changed Leslie Knope is a far more interesting Knope over a Knope that stays the same.
Quotes and Other Thoughts:
“I volunteer for Wheels for Meals on Wheels. We repair vans for Meals on Wheels.”
“He's a mutt – half amazing, half terrific.”
“He slept better than ever.” “Did his leg grow back?”
“Jerry, what are you doing standing there? Water has poop in it!”
“What is 'Merkel'?” “She is the chancellor of Germany.”
“Crow for dinner tonight, Mr. Swanson.”
“I own more pairs of Uggs than she does.”
“I was kind of tired of listening to Tom and Ann complain about their relationship. Then I remembered that alcohol existed. Thank you, alcohol.”
“What is the big emergency? Did we lose more seniors in the woods?”
“We didn't get to the drug store for my liver medication.” “We'll you should have thought about that before you got out of the tub, Jerry.” “Yeah...”
“No, I'm drunk, don't listen to me. No!”
“Haverkins it is.”
“Jerry's work is often adequate.”
“Is this all the eggs we have?” “Yes. What are you making?” “Eggs.”
***********
“Issue number one...is the first issue we're going to talk about.”
“Doesn't matter; the point is, he's old.”
“Lack of ramps is the number three complaint among seniors – right behind 'everything hurts' and 'I'm dying.'”
“I couldn't choose, so I slaughtered both of them. And they were delicious.”
“As a campaigner I appreciate your mind, but as I women, all I'm interested in is your slight-but-powerful body.”
“Do you know Joe Biden? He's on my celebrity sex list. Oh who am I kidding? He is my celebrity sex list.”
“And now we move on to out next segment, which is a commercial.”
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