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| It's never fun to be lectured by an idiot. |
*In an ideal world I'd do a recap every week but alas in reality I'm lazy, occasionally busy, & don't feel the need to write about these two the way I do "Community," which I will be recapping weekly whenever NBC bothers to put it back on television.
Co-creator & showrunner Mike Schur often mentions how he loves The Wire & how that show has influenced his own. While I agree that The Wire is amazing (It's the best show ever in my opinion) I've never really seen much of a comparison between the shows.* The Wire was a worldweary drama that believed our urban society was stuck in a cycle where things rarely changed (-SPOILERS-Bust one drug dealer & another popped up in their place, get rid of a corrupt politician & his successor will inevitably be corrupted, one junkie cleans themselves up & another person ends up hooked & homeless) while Parks and Rec is an optimistic comedy driven by its lead character's belief that government can ultimately be a force for good (this may be why it's a favorite among liberals**). Starting with last year's campaign arc though Parks has looked at politics with a more cynical eye & it's paid off as evidenced by last night's episode.
*I've always thought fellow NBC show "The West Wing" was far more similar.
**Another reason, & I'm generalizing/speculating here, is that liberals have a better sense of irony than conservatives & hence appreciate the humor more. Now that's not foolproof, for example my conservative mother loves "Parks," but if you watched the GOP convention or, this clip, you can see where I'm coming from.
"Sex Education" wasn't quite Parks at its best but it was damn close, filled with fantastic political satire. The episode's prime focus is on Leslie trying to teach sex education to Pawnee senior citizens to address the massive rise in STDs among that population (Which is very real). However just as she's going to demonstrate how to put a condemn on a banana she's stopped by Chris as Pawnee law bans all sex education outside of abstinence, even in the case of adults. Naturally this was brought to his attention by the head of the town's morality police, Leslie's nemesis, & stand in for the Christian Right,* Marcia Langman. The battles between Leslie & her well meaning practicality & Marcia & her judgmental conservatism are always fun to watch but what put this one over the top was our introduction to Marcia's flamboyantly, but closeted, gay husband, Marshall.
*The Christian Right is destroying the Republican party, I know that's off topic, but I feel that needs to be said as often as possible.
Now to those who aren't well versed in American politics giving the uber-Christian an obviously gay husband may have seemed like simply another joke to make her seem more ridiculous but in fact it was a satirization of Michele Bachmann & her closeted gay husband Marcus,* who proves a highlight throughout. Granted as someone of a liberal persuasion I'm more prone to find this mocking funny but really I think most, reasonable, Republicans will agree that the Bachmanns are a sad joke. Beyond the satire though this continues the writers' work of constructing the world of Pawnee, something that only Community's Greendale campus can match, & further shows how far Marcia's need to make people living to her moral standards really goes.
*Don't believe me? Watch this clip starting at 1:00 & tell me I'm wrong.
When it's revealed that 85% of Pawnee supports the incredibly stupid law (as Anne, correctly, points out abstinence only education doesn't work) we see Parks and Rec not only show Leslie to be in a tough position politically but ethically as well as it poses the eternal question of democracy-when elected should politicians do their best to represent what their constituents want, or what they themselves think is best. It comes as no surprise that Leslie, having pushed through a soda tax a couple episodes ago (as well as being in the right on this issue), ultimately decides to fight for what she believes is best. For all of the cynicism regarding politics & love for The Wire at this show's heart it believes that there are people out there who want what's best for their communities, be it a small town or the entire country, & if they get the chance they can help make that community a better place. Or maybe it just wants to believe, & Pawnee's the one place where that's actually true. Either's possible, but me, I'll take the former.
As for the continuing adventures of Ben & April we, & they, finally got to meet the congressman whose campaign they're helping run & it's revealed he's simply an air head who's capable of spouting generic lines about hard work & the toughness of Ohioans that can get him elected. Most obviously this serves to mock the stupidity of some of our congressman, but I think even more so mocks the electorate as we can be so easily motivated by people who sound good without really saying anything of substance. As a liberal I would point out Herman Cain who briefly led the GOP primary because people thought he seemed like a no nonsense politician even though his plans were exactly that, nonsense. I have little doubt conservatives would mention how so many people got caught up in "hope" & "change" 4 years ago without understanding what Obama was really about (I'd actually agree). Regardless people should be asking more about what their leaders are really about & I think Ben's realizing as this episode goes along that he should have been asking questions himself. It's not enough to just be involved in politics, you need to be working for something that's actually worthwhile.
Episode Grade: A-
Other Notes:
- The Tom losing his electronic privileges & hanging out with Ron story was completely disconnected from the other two in theme but was worthwhile as Aziz Ansari had one of his more fun plots in a long while & it made one pause & realize how much we're all dependent on our various screens.
- "It's not my favorite shirt, but it is my least favorite."-Donna's awesome.
- Between his reaction at realizing the old people really are having sex, eating all of the bananas, & "Do pubic hairs got longer the older you get... Because that's happening to me," this was a fantastic episode for Andy/Chris Pratt.
- I'm too lazy to list them but all of Tom's hashtags, which included an Unbreakable shout out, were great.
- As much as I loved this episode the writers were a little lazy with Anne's love life. They replayed the "Anne becomes just like her boyfriend" story they did two seasons ago when she was dating Chris, which they ignored earlier in the episode when Anne says, "You have to be under 40 to ride this train," as youthful looking as Rob Lowe is there's no way he passes for under 40. Also in Leslie's recap of Anne's boyfriends she never mentions Mark Brandanawicz, the poor guy has already been forgotten.
- "And I'm April Blart mallcop." "Hey we're still going to assassinate him right?"-If my heart hadn't already been stolen by Alison Brie I'd give it to Aubrey Plaza.
- Speaking of Plaza her & Adam Scott's dry humor chemistry is off the charts.
- If I lived in Pawnee I'd definitely be a Perd-vert.
- "What if the banana is soft & mushy & doglegs sharply to the left?"
- "We all have some crazy urges from time to time but you just can't act on them. You have to barry them way down deep inside. You have to say get out of here crazy urges, get out of this brain of mine." It's sad how many people believe this nonsense, people like Marcus Bachmann.
- As for The Office the show has successfully revived both the Jim & Pam relationship & made Nellie into a real human being (even if that meant completely changing her character). Last night they even made a Kevin joke that totally worked as we learned he's brilliant with math if it involves pies, but not salads or regular numbers. With that said Dwight remains dialed up a little too high & Andy's too Michael-esqe, both of which were on display in "Work Bus"* so that, coupled with the higher expectations generated by the first few episodes of this season, means the episode just gets a solid B.
*Fun Fact: Naturally the episode involving the entire office working on a bus was directed by none other than king of the RV meth business "Breaking Bad's" Bryan Cranston.
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