TV Review: Parks and Recreation 5.14, "Leslie & Ben"
rating: 4.5
I know the fourteenth episode of Park and Recreations fifth season is titled, Leslie and Ben, but I strongly feel that it should be titled, ADORABLE-FEST 2013 yes, in all caps. When a series does a wedding episode its easy to simply douse the audience in gooey saccharine sweetness and lovey-dovey mushiness then call it a day. Parks and Recreation has once more proven itself among the upper echelon of sitcoms for going above and beyond in this respect. Granted there was enough cutesy sugar-coating to give all of Sweetums shareholders diabetes, there were also several moments of genuine emotional weight, and not all of them were aw-inducing (thats kittens aw, not divine majesty awe). Chiefly Im thinking of Andys disappointment at being told he didnt make the cut regarding Pawnees finest. As I mentioned last week, I was really curious what direction the writers would take Andy in light of this revelation and I was very pleased to see the typically upbeat man-child amidst some truly grown-up disappointment not because Im a sadist, but because I like Andy and think he deserves to be shown in a light which casts him as something greater than a man-boy with a heart of gold and an awesome wife. But now that I think about it, even Andy realizing that the one thing in his life he thought he really nailed being snatched away from him was fairly aw-inducing thanks to Chris paternal (according to baby-bound Ann) words of wisdom. So I take it back the entirety of this episode was comprised of nothing but moments that brought me to the edge of tearing up sprinkled with enough solid laughs to keep me from needing my own glass of Lagavulin and I loved every minute of it, especially Ron punching out Jamm, which Im genuinely surprised he survived.