TV Review: Parks and Recreation 5.21, "Swing Vote"
rating: 2
Its funny that Councilman Jamm serves as the eponymous Swing Vote this episode as hes also become the hinge upon which Leslies arc this season has rested, and unfortunately its almost as weak as that travesty known as the Hoover Dam. Jon Glaser is a very talented performer (if you dont know Delocated, get on that right now) who has made me laugh every episode in which hes appeared as Councilman Jamm, but the character is pretty two-dimensional, essentially Toms fragrance rival, Dennis Feinstein, with a penchant for stealing patients putters from his dentists office waiting room. Im fine with a simple character whom makes me laugh, but if that characters going to serve as the personification of our protagonists greatest idealistic challenge, especially after that idealism has been so well defined over the course of four previous seasons, hes going to have to be framed better than Jamm has. The resolution to the Leslie vs. Ron plot in this episode felt totally unearned not only because its been done better on several other occasions (a publicly subsidized mini-golf course, really?), but because after seeing Jamm (and the show itself) spin its wheels all season, Leslies realization that politics isnt what she envisioned comes off as unusually lazy and obvious for the series. Its really not a good sign that theres only one episode left of this season and theres been zero build-up to any kind of climax for really any of the characters. The character arc thats disappointed me most after Leslies has been Andys. The first half of this season saw Andy pursuing his new-found goal of working in law enforcement, and after an admirable if not slightly ambivalent trajectory in which Andy genuinely grew from having just another hair-brained sitcom dream to having truly worked hard and strived beyond his shortcomings, the entire plot fell flat. Andy was simply deemed unfit despite record high test scores with no further explanation or time invested. Andy has since been relegated with Tom (whose entrepreneurial arc was handled with greater resolution though with lesser stakes) to the background to either be Bens de-facto sidekicks (like in last episode) or carry their own completely weightless plots such as the Rat-Mouse or Mona Lisa debacles. While I enjoyed Toms recounting to Ann of his would-be threesome with Mona Lisa and some random woman from the bar (Mona Lisa stealing the womans birth control then screaming, Bitch, you gonna get pregnant! did crack me up), both this plot and Mouse-Rat not being able to contact Andy for a show (Ridiculous situation descending into heavy-handed drama for the illusion of story, anyone?) were a couple of the thinnest filler stories the series has ever barely bothered to throw together. While Swing Vote may have been the most transparently listless episode of the season, Ill keep my head held high for the future. The show has definitely earned that much from its fans.