10 Best Parks And Recreation Episodes

By Audrey Fox /

6. Media Blitz

You might be able to use this episode to pinpoint the exact moment that everyone fell in love with Ben Wyatt. Up until this episode, he pretty much just came across as an uptight accounting guy, and at the very beginning has a sort of adversarial relationship with Leslie as they clash over the city's budget. Media Blitz goes a long way in humanizing him, as a man with a very dark secret. That secret is Icetown, an ill-advised winter sports venture that bankrupted his town when he was an 18-year-old mayor. But for the record, any town that elects an 18-year-old as mayor deserves everything they get. Anyway, he still has so many unresolved issues about his massive failure that despite the fact that he's normally a calm and intelligent person, whenever he gets on camera he just starts spewing word vomit all over everyone. The second hand embarrassment factor is high, but totally worth it as he goes from Pawnee show to Pawnee show making a fool of himself.