TV Review: Parks & Recreation 5.19, “Article Two” & 5.20, “Jerry’s Retirement”
rating: 2.5
All season Ive been going pretty hard on the whole, Its cool, Im still laughing, bit when it came to Parks declining narrative quality. I still stand by my words of course, but the latest installments much like The Universe is wont to do when you challenge its ability to make you look foolish by making any kind of statement have strained their credibility. Neither Article Two nor Jerrys Retirement were particularly bad episodes, but they each felt especially thin. Ill approve pretty much any conceit which ropes Patton Oswalt into a story, but Leslies staunch support for antiquated laws which someone else (some random Ted, no less!) knew better than she did coupled with her immediate reversal felt too contrived to invest in. For a series which has such an impressive track record when it comes to evoking the genuine absurdity of life through smart couplings of reality and the ridiculous, the bet between Garth and Leslie came off as exceedingly ludicrous as it was ill-advised clearly Garth was going to win. And as a proponent of the belief that loneliness may be the single worst fate for an individual to suffer through (Ron Swanson and disease be damned), its not that I didnt appreciate the resolution that Garth would drop his protest of Leslies bill after being invited into the Pawnee Historical Society (and its many social obligations), it was just far too easy like too many of this seasons resolutions. It swooped in last minute and whats worse is that if it didnt, well, it wouldnt have mattered. Plus, how was Garth not already a part of that organization? That being said, Garths filibuster-pitch for Episode VII was amazing. Apparently it was completely improvised by Oswalt, but you know he had been thinking of a few of those scenes for a while. The only thing that couldve improved the eight minute rant is if Ben was in the background to scoff and nitpick the concerned citizens ideas. But as much as I loved hearing about Star Wars, The Avengers, X-Men, Game of Thrones (yes, Donna, that whole show could get it), and Hannibal Lecter (I see what you did there, NBC), the pop culture references shouldnt be the best parts of an episode, and they were in both Article Two and Jerrys Retirement (Bens TOTALLY VALID Fringe reference). Garth and Leslies competition was only one of three which constituted Article Two. The other two involved April predicting Ron and Chris using Jerry to compete for Aprils soul (not to be melodramatic), and the other was between Ben and Ann (and Ros the postal worker) for a gift for Leslie. While I thought the reveal that April, the employee whose soul for which Chris and Ron battled, is actually superior to them both was fairly clever, I couldnt really care about the waffle iron bit. The individual moments among the characters involved such as Toms astonishment when his fridge broke (I just moved!), Rons admitted apathy, and Bens neurosis (I dont even have time to tell you how wrong you are actually I need to or itll bother me,) still made me laugh, but Im really starting to feel the effects of not caring. Seeing as how those lackluster plots took almost the entire season to bother me perhaps this could be seen as a testament to the series strength in bringing these characters to life despite less than stellar plots, but those stories are still a noticeable weakness. Jerrys Retirement had similarly enjoyable individual moments, like Leslie being moved to make-out with her husband when he reveals his plan to make mac n cheese pizza for dinner, the detail of Chris holding a Brandi Maxx dvd, or Donnas casual acknowledgement of Jerry catching fire, but again I just couldnt bring myself to care about Chris and Ann being awkward or Jerrys retirement which doesnt even matter seeing as how hell still be around a few days a week simply to keep Tom from becoming the new Jerry. Again, a lack of consequences and far too much easy resolution outweighed the laughter for me with these episodes. Parks is still a remarkable series with an incredibly talented staff of actors and writers, but these elements need to be in tandem with each other as opposed to one carrying the other for the series to continue its legacy of excellency.