Parks And Recreation: Season Four

I was worried that there was no way the show could top Season 3, as close to perfection as a half hour comedy has come. Shouldn't have.

"I have the toes I have, let's leave it at that."

SO glad to have this show back.

Man, this show owns. Glad all the premieres are out of the way.

NOW LET'S GET DOWN TO BUSINESS.

Tom: "Don't put the magnet in your pocket, it'll destroy your credit cards."
Andy: "Does that include my debt?"

I facepalmed. In a good way.

The fact that Tammy I is essentially the anti-Ron (hardass government IRS auditor) is something unexpected, yet clever. How those two ever hooked up in the first place is something that I look forward to learning.

"I really want to shoot a shotgun right now."

"...Fishing, it is."

God, how I've missed you, Parks and Rec. Please never leave me again.

I got the impression that Tammy 2 was very much a reaction to Tammy 1; after marrying someone so frosty, restrained and repressed as Tammy 1, he found and married the most smoldering, unbridled and uninhibited Tammy he could find. Who naturally turned out to be a raging hellcat.

I'm sorry but this show kicks Community's ass big time. I was a huge Community fan. But after watching the season premiere it just feels lame and boring. This show is on a completely different level, IMO.

That's one opinion.

Here's mine: They're both great shows and can happily coexist on my DVR any day of the week! Along with several others. If I had to choose just one, I'm not sure which way I would go. Fortunately, that's not a requirement.

Good Lord...the chestache.

Great Andy episode tonight.

I especially loved their merciless parody of NPR.

Too much awesome last night:

• I LOVED that even Chris couldn't make it in Eagleton.
  
• "Nefertiti's Fjord"...holy crap, I can't believe they actually made the music for that joke. And it was perfect. (Dey awe-ah lesbians! I love Dan Castellaneta's voice.)
  
• Adam Scott's "What the hell?!" when they entered Joan's bedroom was PERFECTLY delivered.
  
• I love how they keep pairing up Ben and Tom. I could watch an entire show of just those two.
  
  "Just talk about nerd stuff."
  
  "Actually, nerd culture has become mainstream, so when you use it as a pejorative, you're the one who's outside the zeitgeist."
  
  "...Perfect, just like that."

Followed immediately by the punishingly-authentic fan-speculation on the Star Trek sequel. Ben's initial sarcastic reaction, immediately followed by genuine nerd-interest, is becoming one of my favorite running jokes on the show. Last week with the "break-evens," and now this week with this bit.

I also love the fact that April and Ron are perfect co-workers, because they both hate everybody.

Spot on critique... Larry.

Chris Pratt keeps impressing me with interesting choices. I heard his line (used in promos constantly) "You may have network connectivity issues" was improvised. Nice.
When he did his Bert Macklin bit and said "You thought I was dead? So did the President's enemies," it sounded like he put a small pause in there like he was going to say "So did the president" and then thought about changing it mid-sentence. Made me laugh.

But I think everyone had great moments this week. Enjoyed the A, B and C plots immensely. I'd show this to people as an example of what the show does great. I normally don't do this, but, I just had to break down some things I thought were completely awesome (in addition to the awesome things already mentioned):

"This feels like 'gotcha' journalism." "In what way?" "That way. You put 'Gotcha!' on my face."
"Oh, God, not the Gotcha dancers!" (and Chris' reaction to the Gotcha dancers)
"It will be causal, and it will be amicable!"
The idea of a "Gotcha" wall
"I was the first one to tell you that?"
Tom and his cologne
"That sentence was confusing!"
Chris cheerily saying "Goodbye, everybody!" to the angry bookstore patrons
"Who is your favorite character on 'Sex and the City'?" "Alf."
Ron whiltling a recorder
Andy knocking over the computer when diving across the desk.
"Well, let's just say the message boards are going nuts."
"I believed in you. But you should put that back."
"When people get too chummy with me, I like to call them by the wrong name, to let them know I don't really care about them." (bonus: I like that this premise could sustain three solid laughs and a callback within a span of less than two minutes.)

Perhaps the writers wanted to overcompensate on this one since it's basically a thinly-veiled infomercial for their book (out now!):
http://www.amazon.com/Pawnee-Greatest-America-Leslie-Knope/dp/1401310648

Loved this episode. A really great Ron-Leslie relationship episode, which did a good job humanizing Ron while capturing the respect and affection these two have for each other.

My favorite part, though, was the credits tag with this mundane domestic scene between Ben and Andy/April with Ben still in the Batman suit and nobody acknowledging it. Just picturing the domestic arrangement of these three wildly different people makes me chuckle.

I could quite easily watch a whole series of Benman going about his tedious daily routines. The cape-flap while fixing the router was just perfection. Adam Scott in the Batman costume LITERALLY had me bent over in laughter. When he started crying, I just lost it. He was on fire this week:

• "They would never cancel Game of Thrones!!"
  
• "This is the most stressed-out I've ever been."
  
• "I'm more of a 'rare-coins' guy."

The little girls debating Leslie's hypocrisy, and Leslie's "70/30" reaction of annoyance and pride...just perfect.

Loved the "Swansons" ad at the end. "Do you march to the beat of your own drum? Did you make the drum yourself?"

(I dig that Jerry's now starting to get creeped out by Chris. Also...Jerry's huge penis did a great job. I wonder how far they'll go with this "Chris/Jerry's Daughter" storyline?)

This show just rocks it week in and week out. I was laughing from the moment he introduced Andy and April's tool box as a really beat CVS plastic bag. When I was living in my first apartment, my first toolbox was also a beat plastic bag. Eventually I graduated to a munitions case. I can say my tool kit never included a flashlight filled with jellybeans, however...

I just like the general disarray of the April/Andy/Ben home life, and how comfortable they are with it -- especially the normally anal Ben. When Andy explained the shock wire, hanging from the ceiling in the shower (!) I just about died.

I loved Andy trying to move Ben from passive aggressive to aggressive aggressive. I also loved Ron's papa bear instincts with regards to the home repairs. And April screwing over Chris on behalf of Jerry.

Best line of the night: "I know more than you."

Worst line of the night (if you're Jerry): "Jerry, I have decided to take your daughter home, and we may be having intercourse."

(Anyone else see a potential "Ron/Ann" pairing on the horizon?)

Well, she IS a brunette...

I was coming here to post the same thing.

I was actually a bit moved by the ending, starting with Tom getting a kiss from Lucy right when his life is about to hit the crapper. I loved everything about Andy and April trying to check items off Andy's bucket list, but it grabbed me when Andy told April to pick the music for the car ride. Everything we've been shown of April's personality and personal associations led me to expecting something weird or dark or nihilistic, but no, it's a Simon & Garfunkel-esque Gabe Dixon Band song. And then when they get to their destination, it's just awe-inspiring. This show takes things on a level that average human beings actually operate on, and finds the awe we all find in them. What a great early marriage memory, driving to the Grand Canyon in one shot.

This episode was favorite of the season. This show makes me happy, and feel just a little bit better about humanity by the end of each week's half-hour.

Aubrey Plaza Rolling Stone photo shoot:

Click on photo for more

Dammit, that ending choked me up.

"I'm trying to find some way to be annoyed by this, but...I'm comin' up dry."

And then: "Where are the faces?!?"

Also, I've always thought Aubrey Plaza was cute, but the way they shot that, and the look on her face, was the first time I really thought she looked beautiful.

("Will you take a check?")