What I’m Watching: Parks and Recreation

Parks and Recreation: Season 2, Episode 21 “94 Meetings” (B+)

What a fun episode. To begin with, it serves to provide an answer to a question often asked about a show like “The Office” – how does someone who does so little work get away with it? The answer, it appears, is that their secretary reschedules all their meetings for a date that doesn’t exist. Unfortunately, April was a bit confused about the number of days in March, leading to an enormous number of meetings all in one day. I love Leslie’s first reaction, trying to find six more people to meet with in order to have an even hundred (that reminded me of Monk asking that his bail be raised to an even one million dollars). Of course it’s not a surprise that Leslie gets easily distracted and throws herself so fully into the first meeting that she skips the rest and spends the rest of the day chained to a gate. Leslie throwing something at Tom in order to get his attention and having him whine in reaction was also a pretty funny quick moment. Ron’s order to the foursome he selected to hold meetings was hilarious – “just sit there and don’t ruin the city.” The meeting between Ron and April at her house at the end of the episode was great, especially due to the enthusiastic reactions of April’s parents to seeing him and the non-reaction of her sister to his presence. The final scene was fantastic, and I just started cracking up hearing April talk about June 50th and other made-up dates.