What I'm Watching: Parks and Recreation

Parks and Recreation: Season 3, Episode 3 "Time Capsule" (B+)

An episode that centers around the Twilight series might not seem like it could work, yet somehow this show pulls it off, and marvelously at that. Will Forte did have spot-on delivery as diehard Twilight fan Kelly, but this episode was hardly about the vampire book series to which I haven't had the pleasure of being exposed. Instead, it was about the fact that this show actually does a decent job of portraying city government, and that Leslie is actually quite good at her job. The many different time capsules that had emerged by the end of the meeting were humorous, and the decision to put the video tape of the meeting (somehow messed up by Jerry) into the capsule was absolutely brilliant. I enjoyed the subplots quite a bit, particularly Lucy's very succinct and accurate explanation of why she broke up with Tom. I loved seeing Andy try to win back April by doing just the thing she'd never have expected - befriending her new Venezuelan boyfriend. Andy's relationship with Chris also turned out to be a lot of fun, especially because Ann was so worried about the negative effect he would have after seeing how much he tried to convince Ann that she should dump Mark and get back together with him. Yet Andy has definitely gotten over Ann, and now he's into April, and he's nothing if not determined. His latest stunt seems to have worked pretty well, so they can't be too far from reconciliation now.