What I’m Watching: Parks and Recreation

Parks and Recreation: Season 3, Episode 8 “Camping” (B+)

This show truly does a magnificent job of incorporating its dramatic content and themes into hilarious episodic setups. Leslie being so worried about turning out to be nothing more than a one-idea wonder led to a highly amusing camping trip full of entertaining developments and especially enjoyable rooming assignments in the cat-infested motel. Everyone being frustrated about being forced to go through the motions of sharing their ideas only to go with Leslie’s in the end provided a nice segue to her panicked state when she realized she just hadn’t come up with her next big idea yet. Ron forcing her to rest and stop working for once was great, and her non-stop presentation that had Chris smiling uncontrollably the next morning was terrific. I enjoyed seeing April so devastated about having to go camping (“camping sucks, stars are creepy, the air is too fresh, there’s a brook that won’t stop bubbling”), and Andy’s thorny path to get to her complete with the drinking of most of the champagne to survive was fantastic. Ben’s plan to sleep on the “floor” contrasted with Tom’s Skymall-sponsored tent was brilliant, and the fact that all the power he was running to the tent caused the van to be dead was great. Seeing Ann and Chris interact again with terrible puns (“I salsa your face”) was fun, although it’s clear that Ann really can’t take a hint and might now have to relocate outside the country. Of course, the best-delivered line of the episode indisputably comes from Ron: “What the @%&! is a German muffin?”