Monday, October 1, 2012

What I’m Watching: Parks and Recreation


Parks and Recreation: Season 5, Episode 2 “Soda Tax” (B+)

And we’re back! After an iffy opener, this show is back on top with its second episode of the season. Leslie’s battle is a fun, familiar one, attempting to get legitimate legislation passed but encountering stubborn, willfully ignorant resistance from a skinny woman representing the interests of an obese population. The display of the cup sizes – particularly the “child size” that is roughly the size of a small child if they were liquid – was quite humorous, and the threat to have 100 employees laid off if the soda tax passed was just like Nick Newport’s similar allegation during the election. Fortunately, Leslie doesn’t back down, and though it looked uncertain for a while, thanks in part to mixing six sodas into one cup, she held strong. I love a good old-fashioned Pawnee town meeting, the highlight of which was the guy saying he didn’t pay his income tax. Ron revealing that he had tried to get Leslie fired four times was great, in his very unique way of offering support. Ben working to whip his college interns into shape and then finding out he can’t get rid of them because they’re all nepotism hires was unfortunate, and his affable behavior when he tried to get them to like him was awkward as can be. It did lead somewhere good, however, since April reestablished her loyalty to Ben after revealing herself to be the architect of the drawings by threatening Ellis on Ben’s behalf. Chris training Andy to run with Tom following along in his pace vehicle was simply spectacular. Highlights included Andy laying down on the track and deciding he’d have to be a robber and Chris having what was very appropriately described as a rather regular meltdown when he realized that he doesn’t work out for anyone in his life.

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