What I’m Watching: Parks and Recreation

Parks and Recreation: Season 6, Episode 4 “Doppelgangers” (B+)

Whenever a show pulls a major game-changer and incorporates a merger, there are necessarily going to be a few episodes of transition. On “The Office,” that meant only keeping two new characters for the long haul (one of whom left after a season and now stars on this show), and, in this case, I think it will leave even fewer permanent traces. Its most significant asset is a way for Ann and Chris to announce their unfortunate exits, which were predictably met with different reactions from their respective best friends. I like how Leslie came around to a place of acceptance, and I enjoyed that Ben was so immediately happy for Chris to move on to an exciting new chapter of his life. It will definitely be sad not to have them around, but I’m confident this show can figure out what it needs to stay strong going forward without them. Of the doppelgangers, Donna’s and April’s were funny mainly for how our familiar Pawnee government employees reacted to them. Ron initially liking the other Ron because of his similar no-nonsense attitude was great, and I love how quickly all that spiraled downwards once he realized that he actually disagreed with pretty much everything our Ron holds dear. The best counterpart, hands-down, was Tom’s, and it’s absolutely spectacular that, upon realizing that a computer could do his job about as well as he could, he staged the scene so that it seemed like his human counterpart did exist and that he was so terrible he had to be fired.