What I’m Watching: Parks and Recreation

Parks and Recreation: Season 7, Episode 7 “Donna and Joe” (B+)

It’s jarring after three weeks of back-to-back double episodes to have just one episode this week, and it’s not as if we get to save that one for later since the remaining six installments are still slated to run for the next three weeks. This is a momentous occasion in this show’s history, but Donna has never been one of the central characters, so I think it got to be a lot more about the other people that we know and love. Craig as a wedding planner with so many marital trigger words was hilarious, and he actually did a pretty great job, even if he stole the spotlight from Ginuwine. April was terrific at keeping the drama down and then inserting some at just the right moment to make sure that Donna still had a good time. Donna could not have given Jerry a better gift than to pretend to make a mistake by writing “Garry” on his namecard so that his coworkers would actually call him the right name for the first time. I’m always up for seeing Kathryn Hahn’s political operator, and getting Ben to run for Congress is a truly superb decision – I look forward to whatever remains of the campaign. Ron messed up not once but twice in trying to stir the romance between Tom and Lucy, but it seems like it’s actually going pretty damn well, which is so wonderful since he deserves some happiness and she seems like the perfect fit for him. An observance from those I watched with – where’s Diane? Is Lucy Lawless not on board for this final season? Something tells me Donna would surely have permitted Ron to bring a guest.