TV Review: ‘Parks and Recreation” Episode: ‘The Banquet’

Leslie getting her manliness on with her woman in tow.

All I can say about Parks and Recreation now that we’re several episodes in, and I think probably reaching the season finale, is that I am a fan. Yes I gave it a pretty good whomping after the first couple episodes left me scratching my head a bit, but it’s definitely grown on me. There’s such a subtle goofiness to it all and to all the characters that just really makes you get into and enjoy the antics of these government officials. I even find myself liking many of the government jokes that continue to do throughout each episode. There’s just something very simple about the show and it doesn’t try to be more than it is and that’s a good thing. It does its thing well now and it’s definitely found something good footing for where it wants to be.

In this episode we find a banquet being held in Leslie’s mother’s honor for all of her hard working as a government official. Of course Leslie would be following in the footsteps of her mother and proud of the “dynasty† her family holds in the political Pawnee world, if she wasn’t so clueless on how to climb the ladder that is. We find out later that everyone else who has received this award is a regular circle of movers and shakers who don’t mind the dirty work you’d only hope government officials actually get into. Even Leslie’s mom is called the Iron profanity laden something of Pawnee, and none to affectionately so as Leslie would think.

There are some good bits at the banquet, especially when Leslie shows up with a haircut that her alter ego of Hilary Clinton of SNL might get and a few good, though pushing it a little, gay jokes are tossed around with Leslie none the wiser. We also have Anne that accompanies Leslie making sure the gay jokes can be continued just a few jokes longer. I’m more impressed than anything by Leslie’s boss who I’ve mentioned in the past needed a bit more to do than help the jokes move along and tell bad government puns. But now I feel he’s a bit of an asset to this government world and his anti-establishment views are actually starting to help the show in a weird way. I loved his undeniable lust for bacon wrapped shrimp and also his fact based speech that truly was what he said it would be as well as a few jabs at her mother thrown in for good measure.

The rest of the episode mainly deals with Leslie trying to convince a head of the zoning department to help her out with her park, still the overlying plot point of the season, and of course bungles it in all the right ways. Leslie’s innocence is one o her other great attributes and it’s funny to see her at all trying to be crafty and conniving and act like she can black mail anyone at all. We also see Mark and Tom as they try to pick up some chicks at a bar and we start to see maybe Mark might start trying to gravitate towards Leslie more as a romantic interest and I’m actually interested to see what might lay ahead near the end of the season for these two. I hate to say I want to see a little Jim and Pam thing go on between these two characters but I’m intrigued by what comic mishaps might cause them to actually really get something going on.