[8.7/10] And thus begins the Harvest Festival arc! Thought it would be good to go back and round out my unplanned rewatch of P&R, which randomly started in the middle of S3, by watching the first few episodes of the season. It’s interesting watching the season premiere shortly after seeing the season finale. It shows how far Leslie & Co. come from the humble, position they start in.
It’s also backstory: the episode! That’s not a bad thing. I’d forgotten the deal about Chris’s blood disorder and how it makes every day a gift for him. And I’d forgotten that we hear about Ice Town so soon. There is something very sitcom about Leslie (and the Ben) crashing Chris and Ann’s date to hash the budget issue out, but it works despite some of the hoariness of the premise. Ben and Leslie have chemistry even as frenemies, and the combination of Chris and Ann is surprisingly effective when they’re in a typical situation and not doubling down on relationship drama.
Plus, it’s the beginning of the meme-ification of Ron Swanson. His pyramid of greatness and coaching some kids basketball pays a number of silly, amusing dividends, and the same goes for Andy’s team, which is the disorganized, goofy yin to Swanson’s disciplined yang. The Tom-Lucy-Ron-Wendy love triangle was never one of my favorite storylines on the show, but I do appreciate the gag of Tom trying to be a biased ref and revealing his complete lack of knowledge about sports.
The larger story of the episode, that the Parks department is broke and the team is scrambling to fight for the dept. rather than let it be whittled down to nothing, works as an animating theme for the whole season. Using the parallels between Leslie and Andy as unlikely peas in a pod is nice touch, and the way it plays on Chris and Ben’s good cop/bad cop routine, eventually breaking down the walls of their denial, paves the way for so much that happens in the rest of S3. It’s a great start to arguably the show’s best season, one that embodies the fun but meaningful things the show is capable of.
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParent2017-03-20T22:19:53Z
[8.7/10] And thus begins the Harvest Festival arc! Thought it would be good to go back and round out my unplanned rewatch of P&R, which randomly started in the middle of S3, by watching the first few episodes of the season. It’s interesting watching the season premiere shortly after seeing the season finale. It shows how far Leslie & Co. come from the humble, position they start in.
It’s also backstory: the episode! That’s not a bad thing. I’d forgotten the deal about Chris’s blood disorder and how it makes every day a gift for him. And I’d forgotten that we hear about Ice Town so soon. There is something very sitcom about Leslie (and the Ben) crashing Chris and Ann’s date to hash the budget issue out, but it works despite some of the hoariness of the premise. Ben and Leslie have chemistry even as frenemies, and the combination of Chris and Ann is surprisingly effective when they’re in a typical situation and not doubling down on relationship drama.
Plus, it’s the beginning of the meme-ification of Ron Swanson. His pyramid of greatness and coaching some kids basketball pays a number of silly, amusing dividends, and the same goes for Andy’s team, which is the disorganized, goofy yin to Swanson’s disciplined yang. The Tom-Lucy-Ron-Wendy love triangle was never one of my favorite storylines on the show, but I do appreciate the gag of Tom trying to be a biased ref and revealing his complete lack of knowledge about sports.
The larger story of the episode, that the Parks department is broke and the team is scrambling to fight for the dept. rather than let it be whittled down to nothing, works as an animating theme for the whole season. Using the parallels between Leslie and Andy as unlikely peas in a pod is nice touch, and the way it plays on Chris and Ben’s good cop/bad cop routine, eventually breaking down the walls of their denial, paves the way for so much that happens in the rest of S3. It’s a great start to arguably the show’s best season, one that embodies the fun but meaningful things the show is capable of.