Okay, I was going to try and review every episode of this season (and the next and the next after that hopefully and so on) during this, my second run through of Parks and Rec but I ended up watching 5 episodes virtually back to back because this is the season where everything comes full stride. I don't remember if I prefer this season or four (I had the feeling I preferred four because of the election campaign storyline but either way, this is the beginning of the show's absolute peak.
For the most part, I absolutely love this episode. What doesn't work here is very little and in fact, it comes down to a certain few moments in this episode only. One is the culmination of the Ron v Tom tension that takes place during the junior basketball game and Ron exploding into a violent outrage. I just could not help but feel the humour of the situation (Tom's inability to cope with the fact that his boss is now dating his ex-wife) was completely deflated in the moment but it's not good enough for me at least to work as a dramatic moment because the whole Tom/Ron/Wendy angle was never that interesting for me and in fact, prior to my recent rewatch of season two, I had completely forgotten it. Regardless, it came across as a clunky and/or uncharacteristic moment from Ron.
Everything else here is fantastic and there is very little I hold issue with. I love the progression of the April/Andy storyline here, the date between Chris and Ann is great and the episode's ending sets up an ongoing story arc for this season that I am excited to revisit and re-experience.
Review by SLionsCricketBlockedParent2020-04-03T11:39:02Z
Okay, I was going to try and review every episode of this season (and the next and the next after that hopefully and so on) during this, my second run through of Parks and Rec but I ended up watching 5 episodes virtually back to back because this is the season where everything comes full stride. I don't remember if I prefer this season or four (I had the feeling I preferred four because of the election campaign storyline but either way, this is the beginning of the show's absolute peak.
For the most part, I absolutely love this episode. What doesn't work here is very little and in fact, it comes down to a certain few moments in this episode only. One is the culmination of the Ron v Tom tension that takes place during the junior basketball game and Ron exploding into a violent outrage. I just could not help but feel the humour of the situation (Tom's inability to cope with the fact that his boss is now dating his ex-wife) was completely deflated in the moment but it's not good enough for me at least to work as a dramatic moment because the whole Tom/Ron/Wendy angle was never that interesting for me and in fact, prior to my recent rewatch of season two, I had completely forgotten it. Regardless, it came across as a clunky and/or uncharacteristic moment from Ron.
Everything else here is fantastic and there is very little I hold issue with. I love the progression of the April/Andy storyline here, the date between Chris and Ann is great and the episode's ending sets up an ongoing story arc for this season that I am excited to revisit and re-experience.
Fantastic season premiere.