I enjoyed this episode a lot more. Liking Leslie's character already as her optimism makes her klutziness all that much funnier. Looking forward to watching the next episodes and getting to know the other characters.
My god Rashida Jones is painfully beautiful
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParent2017-06-14T03:01:01Z
[5.4/10] Well, it’s an improvement on the pilot so “Canvassing” has that going for it. The characters are slightly more recognizable here, with Tom doing some schmoozing to put butts in seats for Leslie’s public forum, and Leslie’s enthusiasm exceeding her ability to accurately take the temperature of the voting public.
And the premise is a little better too. It wouldn’t seem out of character in later episodes of Parks for Leslie to go whole hog on a project and find herself a bit in over her head. Her overzealousness about this public forum and then it crashing and burning with her being able to just barely salvage it is a decent way to go.
It’s just not really funny yet, nor are the characters charming. It’s kind of nice that Mark is willing to fillibuster for Leslie a little, but Leslie herself is still a little too much Michael Scott -- more confidence than competence. The addition of her mom is good, and there’s some laughs on the margins during the canvassing, but for the most part it’s still just a bit too awkward and low yet relative to the show we would eventually know and love. It’s an unfair thing to say about an episode where the show was still figuring itself out, but “Canvassing” comes off pretty off-brand.