2x11 Tom's Divorce

This episode surprised me a bit with how much I enjoyed it this time around. I still liked it the first time but this viewing was a substantial improvement. Being a Tom-centric episode, I was a bit more skeptical about this episode (given that Tom is definitely my least favourite character among the main group) but this episode mined plenty of comedic situations from its premise and brought some satisfying gravitas to Tom's character.

There's overall plenty of humour here. Andy has slowly but surely been on the upward trend this season and at this point in his 'pining for Ann' phase, he's less "vicious" and more the lovable, well-meaning goofball. His attempts to win back Ann are hilarious to me because he's desperate and he's stupid enough to think his degrading comments towards Mark and his attempt to win Ann through a contest would actually work and the show is now wrapping up that phase of his character and moving onto a better one. Chris Pratt is really coming into his own in this role now and he offers plenty of broad strokes of comedy as well as more nuanced ones that give this performance a well roundedness to it. I just cannot abide by a couple of the other opinions of Andy made on this page and even my first time through the series, his character was an absolute delight by this early point in the run.

Leslie is also absolutely delightful here. The affection she showcases towards Tom throughout the episode highlight how endearing a person she is and how much she truly cares for her co-workers and is willing to even put aside her feminist ideals when taking Tom to the Glitter Factory to cheer him up. Every ounce of comedy there works very well.

Roughly half-way into its second season, Parks and Recreation is certainly hitting its stride. The characterizations are continuing to strengthen with each new episode and the humour just becomes more abundant too.

[9.6/10] Outstanding episode. I like so much about this one. The central conceit, with Leslie feeling concerned about Tom feeling sad after his divorce, Tom pretending to be sad to fool her, and then actually being sad about it after he learns that Ron wants to ask Wendy out, is just a brilliant setup of comedic and emotional layers.

Above all, the writing is just so great, with so many hilarious lines. April telling Leslie she wants to go to the strip club and Leslie responding, “Well, drop out of school and start doing meth” or Leslie trying to persuade the group to a documentary on tandem bicycles with the lure that it’s “pretty unapologetic,” or Leslie constantly calling the stripper “Seabiscuit” is just hilarious.

And there’s so many great small character bits that don’t really propel the story but just give you a better sense of who these people are in little but amusing ways. I have to say, I kind of got tired of Ann as the show went on, but she’s hilarious here in trying to get the table to go dutch and then the face she makes when Leslie says they’ll just divide things up evenly. Ron’s breakfast buffet excitement is a great touch, as are the little details like Jerry mouthing the “exctinct” joke at Jurassic Fork.

Jurassic Fork is another great example of something that just adds silliness to the proceedings. (I’d totally forgotten that they call back to this place down the line!) By the same token, Leslie’s combination of support and disgust and feminism at The Glitter Factory was a nonstop bout of comedy. The show just juggles so much character and story and emotion and comedy without missing a beat.

That comes through in the B-story too, where Andy is trying to undermine Ann and Mark’s relationship, up to the point of trying to hustle Mark out of dating Ann in a game of pool. His talking head segments are very amusing in that “Andy doesn’t know how dumb he is” sort of way. And his move to give his blessing to Ann moving on, despite “winning” her is a good bow to tie on that part of the show.

Overall, “Tom’s Divorce” is not only full of laughs, but it has some complicated character work that adds dimension to both Tom and Andy for the first time in the show, and finds time to subtly tell us more about the other characters as well. Just top notch stuff.