Hah, I always forget Jonathan Banks played Ben's dad. Great stuff. Also, he's right - Twizzlers are way better than crappy Red Vines.
Chris' character arc in the latter half of S4 to now really sucks. The depression stuff is not funny, too over-the-top, and also simply repeated too much.
Technically I'm HOMELESSSSSSSSSS~
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParent2017-04-06T19:49:25Z
[7.2/10] There's lots of good stuff here. As a Breaking Bad/Better Call Saul fan, getting Jonathan Banks to play Ben's dad is a major boon. The show captures the complicated dance for children of divorced parents well, and the familial discord is nicely realized. I also like the contrast between Ben's absolute pessismism about how things will go versus Leslie's self-assured confidence that she can make it work. The ending where people agree to play nice is a little pat, but there's lots of good stuff, and it gives us Ron Swanson and would-be Mike Ehrmentraut staring one another down over a piece of shrinp, which, come on, you just have to love.
Speaking of Ron, the B-story where Tom is trying to figure out how to get him to invest in Rent-A-Swag is well done. I like that the story is about Tom realizing that he needs to get rid of Jean Ralphio (who was pretty great here), and that alone convinces Ron that Tom is serious and worth investing in. Ron's interactions with Jean Ralphio (his insane skewering in particular) were outsized but well done.
The rest of the episode is a little jumbled. Chris was always an exagerrated character, but the therapy stuff is making him even more caricatured to its detriment, especially when coupled with Ann's own personal journey. But April and Andy giving him conflicting good/bad things to cheer him up is funny enough. By the same token, the scene where everyone insists that Ben not hurt Leslie is hilarious for Ben's increasing bewilderment that they think he ever would.
Overall, not a standout episode, but still a funny one with plenty of good moments.