Funny episode!
We've got a lil' bit more of Ben & Larry, Leslie gets crazy without Ann and throw a Galentine's Day to find a substitute, Ann makes an appearance with baby Oliver, and Ron, Andy and the peanut brittle? I'm still lol'ing here over this scene!
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParent2017-06-01T01:25:58Z
[8.1/10] Giving Leslie an episode to cope with the absence of Ann is a nice idea. It allows her to go a little crazy, have the truth of her scheme tumble out, and then cobble things back together. The details are nice, from Leslie’s Crazy Carrie board, to her Taken-related concerns about Ann, to her and Ann’s debate about the young beaus of Friday Night Lights. It’s nice that Ann and Leslie get another moment together this season to celebrate the birth of Chris and Ann’s child and to set a direction for Leslie to move forward.
Part of moving forward is her realizing that she has lots of friends who bring different things to the table and none of them is a perfect replacement for Ann, but each cares about her. I enjoy April and Donna’s “Ann Bear” as a reminder of that, and I love the surprisingly dark gags about Shawna Malway Tweep’s sordid personal life.
But my favorite part of this episode is the B-story with Ben, Tom, and Jerry. Ben realizing that Jerry is a really great guy and sticking up for him is long overdue. It’s a nice win for Jerry in that his contract scouring solves their problem with the jerk tent rental guy, and it fits that Ben, who doesn’t come in with the usual Pawnee dogma, can see how nice and kind Jerry is. A lot of the Jerry-bashing stuff never sat well with me for such a positive show, and seeing Ben take a stand and give Jerry the O’ Captain My Captain treatment is funny but also heartwarming.
The same goes for Ron’s adventures with Andy, with a pairing that always work. It’s a little pat, but there’s still a lot of fun to be had with Ron trying to get away from being a parent for a little while and Andy being a surrogate child. I particularly like that Ron’s little epiphany is that Diane’s doing this all the time as well and he want to come home to spell her. There’s lot of fun goofball Andy stuff, and Ron’s reaction to it is delightful as always.
Overall, lots of fun stuff at all levels here. The A-story is probably the weakest, but still has plenty of good stuff in it, and both B-stories are great.