6x05 Filibuster

[6.1/10] So let’s get this out of the way. The Donna-Leslie story is great, because it has a sweet-but-realistic tone to it, and it gives the great Donna a bigger role. The idea that she finds Leslie annoying at times but also appreciates how devoted Leslie is cuts a nice middle ground for what it would be like to actually work for Councilwoman Knope, and Leslie’s acknowledgement of that is a nice beat too.

But man all the hearing stuff with Jamm & Co. is a drag. I appreciate what they’re going for, but when Jamm is straight up announcing that he’s trying to create a media circus, it’s just too hamfisted of a satire for the damn thing to work at all. Jamm’s consistently been a weaker character, and his attempts to mess with Leslie here are dull and cartoony.

Tom’s story is also a dud. The fact that he’s being dishonest and annoying with the doctor who comes in trying to reserve a pack from him does nothing to endear us to the character or hope that he succeeds in wooing her. April’s bit where she spills the beans on him to the doctor is amusing enough, and the doctor’s quizzical response to the weirdness she’s confronted with is pretty funny, but Tom is at his irksome worst here, and it gives me no reason to root for him.

Even the story with Ron and Ben, where they try to get a will for Ron, didn’t really work for me. It’s a by-the-numbers story for Ron where he once again puts up resistance due to his privacy and/or old school values, is faced with some newly-made close connection, and then relents. It’s not bad – Ron’s stuff rarely is – but again, that sort of thing can’t have the impact it once did when we’re up to 6 seasons of that sort of thing.

Overall, a weaker episode, buoyed by the nicer parts of the Donna-Leslie storyline.