[8.8/10] “Fluoride” is a nice follow up to the events of the recall. The last episode nicely tied together Leslie and Tom each failing at their dream endeavors -- being a city councilwoman and a businessman respectively -- at the same time. “Fluoride” works as an antidote to that, by showing how despite those blows, the pair are still apt to use their talents in ways that will help the city and the parks department.
The pair working together to introduce fluoride into Pawnee’s water supply works as a nice plot obstacle for the two of them on that front. It combines two things they’re each good at individually: Leslie’s ability to find boring but helpful ways to change the city, and Tom’s ability to spice things up and make them appealing to the general public. The tête-à-tête with Jamm and Sweetums gets a little too exaggerated, as it has since last season, but I actually like the back and forth in principle.
Leslie introduces the regular bill. Jamm fights her. Tom helps with #TDAZZLE. Jamm fights back by going to Sweetums to turn all of Pawnee’s water supply into sugary slurry, and Leslie and Tom fight back with H2-Flow. It’s a nice set of escalating wins and losses that lead to some unexpected places and give both Knope and Haverford a chance to shine.
At the same time, I like “loose cannon” Leslie, where knowing that she’s already losing her job, she’s willing to really go after Sweetums and describe it as a cancer on the town. The fact that in all her vigor and bravado, she gets Ben fired from his job at Sweetums is a nice twist in that story, and his reaffirming how tired he is of this job and willingness to support Leslie in thumbing Sweetums in the eye is a mighty fine resolution. It’s an A-story that’s dragged down a bit, once again, by the cartoonishness of Jamm and Sweetums as villains, but is otherwise a real treat that uses three members of the main cast in great ways.
And yet, it’s not my favorite story in the episode. That would have to be April and Donna’s efforts to come up with a canine doppelganger for everyone in the office. While the storyline does suffer a bit from the awful presence of Craig, I loved April and Donna bonding a bit. With Chris gone and Ann conspicuously missing from the next two episode, Donna’s gotten a chance to step up and Retta’s proved herself well up to the task.
I really like the idea of the story, that Donna is offended at realizing how little April knows about her when Donna totally understands April (and her assessment and dog-example for April is a perfect encapsulation of Ms. Ludgate). April really trying to figure Donna out, and eventually coming up with cat, is the perfect left turn in the storyline, and Donna appreciating April’s efforts and eventually hugging her is the type of positive, heartwarming resolution that P&R does well.
The Ron-Chris storyline is probably the weakest, but it’s still pretty good, which speaks to the overall quality of the episode. The two are almost always a great pairing given the contrast between Chris’s enthusiasm and Ron’s general grumpiness, and while this wasn’t the best outing for the duo, it could still coast off the strength of that juxtaposition. Chris trying to find homespun wisdom in Ron’s woodworking was a solid bit (as were the silly but amusing running gags about celebrity baby books), and the jokes about Ron’s hatred of metaphors, including professing his love for Moby Dick because it’s allegedly metaphor-free, were delightful. Him giving Chris the crib he’d been working on was a nice gesture to tie it all up.
Overall, it’s definitely a superb episode of the show that suffers a bit from the unfortunate presence of the characters introduced in Seasons 5 & 6, but otherwise features the cast at their best.
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParent2017-05-12T17:10:51Z
[8.8/10] “Fluoride” is a nice follow up to the events of the recall. The last episode nicely tied together Leslie and Tom each failing at their dream endeavors -- being a city councilwoman and a businessman respectively -- at the same time. “Fluoride” works as an antidote to that, by showing how despite those blows, the pair are still apt to use their talents in ways that will help the city and the parks department.
The pair working together to introduce fluoride into Pawnee’s water supply works as a nice plot obstacle for the two of them on that front. It combines two things they’re each good at individually: Leslie’s ability to find boring but helpful ways to change the city, and Tom’s ability to spice things up and make them appealing to the general public. The tête-à-tête with Jamm and Sweetums gets a little too exaggerated, as it has since last season, but I actually like the back and forth in principle.
Leslie introduces the regular bill. Jamm fights her. Tom helps with #TDAZZLE. Jamm fights back by going to Sweetums to turn all of Pawnee’s water supply into sugary slurry, and Leslie and Tom fight back with H2-Flow. It’s a nice set of escalating wins and losses that lead to some unexpected places and give both Knope and Haverford a chance to shine.
At the same time, I like “loose cannon” Leslie, where knowing that she’s already losing her job, she’s willing to really go after Sweetums and describe it as a cancer on the town. The fact that in all her vigor and bravado, she gets Ben fired from his job at Sweetums is a nice twist in that story, and his reaffirming how tired he is of this job and willingness to support Leslie in thumbing Sweetums in the eye is a mighty fine resolution. It’s an A-story that’s dragged down a bit, once again, by the cartoonishness of Jamm and Sweetums as villains, but is otherwise a real treat that uses three members of the main cast in great ways.
And yet, it’s not my favorite story in the episode. That would have to be April and Donna’s efforts to come up with a canine doppelganger for everyone in the office. While the storyline does suffer a bit from the awful presence of Craig, I loved April and Donna bonding a bit. With Chris gone and Ann conspicuously missing from the next two episode, Donna’s gotten a chance to step up and Retta’s proved herself well up to the task.
I really like the idea of the story, that Donna is offended at realizing how little April knows about her when Donna totally understands April (and her assessment and dog-example for April is a perfect encapsulation of Ms. Ludgate). April really trying to figure Donna out, and eventually coming up with cat, is the perfect left turn in the storyline, and Donna appreciating April’s efforts and eventually hugging her is the type of positive, heartwarming resolution that P&R does well.
The Ron-Chris storyline is probably the weakest, but it’s still pretty good, which speaks to the overall quality of the episode. The two are almost always a great pairing given the contrast between Chris’s enthusiasm and Ron’s general grumpiness, and while this wasn’t the best outing for the duo, it could still coast off the strength of that juxtaposition. Chris trying to find homespun wisdom in Ron’s woodworking was a solid bit (as were the silly but amusing running gags about celebrity baby books), and the jokes about Ron’s hatred of metaphors, including professing his love for Moby Dick because it’s allegedly metaphor-free, were delightful. Him giving Chris the crib he’d been working on was a nice gesture to tie it all up.
Overall, it’s definitely a superb episode of the show that suffers a bit from the unfortunate presence of the characters introduced in Seasons 5 & 6, but otherwise features the cast at their best.