The Parks and Recreation finale recap: Rock Show
-
- May
- 18
I’ll say this for the Parks and Recreation finale: “Rock Show” felt like a season finale.
It was basically a two-gag episode, with Leslie’s misconstrued business meeting with an elderly gentleman caller picking up one half, while the debut of Mouse Rat (or was it Scarecrow Boat?) involved the rest of the cast.
I can’t say it was the funniest of the six episodes that made up this late-season launch. Still, it was a good cross section of what might make this show successful in the long run.
You had the ever hopeful Leslie in a bad situation of her own inept making. You had Ann, pursued by the charming but kind of jerky Mark even as she laments her commitment to the jerky but kind of charming Andy. Tom, for inexplicable but hilarious reasons, has a hot wife. Ron has a new girl, the estranged sister of his hated ex-wife. (It’s like a fairy tale.) And you had April, snotty as ever.
What this episode had in spades, for me, was hope that it could break free from its Office origins and establish itself as its own. There was nothing Dunder MIfflin-y about this episode. Leslie wasn’t Michael Scott. She was a kind of dopey idealist who tried to do the smart thing and choose business over friends, only to find herself on the receiving end of some spirited geriatric amore.
You could root for her. You could also feel for her after seeing Mark reveal more of his true nature. He was so hitting on Ann, and she really tore him a new one. That was refreshing, because I expected them to go home together.
It was refreshing, too, when Mark made a move on Leslie—hours later? dude…—and she was the one to pull back. In both cases, you could have expected a cliched romantic entanglement to be set up for next season. Instead we get a more layered, less predictable web of attraction, repulsion and embarrassed discomfort.
Of course, we got pratfalls too. I loved Mark falling in the pit, bringing the mini-season full circle. It was awesome for Andy to witness both the kiss and the fall, even if it was a little too tidy for him to slip back onto Ann’s couch, suggesting their troubled relationship will continue on.
I like that this is a show you’re not inclined to think too deeply about, and yet it gives you food for thought if you want it. It can be just plain funny, or it can be a little deep. It’s more like 30 Rock that way than The Office. Actually, it’s more like 30 Rock than even 30 Rock was this season.
Mark was so underwhelmed by his “accomplishment” of reducing a speed bump. It was like a mini-career/life crisis for him, much like the one he had in the bar last week when he gave up on the boring girls. I see room for redemption there, which is more than I would have hoped for after the pilot.
Also, this episode confirmed for me that the worst thing about this show is the pit project, because in its absence the episode had no lulls for me. When the writers return some time next month and start brainstorming the second season, I hope they remember to keep it about the characters, and to keep up the good work.
This entry was posted
on Monday, May 18th, 2009 at 2:33 pm by Brian Howard.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
Category: Uncategorized
Tags: Parks and Recreation, Rock Show
Print
| 
Email
