Community- "Competitive Wine Tasting": This episode was such a perfect return for this show, and one that I think indicates a very successful final leg of season two. It had everything that makes this show great-- Jeff with his standard smarminess fully loaded once again, Abed being a television-savant, Troy and Britta (we'll get to that in a minute!), and of course, Pierce meeting his racist, shallow match. Minimal Shirley, Chang, and Annie proved to be a good thing this week as well.
First the Jeff and Pierce story: well executed and genuinely intriguing, not to mention funny. I really enjoyed the contrast between Jeff's disbelief that any girl could choose Pierce over him, and then his subsequent striving to protect his friend from the same woman. He was charming and sympathetic, but still managed to have a few lines that made you want to roll your eyes at him. Also, I am loving the way that Annie gets incorporated more and more as Jeff's conscience, warning him when he's about to go astray. If I can't have them as a couple, then I'll take this as an alternative.
And speaking of couples... what was going on with Britta and Troy? This was clearly a follow-up to what we (arguably) saw beginnings of in "Interpretive Dance," with that weird hint of tension between them. And of course, the writers do seem interested in proving this season that they'll literally pair anyone together for at least a small arc. Troy's line in their little talk at the end there, when he hinted that he wanted Britta to be attracted to him threw me off, but in a good way (I think). I think they're both cute and definitely cute together, and I'm all for random pairings if they make at least a little bit of sense. I like that we got a little bit of setup for something more, if the writers choose to go that direction, but not so much that I'll be devastated if it doesn't happen.
Parks and Recreation- "Fancy Party": Well, shit. All I can really say is that this was an adorable-ness overload. No, wait, I'll say more-- I'll say that I'm pretty sure this is the best episode of any of the shows I review this entire season. It was just perfect in every regard, and when I'm done gushing and getting myself un-choked up, I'll be able to articulate actual thoughts.
I never thought this show would have the ability to make me laugh hysterically and genuinely tear up in the course of the same episode, but this one did, and it was April and Andy's surprise wedding that did it. I loved every moment of it, from the shock of realizing they weren't going to have some kind of disruption from Leslie or Ann or one of themselves, to the absurd preciousness of Andy's vows. I'm so glad that this show doesn't feel the need to adhere to the "rules" of TV relationships-- I was worried they'd spend the rest of this season not allowing Andy and April to be happy together but putting roadblocks in their relationship every other episode for the sake of drama. But they went the opposite direction, and I know I'm not the only viewer who appreciates that. Yes, the marriage will probably not be perfect (even though as far as couples go, this one is just about perfect), but I'm excited to see what happens next, and if nothing else just bask in the pure happiness of witnessing the occasion.
Leslie and Ben, you two are killing me. This tension reminds me of (and may even be worse than) those early days of The Office when Jim and Pam were falling in love with each other but refusing to acknowledge it. I say that this might even be worse because in the case of Leslie and Ben it's clearly mutual (whereas I was always just a little unsure of Pam's feelings), and both Leslie and Ben are free to pursue a relationship, they're just not quite brave enough yet. But just watching even their faces when they talk to each other gives me goosebumps-- there's so much chemistry, and they seem to care about each other so much. I'm glad we got to see Leslie's side of it too; all that talk about being afraid to jump into something, and then during Ron's pep talk you know she was thinking about Ben. As much as I was just about dying for something big to happen between these two, I'm kind of glad it didn't get thrown in on top of all the other developments in this episode. I thought their conversation about Ben staying in Pawnee was the perfect closing for them, plus that means that when we finally do get something more, it can be the focus of its own episode.
As for sweeps, I'm not sure how they're going to be able to top this. Something interesting I did read though is that the show has confirmed that in the course of sweeps a character will die. I'm hoping it's someone more on the periphery (maybe Jerry or Donna), where it wouldn't grind things to a halt but it might persuade certain characters to take advantage of the moment before them. What I am worried about now that I'm writing this is that it will be Andy or April who dies, seeing as one of his lines in the episode was about life being short, not to mention the fact that on TV there's never a whole lot of safety in the wake of so much joy, because if good things happened all the time we wouldn't watch
** This entry is so long that I'll do a separate review of The Office tomorrow after I've watched it.
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