TV Review: Parks and Recreation 4.05-- Meet & Greet

So much to say about this episode, starting with how glad I am that we got to see an actual Halloween episode this season, and that it highlighted some of the best this wacky bunch of lovable misfits (and Chris) have to offer.

We open with April and Andy planning the Halloween bash of a lifetime, which for Andy means lots of fun and candy and for April seems to mean something much more macabre.  One fun addition in this scene is the return of Food n Stuff, where, as the name indicates, you can get "all of your food, and most of your stuff."  Also, like Andy, I did not know what a "blood orphan" is.  I looked it up, and let's just say April, you are even more disturbing than I imagined.

We cut over to see what Leslie is up to this week, and find her prepping for a meeting with the owners of local businesses.  What's more, Tom has appointed himself her adviser so that she can better hype herself up and secure votes.  He is, naturally, doing this in exchange for some free exposure for Entertainment 720, which can only spell disaster.  Oh, and just when you're sure the deck isn't stacked against Leslie enough, Tom gets a clearly disturbing phone call from Jean Ralphio just before the meeting. 

I'd like to interject here and voice my disappointment that this is the second Halloween-centric episode this show has aired, and for the second time, Leslie doesn't get to partake in the festivities.  And while I enjoyed the story arc for her in both season 2's "Greg Pikitis" and this week's episode, I can't help but wonder if this is a missed opportunity.  Leslie seems like exactly the type of gal to get extremely invested in over-celebrating Halloween.

We cut back over to April and Andy's, where we are introduced to the very first version of Ben that I do not find remotely attractive, and that is passive-aggressive Ben.  He's pissed that Andy and April have decided to plan and execute this party without him, but rather than saying that like a grown person he decides to be petulant about it.  I get that you learned this behavior from your estranged parents, Ben (and nice drop-in with the backstory there, writers), but when Andy and April are both behaving more maturely than you are, you're doing something wrong.

The party quickly gets into full swing, and there are a ton of little fun things going on.  Orin, April's infinitely creepy friend (who is apparently a "genius"), makes an appearance, and Ron shows up in his pirate Halloween costume (he literally has one costume he wears every year).  The latter quickly becomes distracted by the many things wrong with Andy and April's ramshackle house, and appoints himself handyman, purchasing tools for them (and the sequence where he goes through their existing "toolbox" is hilarious), and then making the necessary repairs while everyone else dances and drinks the night away.  Ron does, however, need a sidekick with "small hands", and selects none other than Ann Perkins, which makes her (and me) incredibly happy.  I loved her and Ron's bonding in this episode, and I hope that this is some progress for both of their characters that doesn't get erased or ignored in future.

Back at Leslie's meeting, Tom is skillfully steering things downhill, at least for Leslie.  His attempts to publicize E720, which it is pretty clear by now is tanking, overshadow all of Leslie's efforts to appeal to the business community.  She tries to turn it around without losing her cool, but Tom is in rare form and she (understandably) gets frustrated, leading to one of their worst arguments/fights to date.

The next few scenes are filled with an almost unprecedented level of violence for this show, although it is all done in the name of hilarity and, oddly, character development.  First we see both Andy and April try to push Ben to confront his annoyance with them, each using different tactics.  I love that they both approach him like a sibling, because it indicates something about their current dynamic, and I love the idea of forcing Ben, who is probably the least physically aggressive character on the show, into an absurdly extended wrestling match (that was Andy's tactic, not April's, just to be clear).  And as if that dose of rough-housing isn't enough, we go back to a super angry Leslie who nearly drowns Tom for his attempted hijacking of her campaign event.  Luckily, no permanent damage appears to be done, and when Tom confesses that his company is bankrupt, the friendship seems repaired as well.

Back at the party, Andy finally pushes Ben to fight back, and earns himself a broken nose for his troubles.  It's okay, though, because the entire experience brings the bizarre co-habitating trio closer together than ever, with Ben asking for some basic respect ("Stop referring to my bedroom as a common space!"), and Andy and April asking that he not be such a little bitch in future (okay, that last part was my wording, not theirs).

How does Tom make things up to Leslie?  Well, by showing her the video biography he had originally made to air at the meeting.  This video, judging by the brief clips of it we saw, is a masterpiece on par with the phenomenal Lil' Sebastian memorial tribute, complete with Tom's ridiculously accented voiceover (it's Southern this time!).  For Leslie, though, this is a huge gesture, and it actually brings her to tears.  Once again, Tom surprises not with his douchiness, but with the surprisingly thoughtful gestures of which he occasionally proves capable.

Overall, this episode was both funny and sweet, and it moved several plots forward as well as giving insight into several characters.  Translation:  pretty much the best Halloween episode you could ask for.  Oh, except for the sub-plot with Chris.  I think I might have fallen asleep during that one, except for the moments where I felt really, really bad for Jerry for having to put up with "Sherlock Traeger."

Some favorite quotes:

"My parents would keep everything bottled up and subtly hint at what's bothering them, and after 36 years they are still....divorced!"  --Ben

"I stand by my decision to avoid salad and other disgusting things."  --Leslie

"This looks like a party for Tom's face."  --Leslie

"I don't like to throw around the word butthead too often, but....Tom is being a real dick."  --Leslie

"There are no rules."  --April, on dealing with her sister

"We're brothers."  --Andy, after Ben broke his nose

TV Review: Community 3.05-- Horror Fiction in Seven Spooky Steps

This was probably the weakest of this show's three Halloween episodes (but let's face it, topping last year's zombie mania was pretty much never going to happen), however, it was still pretty hilarious.  I liked this episode for many of the same reasons I liked last week's installment, "Remedial Chaos Theory."  It gave us the group in a bottle-episode situation with a twist, and we got a little bit of insight into each character (and their potential homicidal tendencies) with each scary story.

The premise is straightforward:  Britta is throwing a pre-party for Halloween with just the study group so that she can figure out who among them ranked alarmingly high on her psychology survey, indicating that the person in question may be "deeply disturbed" and possess "homicidal tendencies."  She naturally decides that the best way to out this person is to trade horror stories, trusting that the most deranged study group member will out themselves in the course of telling their tale.  The gang is pretty bummed about missing the school's Halloween dance, but it is probably a blessing in disguise, as the dance is serving taco meat from the Army surplus store (and we all remember what happened last time...).

Britta tells the most generic and dispassionate possible story, and is pronounced "embarrassing" by Abed for being so darn unoriginal.  Abed goes next, weaving a very logical, believable tale with textbook screenwriting elements, which concludes with the two protagonists standing back to back in the middle of the room holding knives (which, of course, is the obvious solution to just about every horror movie scenario).  Annie goes next, and her largely nauseating story involves Jeff as a vampire who just wants to become literate, and the innocent tutor who turns out to be...a werewolf!  Oh, and she also describes murdering the vampire in gruesome, graphic detail.  Also, this show's werewolf transformation effects are just plain bonkers.

Troy wants to one-up Annie, and his tale has Pierce as an old, racist doctor who sews Abed and Troy together, also inadvertently granting them the power of telepathic communication, which of course is a pretty happy ending.  Pierce follows with the grossest story yet, and one which isn't even scary (which is definitely not the most cringe-worthy thing about it).  But Shirley's story takes the cake, primarily because it is so obviously the product of her imagination and no one else's.  The gang is doing drugs and engaging in all manner of debauchery, when a radio report reveals that "all the good Christians have been raptured up to heaven" and that "the world is over."  They are then visited by angel-Shirley, who smugly forgives them, but insists that she can't save them.  I think the most frightening part of this story is that this is almost exactly how Shirley acts in reality.

The debate continues over who is the maniac in the group.  Is it Britta?  Is it somehow Chang, which Jeff posits in his tale, intended to distract the gang from turning on one another?  Is it Jeff himself, who reveals that he filled out the test at random, which likely yielded the singular batch of wacky results?  But the answer comes in the form of a kind of Occam's razor solution (the simplest explanation is usually the right one):  Britta "britta'ed" the test by feeding them into the reading machine upside down.  I have to admit, the coining of this as a term for messing up really does make me feel bad for Britta; she has consistently gotten the short end of the character stick for a while now, and I'd like to see that change.

With story time now over and the gang having thoroughly abused Britta for her failures as a "practitioner of the mental arts," we get the biggest twist of all, and one that is at the same time wholly unsurprising:  the tests actually yielded only one set of normal results.  Which means the gang, as we all know more than well by now, is chock full of lovable, yet sometimes worrying, crazy.  So all in all, a charming and feel-good Halloween episode.