Parks & Rec & the Women of Pawnee — Season 4
Previously…
I went into season three here. Opinions vary as I remember some viewers had issues with Leslie’s characterization this season (more on that below), but I think Parks continued hitting its marks in season four.
In a nutshell…
The season opens where we left off, with Ron going into hiding to avoid Tammy One (in the coolest way possible) and Leslie keeping her secret romance with Ben (who’s technically her superior at work) from the political scouts hoping to run her campaign for city council. She tries and fails to break up with him, even to the point of going into hiding with Ron. In the end, Ben heard her reciting campaign speeches in her sleep and knows things have to end if she wants to run for office. She keeps busy to avoid being around him.
That’s easy to do with all Leslie has going on, including trying to save Ron from the older Tammy One (Patricia Clarkson), who is frighteningly intimidating and cold (April adores her) and actually delivered Ron as a baby. It’s all so creepy, especially when he gets back together with her and she turns him into mustache-less, pastel-wearing little boy who cheerfully does anything she says. Leslie finds the original Tammy, Ron’s mother (Paula Pell), hoping she’ll save him. But she wants control of Ron as well. Leslie ends up in a drink-off for his soul, which Ron wins in the end, finally getting free of all the Tammys. Meanwhile, Tom has asked Ben to help with the Entertainment 720 accounts. He finds they’re basically broke already with all the spending and need to work harder, but Tom doesn’t want to hear it.
Leslie writes a book about Pawnee which is poised to be a hit if Joan Callamezzo would just recommend it. Tom tries to wine and dine Joan with too much success. It turns out Tom likes to flirt with Joan, but only because she’s married and nothing can happen. He’s not prepared for a newly-divorced Joan aggressively coming on to him. Either way, he gets out of it with Ben’s help and Joan still goes after Leslie with “Gotcha!” journalism (including Joan’s GOTCHA dancers and GOTCHA song) as it turns out Leslie was not born in Pawnee, but in Eagleton.
Marlene admits it’s true and Leslie comes to terms, finding something in being a Pawnee girl by choice if not birth. During all this, Leslie has hired Andy as her assistant, which he takes to mean bodyguard and puts Bert Macklin, FBI on the job.
Ann finally gets over Chris, finding his enthusiasm annoying when working together. She also works hard to get April and Ron to like her, not fully succeeding, but making some headway through some bloody tales from the E.R. Ron and Leslie butt heads over his boys-only Pawnee Rangers and her girls-only Pawnee Goddesses. In the end, her activities are about fun while Ron’s are about bare survival. The boys end up joining her group (her puppy party is the breaking point) leaving Ron all alone. In the end, Leslie puts an ad out and finds him a group of boys and girls who are interested in his Man vs. Wild antics. They call themselves The Swansons.
Ben hasn’t been handling the break-up well, Leslie being the only reason he stayed in Pawnee, and not even Tom and Donna’s Treat Yo Self 2011 can help — that is until they stop trying to ply Ben with their spa treatments and shopping sprees. It turns out Ben needed to treat himself to an expensive Batman costume. Sadly, he doesn’t wear it for Halloween as he’s too busy being mad Andy and April threw a party without considering him. Ron has his own kind of fun at the party, seeing all the things that need to be fixed in their house. Ann ends up helping him, really jazzed to learn tools lingo and (as with all people) gain the tacit approval of Ron Swanson.
Tom, hired to promote Leslie’s candidacy at a business event, ends up using the time to desperately hawk E720. It angers Leslie until he tells her why: they’re completely broke and about to shut down. He does make it up to her with a biographical campaign video that touches her deeply.
In one of Pawnee’s many interesting historical tidbits , it was briefly taken oven by a cult in the 70s (The Reasonablists. What does that name remind you of?). The remaning members constantly predict the end of the world. No one takes it seriously, but it does make everyone contemplate their lives and what they want. April helps Andy cross off a lot of the (mostly ridiculous) items on his bucket list. Tom and Jean Ralphio use their last night in the E720 offices to throw an extravagant party. And Leslie acts out when Shauna Malwae Tweep shows interest in Ben.
That carries into the next few episodes. Ben is finding it hard to get over Leslie and tells her they need to spend less time together and Leslie can’t accept it. She ruins a Model UN meeting and tries to draw out a project they’re working on (“Smallest Park”) through some semi-underhanded means. Ann has been largely disapproving of Leslie’s schemes and calls Leslie out on her tendency to steamroll people and have everything her way. Leslie has to either let Ben or the election go.
In the end, she chooses to try to have it all. They decide to confess their relationship to Chris and see what happens. What happens is a trial where the whole department is behind her against Chris (who’s not exactly against her. He’s taking more supplements than ever to counteract the negativity of the whole thing).
In the end, that kiss with Tom and that gift certificate bribe from last season come back to bite her. The gift certificate in particular can’t be explained away as anything but a corrupt move and she throws herself on the mercy of the court, but Ben, during recess and without Leslie’s knowledge, takes full blame and resigns his job to save hers, declaring to Chris and on record that he loves Leslie.
In the meantime, Tom is too proud to ask for his old job back and makes Ron jumps through hoops to get him to come back. Ron also gifts Andy with money to take one college class (where he chooses Women’s studies, which he is adorably inept at understanding). But just in case you start thinking Ron (*shudder*) likes people, he does try to derail Chris’ attempts to get friendly.
Leslie is still suspended for two weeks and dropped by her campaign organizers in wake of the scandal (if you can call it that). Because Leslie can’t live life without work, she starts an activist group to improve the Parks. While she’s away, the others all try to think of the perfect gift (they have all racked up a present debt to Leslie over the years). They find the perfect gift in a gingerbread replica of the department and, more importantly, all volunteering to work Leslie’s campaign.
Meanwhile, Ben applies for increasingly depressing accounting jobs until he gives up and takes some time off, drowning himself in unfinished projects and getting even more depressed. Leslie’s campaign isn’t going much better, with the gang full of passion, but no experience. She’d been avoiding having Ben on the team in light of their relationship affecting her ratings among voters. But she finally asks him to run it as he has the savvy to do so.
It turns out Leslie is running against the younger Sweetums heir, Bobby Newport (played with adorable, spoiled stupidity by Paul Rudd). She and Ben disagree on how to run the campaign ads as he wants to highlight why Bobby shouldn’t win and Leslie doesn’t want to go negative. Ben has to rein Leslie in when she obsesses over one potential voter that doesn’t like her.
Chris has been dating Jerry’s daughter, Millicent, who is unexpectedly good looking and Jerry… tolerates it. He has been enthusiastically enamored; so much so that Millicent breaks it off. Chris becomes disturbingly depressed and not even vitamins can save him. Also, Andy and April are still learning to be grownups and knock out about a decade’s worth of doctors appointments in a day.
There’s also another Galentine’s Day, right before the (less important) Valentine’s Day. Leslie sets up a crazily elaborate scavenger hunt for Ben, which Ron delights in helping with, though he hates to admit it…
Leslie also has everyone from the Parks Department help find love for Ann, who finds out and appreciates the gesture, though with some annoyance. She ends up leaving for a date with (*gasp*) Tom. He’s nice (in his way), funny, and has always had a creepy crush on her. We’ll see…
Andy writes a campaign song for Leslie and the gang joins Mouserat to record it —while April helps Ron hide the Duke Silver posters and paraphernalia all over the studio. It doesn’t go well… that is until Duke’s sweet sax saves the track (in secret!). Speaking of secrets, Ann tries to hide the fact that she’s giving Tom a shot, but he’s been blabbing it all over! She nearly breaks things off, but she gives him another chance, possibly just to shut him up. But they have little in common. Ann’s lack of interest in hip hop and luxury goods annoys Tom and everything Tom does/says annoys Ann, but they decide to keep trying anyway, no matter how often they break up, which is a lot.
Meanwhile, Officer Dave (Louis C.K.) returns for a visit and Leslie decides she and Ben should go to dinner with him to make things less awkward, which doesn’t work out since Dave is still hung up on Leslie. They talk it out and Dave accepts that she’s moved on. Besides that, Leslie has been spreading herself too thin, between work and the campaign and Ron has to force a sabbatical on her. She needs it as Bobby Newport’s aggressive campaign manager Jennifer Barkley (Kathryn Hahn) starts one-upping her at every turn, despite Bobby being a dud. It doesn’t get much better when she screws up an unexpected interview opportunity when Tom and Ann get her drunk. Luckily, the footage is lost due to some airport workers loyal to Leslie and Pawnee.
Ron convinces April to start taking over some of Leslie’s work since she’s capable even if she hates people and doing things as much as Ron does.
Andy graduates his college… class. Yeah, it was just the one class and it was a pass/fail, but he’s happy enough with that. He and April try to set his professor up with still-depressed Chris, but she’s more interested in Ron (that mustached marvel!).
Ann and Tom have been broken up more than they’ve been dating (mostly due to his “baller” moves), but there’s one thing she loves about him: his luxurious apartment, outfitted with female-friendly amenities. April is finding filling in for Leslie overwhelming and Chris is considering Ron for Assistant City Manager, but it all seems to hang on who wins city council. If it’s Bobby, his father will likely jettison all who opposed him, including Chris. Chris is sort of okay with it, thinking no longer working at City Hall may leave him free to pursue Ann. When Chris does approach Ann about rekindling things, she points out his depression and run of bad luck and wonders if he’s only going after her thinking she’s supposed to fix it. She says no and decides to revoke her latest break-up with Tom.
Finally, there’s a debate, during which Leslie is off her game, stupefied at the insanity of Bobby and her other competition (I cannot believe I forgot to mention Pawnee’s resident porn star Brandi Maxx all this time. She’s one of the insane parade of candidates. More on her below). She pulls it together in the end, but hits bad luck again just as her campaign is in an upswing, when Bobby Newport’s father dies suddenly and Leslie is caught calling him a jerk before she knew he passed. Ben and Ann differ on how she should handle it, Ben opting for her getting good press and Ann opting for her just trying to follow her conscience and be sincere. In the end, she takes Ann’s advice and Bobby endorses her (because Bobby is still an idiot, but a nice one). In the end, Bobby wins the election by 21 votes… or did he? There’s a recount and it turns out Leslie won by the same amount.
I feel like I barely ever mention Jerry in these. God, even I pick on Jerry! Well, besides his annoyance at Chris dating Millicent and relief at the end of them, his birthday gets forgotten and made up horribly, he is some kind of savant at envelope stuffing, and he forgets to vote for Leslie in all the excitement. Damn it, Jerry! Also, his real name is Garry, but he’s always been too polite to correct people.
Besides all that, Jennifer and Chris have a little affair, Andy takes his job as Leslie’s security too seriously and April thinks what he really wants is to be a police officer, Jennifer invites Ben to work on a congressman’s campaign in D.C. and Leslie (after first asking him to stay) tells him to take the chance. They think they can make the distance work. We’ll see next season. But congratulations, Leslie, for making it onto that wall of men.
The Women of Pawnee…
If the last two seasons were about highlighting Leslie’s strengths, this season was all about her flaws. Even Leslie’s strengths can be flaws when taken to the Nth degree. Her determination turns into rigid, uncompromising control, her persistence can be unrelenting, and her fierce love for her friends and best wishes for them can be smothering and controlling. “Model UN” and “Smallest Park” show Leslie at her worst, but she does start to see her behavior clearly by the end, though shades of Bad Leslie come out to play during the campaign that takes over the rest of the season. I remember many message boards and comment sections showing annoyance at the time and I see why as, by the end of season three, we were shown Leslie as a paragon. In retrospect, however, running a campaign is stressful and likely to bring out the worst in people under that sort of pressure and… Well, Leslie isn’t perfect. She’s just fooled us because she tries really, really, almost annoyingly hard to be.
I really enjoyed Ann this season. From her sincere efforts to bond with Leslie’s circle to how much she basks in Leslie’s compliments while still giving Leslie tough love when she goes crazy. I also was surprised by how fun she and Tom were, both when breaking up and drunkenly getting back together. I don’t exactly ship them (I was always rooting for her and Chris), but they definitely gave me a laugh.
I loved April this season, always struggling between her light and dark sides. One highlight was her beating Chris in the donation war in “Bowling For Votes” to sabotage his good mood. It showed April has a lot of potential if she didn’t hate the indignity of trying so much. Afterword, her (extremely reluctant) nice gesture to Chris after Millicent broke up with him, showed even more growth.
Donna, Donna, Donna. I still love her madly. Every second of her and Tom’s Treat Yo Self was epic, her many disposable boyfriends killed me, and let’s not forget that she saved April’s hide when April thought she deleted the entire Parks Department database. I always say that I want to follow Donna home and see her life outside work, but then I think half of the reason I love her is that we only get glimpses and the rest is shrouded in awesome mystery.
I think I’ll let Tammy Two tell you all about Tammy One. “Listen, Tammy One was my Sunday School teacher, too. She can pinpoint your weaknesses and destroy you with just one word. And a jar of acid.” I loved her. I loved how much April loved her. I loved her parting words to Ron: “I was there when you were born. I intend to be there when you die.”
Tammy Zero owns a farm, an entire room full of guns (because “This is America, isn’t it? Then I don’t have to answer stupid questions while standing on my own property”), she makes her own mash liquor, and believes the way to resolve conflicts is “an old-fashioned prairie drink-off.” I’m rather disappointed we haven’t seen her or Tammy One since. I hope they visit in the final season!
This season really did showcase some intimidating women. Jennifer Barkley was definitely more the antagonist of the latter half than harmless, hopelessly stupid Bobby Newport. I really love how she managed to be an antagonist while never seeming like a mean person at heart. She likes to win and it’s not personal. It’s definitely refreshing, especially when she helps Leslie and Ben at turns because she wants more of a challenge.
We continue peeling back the horrifying and fascinating layers of Joan Callamezzo. She’s aggressively sexual, does not like hearing no, an alcoholic, and will not hesitate to serenade people at restaurants against their will. I did kind of get my morning show wish in seeing Joan and Perd Hapley moderate the debate together.
Brandi Maxx (Pawnee’s resident porn star who’s produced and starred in 400 films this year alone) appeared last season to “help” Leslie defend Jerry’s Painting, during which I loved her constant “Leslie and I” statements and Leslie’s dumbfounded reaction. When she shows up for “The Debate,” she’s even dressed identical to Leslie. “Just like Leslie, I know what it’s like to be the only woman in a room full of men.” We’ll be seeing her again and, I hope, one last time in the final season.
As for the other ladies, Millicent Gergich only shows up a few times and we get little insight into her (but we’ll see more of Jerry’s terribly incongruent home life with the other Gergich girls soon enough), Marlene makes just two small cameos, Tammy Two shows up to look easy to deal with compared to her predecessor and to attempt to destroy Leslie during Chris’ trial, and Shauna shows up once to tolerate Leslie’s many headline ideas again, which is fine with Leslie until Shauna shows interest in Ben. It doesn’t go anywhere, what with Ben still hung up on Leslie.
Passing The Bechdel Test…
It’s a 14/8 pass, considering most conversations between women (most conversations between all characters) centered on Leslie’s campaign. Excellent work, Show!
Other Notes…
I loved Andy acting out various movies to entertain the donors during the party in “The Debate,” but what I loved even more was the unexpected pay-off at the end. I was waiting for him to drive them all away, so it was so sweet to see everyone (Donna in particular) genuinely moved, particularly by his rendition of Babe. It’s just another thing I love about this show: the way they can pay off a joke with optimism and sweetness over the cynicism we’re used to in humor. That’s not to say I don’t thoroughly enjoy dark humor, but there’s a need for balance and I’ve never seen a show that could so skillfully make me laugh with an “awwww!” the way Parks can.
Fangasms…
Ron Swanson continues to be awesome with barely any effort. But I thought I’d spread some of my worship around for this season…
Perd Hapley, the Captain Obvious of Pawnee journalism and played perfectly by Jay Jackson, never fails to give me a giggle.
And now an animated pictorial tribute to my favorite running gag this season—Leslie’s constant and increasingly strange compliments for Ann. It’s adorable and weird all at once!
She sure does!
Next up: Season 5
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