Parks and Recreation – “Indianapolis”

I think, as usual, Ron wins this weeks Parks and Recreation. Why? Because he got to say this: “You may have thought you heard me say I wanted a lot of bacon and eggs, but what I said was: Give me all the bacon and eggs you have.” You see, his favorite steak joint in Indianapolis got shut down, and for whatever reason he can’t find a single restaurant to give him a satisfying slice of cow. So how did we get to this point? Well, let me tell you.

Leslie and Ron are going to the city to receive a commendation from city hall, a great honor by Leslie’s standards. But Ann is worried that Chris is cheating on her, so Leslie and Ron stop by Chris’ place in the city to check up on him first. Leslie finds the damning evidence she needs, so Ann shows up at Chris house, looking for an explanation. And he has a good one: he broke up with her. It turns out the big conversation we didn’t get to see last week was Chris dumping Ann, but in such a nice way that she didn’t even realize she had been dumped.

The rest of the group are going to Tom’s bar because a giant of the perfume business is there. Andy and April spend their time trying to see what they can get for free, a charming little game that proves that even if these two are a couple they can still go on adventures. But the focus is on Tom, who is trying to pitch his personal scent to Dennis Feinstein. Feinstein rejects the scent and laughs in Tom’s face, which breaks his little heart. With everyone else otherwise disposed, it falls on Ben to make Tom feel better, which he succeeds at doing. Ben, who has tried to be distant, finds himself part of the parks and rec family by the end of the episode, even risking his health for his new friends by the end.

I think the long wait to get Parks and Rec. back skewed my appreciation for the show, but I really enjoy each episode every week.

The Office – “Todd Packer”

Well, they can’t all be winners. This week’s Office focused on Michael’s oldest friend, Todd Packer. Packer, you might remember, is a huge jerk who makes everyone uncomfortable with his mean sense of humor. The character has been consistently used as someone whom everyone hates, which means he’s pretty hard for the audience to like. You’d think with an episode like they, the show would endeavor to humanize Packer in some way. It kind of did, but it failed.

So Packer wants a job in the office. He’s tired of being on the road and maybe wants to get to know his daughter better. Of course Michael is fine with him returning, fast-tracking his return with Holly’s help. Holly has never met Packer and doesn’t realize the full extant of what she has done. Some bad hump-related humor later, and everyone is desperate to get rid of Packer. Dwight and Jim team up to prank him out of there, but Michael finds out about their scheme. Then Packer makes the mistake of insulting Holly to Michael’s face, so Michael let’s him go.

Frankly, the “this guy’s a jerk” humor just doesn’t work for me. I thought the show could do a lot better, since it is pretty much the master of uncomfortable situations. Instead, Packer just comes off as an unbelievable asshole, and it’s pretty hard to believe Michael still doesn’t realize it (especially since he has realized it before). Jim and Dwight’s scheme didn’t even seem that clever, I guess Packer just realize is that stupid.

In other news, Pam gave Erin a fancy new computer. Andy is jealous, so he convinces Pam to let him destroy his computer so that she can buy him a new one. Once again, this could have worked in a more interesting way, but Andy comes off looking like a selfish jerk. Which he is, actually. But there was some potential to this episode, it just never quite got there.

Community – “Intro to Political Science”

I salute Community for poking fun at the vice president, a target that hasn’t been as utilized for comedy as I would have imagined. But, then again, lot’s of things haven’t turned out the way I thought they would back in late 2008. Anyway, this was the political episode of the show, in which the satire was so twisted I’m not even sure I get it.

Jumpin’ Joe Biden is on his way to Greendale to meet with the dean and the school president, who doesn’t exist. So the dean has a few hours to rush through the election process before the vice president shows up. The nominees are narrowed by applause, then judged in a debate. As they are narrowed down, to front runners emerge – Jeff and Annie. Annie makes her campaign about one issue, while Jeff speaks in broad generalities and reinforces his love for America. Satire!

Ultimately, the friends back down, leaving the election in the hands of the school’s dark horse political geniuses, Leonard and Magnitude. They find themselves locked in a never-ending struggle, both of them relying solely on their catchphrases, “pop pop” and blowing a raspberry. At the same time, Jeff and Annie have a backstage conversation that shows, once again, that they are a great match except for the age thing.

Also, Abed is the only one to notice the presence of the secret service, which results in him wooing an agent. This was a good episode for Abed, he also got a lot of mileage co-hosting the TV coverage of the debate with Troy “Butt Soup” Barnes. Pierce is back and got in on the elections as well, but only to get back at another candidate, Vicki, for not lending him a pencil.

A solid episode, for sure.

Modern Family – “Regrets Only”

I’m sorry I missed most of the shows last week, I was busy and no one else on the blog has any opinion about television at all. As you’ll remember, last week was the episode with the princess party, which, at the very least, gave Cam and Mitchell something to do, even if it was the same boring bitchy couple stuff they’ve been saddled with lately. This week, Modern Family continued to insist that married couples arguing is funny by making Claire pissed off at Phil and Phil not understanding why.

I don’t even really want to recap this one. Phil provided Claire with plenty of things to get angry about, and he spends much of the episode trying to figure out which one it was. He spends the day with Gloria, while Claire goes off with Jay. Eventually they figure out that the issue was that Phil didn’t listen to Claire’s advice about eating salad. Phil proves that he does take her advice all the time and we’re done. How many Claire stories have been about her freaking out about something this season? I feel like that’s all she does these days.

This all gets in the way of two much more interesting stories. Cam is concerned that Mitchell doesn’t pay him enough attention, which comes to fruition when Mitchell doesn’t realize he forgot to mail out invitations to a party until the day of the event. Mitchell freaking out and saving the day is all right, but what I really enjoyed was Cam and Luke organizing party. Any time we have a grown man and a child communicating with headset while only a few feet from each other is a good time.

Finally, Haley is faking a job to get her parents to help her buy a car. Alex is the only one to figure this out, and instead of just telling someone, she tries to expose her sister by taking the family to the restaurant where she supposedly works. Of course her devious plans are thwarted. This story could have been fleshed out into something funny, but it’s only given enough time for us to know that it happened. Do better Modern Family! Your first season was so good.

How I Met Your Mother – “Garbage Island”

How I Met Your Mother kept pushing forward all the plots it’s been hinting at this week, which I appreciate since the show is usually somewhat stagnant. Marshall, still grieving the loss of his father, is having trouble getting motivated about work. He has realized that when Lily and he have a child, it would be extremely difficult to change careers, and facing a life sentence at GNB is something Marshall wants to avoid. They’ve been hinting at his change in employment since that episode in the museum, so it was nice to see the show start paying off on that already.

Meanwhile, Ted has been enlisted by Zoey to retrieve some of her stuff from the Captain. This character reappearing is something I hoped for, but doubted we would get. So I was overjoyed that they gave the Captain his due this week, showing his side of the divorce. While Ted felt he had saved Zoey from a loveless marriage, the Captain tells a different story. From his point of view, his loving wife was stolen away by a mustachioed villain, an act that maritime law demands physical retribution for. Ted and the Captain’s interactions were fantastic and full of laughs. I hope they can keep bringing him back.

Also, Barney is gearing up for a relationship with Nora, despite his own instincts. Fortunately, he has Robin to encourage him. I’m getting a little tired of Robin being relegated purely to the voice of wisdom on the show, it’s been a while since she actually had a story of her own. Anyway, Barney eventually gives in and calls Nora, so that’s going somewhere, I guess.

But the most important part of the episode was how it was framed. Ted is Hong Kong in the future, a married man with a bad hairdo, and he runs into Wendy the waitress. It turns out hatred for Marshall led to Wendy meeting her husband. More importantly, Ted hinted pretty strongly that his breakup with Zoey occurred at the same wedding we saw in the first episode of the season, the one where we supposedly finally meet Mother. We still don’t know whose wedding it is, but it definitely is starting to seem like we’ll be there this year.

How I Met Your Mother – “Desperation Day”

I like that How I Met Your Mother is spending a fair amount of time on Marshall and his loss. It would be easy for a sitcom to make it a two-parter and move on, but as “Desperation Day” proves, he’s going through a lot more than grieving. In the season where Marshall and Lily planned on having a child, Marshall is starting to understand what it really means to be an adult and a father. That’s pretty cool.

However, why is Ted freaking out about Zoey all the sudden? He used to be all about relationships that moved quickly. I guess he just really likes her? Anyway, his freakout brought him back to Minnesota, something I appreciated because Ted and Marshall acting like big kids is funny. They play video games, wear dirty clothes, and flat out refuse switching to orange juice when they run out of Sunny D. That’s good stuff.

What were the rest of the characters up to? Well, Lily was so lonely she turned her body pillow into a companion, Marshpillow. This lead to some easy jokes, but they still landed, so props to Alyson Hannigan. Robin once again has nothing to do except mock the others and then provide fodder for them. This time Barney is in Predator mode, so Robin brings her friends for him to mock and then later hook up with at the long-awaited lazer tag tournament.

How I Met Your Mother is kind of just coasting right now, but so are most shows around the Valentine’s Day holiday. At least we’ve got some quality emotional character development for Marshall. It’s been a good season so far and it shows no signs of changing any time soon.