Leslie’s getting the gang back together on Parks and Recreation

Parks and Recreation is finally back after a ridiculously long hiatus (I’m pretty sure the baby Amy Poehler was pregnant with during filming of the new season is applying for college now). It was away for so long, in fact, that NBC gave us a brief primer on just who the hell these people are and what’s going on. I actually loved that they did this, because not having watched it since the last live episode I was a little fuzzy on exactly where we left things. Plus, I’m sure a lot of people watching NBC last night thought it was a new show, so hopefully they checked it out as well.

I loved this premiere because they did a great job of rebooting the series a little bit. The two new cast members, Adam Scott and Rob Lowe, fit right in, and the changes they’re making to the Parks department fit in really well with a new beginning for the series. Even the simple scene of Leslie rounding everyone back up in the beginning reminds us why we love these characters in the first place.

While most of the Parks department had summer jobs, Ron was simply at his house splitting wood. You could almost picture him standing there and doing that the entire summer. Well, almost the entire summer. After all, he had to take some time to put together the Ron Swanson Pyramid of Greatness.

Tom was busy being a creeper at Lady Foot Locker, Donna was selling rubber nipples, and Jerry had finally found some inner-peace … which Leslie promptly threw into the river. My only complaint is that we didn’t get to see what Leslie did over the summer. Did she just spend her days and nights being a gay hero at Bulge? Did she run a mini Parks department that she set up in the living room? What has she been doing for the past three months?

Regardless of what she’s spent her time doing over the summer, what Leslie needs to start doing pronto is getting busy with Ben. Because Adam Scott is hot. Also, I really love his character. The cynical, disgraced ex-mayor is the perfect person to have around. I’ve seen another episode that airs in a couple of weeks, and it’s all about him reacting to Leslie’s unrelenting positivity about her job, and it gives them a really interesting dynamic. I can’t wait to see how their relationship unfolds.

It’s interesting to see Andy pursuing April now. I love the two of them together, but I’m glad they’re still taking this storyline slowly. Andy’s still clueless, but it’s in a different way now. Before, he didn’t understand that April liked him; now he doesn’t understand how to win her back. I have a feeling he’ll figure it out pretty quickly though.

I was also surprised to see Chris become less of a robot. He’s a really funny character and I love Rob Lowe in the part, but the unrelenting positivity shtick with nothing behind it would have gotten old pretty quickly. Just the quick scene with Ann where he talked about his blood disorder was enough to humanize him and make him a little bit more interesting than he would have been otherwise.

What I’m not sure about is Ron and Wendy. Tom clearly isn’t taking the pairing very well, and after his basketball antics it’s pretty clear that his hot new girlfriend isn’t going to be sticking around much longer. Where is this going to go? Do you think Wendy is going to realize that Tom’s the one she should be with, or do you think she’s going to give up on the nut jobs at the Parks department all together?

Clacked by Kona Gallagher
on Jan 21, 2011 @ 11:12 EST5EDT