Parks and Recreation – Ron’s birthday

“I don’t like loud noises and people making a fuss. And I especially don’t like people celebrating because they know a piece of private information about me. Plus, the whole thing is a scam. Birthdays were invented by Hallmark to sell cards.” – Ron Swanson’s birthday philosophy

Man. Ron Swanson and Bobby Cobb are both having rough weeks: Bobby was driven mad on Cougar Town by not knowing what his punishment was going to be, while Ron was a wreck trying to figure out what fresh neon bouncy-house hell Leslie was cooking up for his birthday.

Leslie was in rare form during this episode – kicking ass and taking names wherever she went. First it was defeating evil Parker Posey when her snotty town, Eagleton erected a fence that kept Pawnee’s kids playing in broken lightbulbs and then it was planning the best birthday party ever. All of that is typical in the line of duty for Leslie, but to fit all of that around a stint in jail goes above and beyond even her impressive skills.

I loved the fight scene because it was the realization of something all of us want to do from time to time: punch an annoying person in the face. Sometimes it’s your kids, but in this case, it was Leslie’s former best friend. They did a pretty good job getting a body double for the pregnant Amy Poehler. I like to think it was just Aziz Ansari in a pantsuit and blond wig.

The big Pawnee/Eagleton debate was really reminiscent of the Springfield/Shelbyville rivalry on The Simpsons. Parks and Rec is really good at balancing very real human emotions with ridiculous characters and situations. Of course public meeting gift bags don’t include iPod Touches and the jails don’t serve herbal tea and scones. But just because these are completely silly, doesn’t mean that we can’t take everything that happens on Parks and Rec seriously, and that’s incredibly difficult to pull off in a comedy.

Speaking of difficult to pull off, Leslie pulled off the best surprise party in the world for Ron. I do appreciate how she messed with him first but ended up giving him exactly what he wanted. I don’t eat steak or enjoy war movies, but Ron’s birthday dinner (the Mulligan’s bib was a nice touch) looked heavenly. At least it’s certainly better than getting your face painted like a fairy tiger, which sounds absolutely dreadful.

My favorite scene in the entire episode though; the one that made me actually yelp and laugh hysterically was the kiss between Chris and Ron. First Leslie and Tom and now Ben and Chris – this show is becoming the master of inappropriate lip-locks. If it happens one more time, a montage might be in order.

Clacked by Kona Gallagher
on May 05, 2011 @ 22:01 EST5EDT