Parks and Recreation: Prom (6x18)

Cute episode. Especially for Andy and April. It had one plot thread that was a bit eye-roll worthy, but other than that, it was pretty great!

Due to budget cuts during the merger between Pawnee and Eagleton, the senior prom at the local high school got cancelled. The Parks Department decides to throw the prom. This allows for the following little subplots:

Leslie and Ron fight over a high school girl. Leslie wants the girl to take an internship in the department over the summer, but Ron wants her to take a paying job. Things get more and more out of hand, as they each try to convince her to go their way. In the end, she says she isn't sure what she wants to do with her summer, but she appreciates both options. Leslie admits to Ron that she's nervous about leaving Pawnee, and wants to mentor young people to take after her when she's gone.

Andy is really excited about going to prom, but April is decidedly not. Andy convinces April to go, and at first she has a terrible time. She sees how happy Andy is, and it reminds her of what Andy must have been like in high school - extremely popular and normal. Meanwhile, she was a weird loner. She knows that if they went to the same high school at the same time, they probably never would have ended up together. Andy tells her that all that matters is that they did find each other. April rigs the voting for Homecoming King, so that Andy wins. When the school figures out that he's in his thirties, he and April get kicked out of the prom! April ends up having a good time after all.

Ben and Tom are both put in charge of the music. Tom keeps telling Ben that all of his music options are stupid, but when the dance actually happens, Tom's music isn't a hit. The kids haven't even heard of the stuff he's playing. Ben plays his selections, and the kids all love it. Tom bemoans the fact that he doesn't know what's cool anymore, but Ben tells him that it's normal for a grown adult to not be in touch with what teenagers like.

So. Two out of three of these plots were great. Ben and Tom's portion was just sort of stupid. The only part I sort of liked was when Ben told Tom that he didn't have to know what high schoolers liked to be "cool," and reminded Tom of all his recent business successes. Other than that, there were just a lot of stupid jokes that didn't really amount to any punch line. I want Ben to have something more substantial soon.

Leslie and Ron's plot was great. Even in a smaller, contained story about a high school prom, we are still focusing on Leslie's character development. I am so happy about this, because I feel like it would have been a very easy thing to mess up. Ron acting as Leslie's mentor and guide has always been one of the sweetest things about this show for me. It was used to great effect here.

The plot of the night, however, definitely goes to April and Andy. Their relationship seems really juvenile, and it often seems like it could never actually be viable. This episode managed to maintain the goofiness of their relationship while showing a solid foundation underneath. When April was upset at the dance, she came clean to Andy about what was bothering her, and he listened to her concerns and adjusted his behavior accordingly. Also, they're just so freakin' cute together I can't stand it.

In sitcoms that have larger ensemble casts, I love the episodes that have a unifying event or theme that ties together the threads. This episode of Parks and Recreation had that, in the form of the prom. It also had two really solid and heartwarming plot threads that focused on strong, meaningful relationships between the characters. And even though I thought Tom and Ben's plot was quite weak, it didn't ruin a great episode for me.

8/10