Parks and Recreation: 2017 (7x01)

It looks like for the first few weeks, Parks and Recreation is going to be running two episodes back to back. I'm still going to review them separately, though, because these are not two-part episodes. Okay! Let's get started.

It's three years later, and things are very different. Leslie is the Regional Parks Director, Ben is City Manager. A lot of the characters have moved on - Ron now owns a construction company, Donna runs a real estate firm and is engaged, and Tom owns multiple restaurants. April and Andy are still working for Leslie, but Andy now has his own TV show based on his "Johnny Karate" character.

It looks like Leslie and Ron are no longer close, due to some incident referred to as "Morning Star." We so far have no idea what that's about, but in any case, Ron is working closely with Gryzzl, a tech company. Gryzzl and the Parks Department are the two main contenders looking to buy a parcel of land from the Newport family. Gryzzl can offer all sorts of money, and the Parks Department can't. Leslie tries to come up with money, but in the end she offers to name the new national park "Newport Park," and tries to get the Newports to consider donating the land. It looks like this fight with Gryzzl will be one of the main tensions of the season.

Meanwhile, Ben is being honored as "Man of the Year" for all his work as City Manager. Tom gives his introduction speech, but he makes it all about himself and his own success in business. Ben is mad, but later Tom reads him the speech he was going to read, which talks about what an amazing friend Ben is. The two hug it out.

April realizes that she and Andy are a boring, normal couple now, and she freaks out. They attempt to do crazy and spontaneous stuff, but they can't seem to stop being responsible. Then, they see a creepy house that used to be an asylum, and is supposed to be haunted. It's for sale. Andy declares that they should buy it, and April is overjoyed.

So... Do I have complaints? I think there are one or two things that are a bit irksome. They took a big risk skipping ahead three years, and for the most part it's working really well. There were, however, a few times with the dialogue got a little silly when they were trying to bridge the gap. Obviously, the audience needs some explanations, but it felt awkward to have the characters pointing out so clearly how long it had been and what their current relationships were to one another. A little more smoothing out of the script probably could have fixed this. It's a minor complaint.

Also, I thought Tom and Ben's plot line was a little hokey. It all went by so fast - Tom was a jerk, and then he was apologizing, even though he didn't really have a good excuse, and then they were hugging and crying. I guess I just didn't see the point of including this subplot at all. What would have been taken away if they had skipped it all together?

Mostly, however, this whole episode was really fun! I love the idea of coming in on this conflict between Leslie and Ron with no background information. How do you take a strong (albeit unconventional) friendship like theirs and twist it around so badly? Their journey back to friendship will undoubtedly be one of the running threads of the season. I can't wait to find out what "Morning Star" refers to!

I loved April and Andy's little subplot. I can imagine a lot of comedic possibilities coming out of the two of them living in a haunted asylum! Imagine how horrified Ben would be if he could see. It's a bit of a shock to see Chris Pratt on the small screen, after his mega-success in Guardians of the Galaxy. It was almost hard for me to see him as dorky pudgy Andy Dwyer again, but I liked his performance nonetheless.

This plot line about the new park is really great. It pits Leslie up against a new foe, but also maintains the hilariously amoral characters of the Newport family. I'm excited to see her tackle this challenge. She's Leslie, so I'm sure she'll succeed.

As we move forward in the show, I hope Leslie's three children play some sort of a role. I'd love to see Leslie and Ben as parents!

7.5/10