Parks and Recreation: Gryzzlbox (7x05)

I'm just going to get started.

Leslie and Ben despair of finding any way to beat Gryzzl. They think they've found an answer when they find out that Gryzzl has been "data mining," aka looking through their personal information. People all over Pawnee start getting personalized "Gryzzlboxes" sent to their doors with presents meant especially for them. Donna is horrified to find out what Gryzzl has been up to, so she abandons their side of the debate and joins Leslie and Ben. Ron, however, says that he doesn't care what Gryzzl gets up to, because he does not mess in the affairs of private corporations, he just builds their buildings.

Leslie and Ben try to get proof about Gryzzl's data mining, but they find out that it's actually legal - Ben signed a contract with a loophole in it that allows Gryzzl to data mine, as they provide free wifi for the town. Uh oh! Leslie holds a town meeting, and learns to her surprise that the rest of the town is on her side. They are also angry at Gryzzl for the invasion of privacy. Leslie decides to go on TV to expose Gryzzl's bad behavior. In the end, Ron joins Leslie in wanting to bring Gryzzl down, because his son gets a Gryzzlbox, and Ron is horrified to discover that they know things about his child.

Meanwhile, Tom is upset because Lucy is off visiting her boyfriend. He decides to take on a new project - namely, becoming Andy's agent. He finds out that Andy only gets $100 a week for Johnny Karate, even though he created the show, acts in it, writes all of the stuff, and pretty much just does all the work. Tom wants to renegotiate Andy's contract for him. Andy only really cares about one thing: he wants to own the rights to the Johnny Karate character. At first it looks impossible, but Tom begs and pleads and gets Andy more money, plus the rights to the character. Lucy comes back and tells Tom that she went to visit her boyfriend in order to break up with him.

Craig asks April to help welcome some new interns. One of the interns is just like April was ten years ago, and she decides to save this girl from wasting her life in Parks and Recreation, like April feels that she did. Craig is furious that April meddled and lost him one of his interns. He reminds April that even if she doesn't want to work there anymore, she's really lucky to have gotten such an amazing opportunity. April feels bad, so she recruits a bunch of new potential interns for Craig. April realizes that she enjoyed finding the new recruits and getting them to do what she wanted. Craig suggests she should add that to the list of things for the ideal job.

If I were to have any complaints about this episode, it's probably... the lack of Leslie and Ben's kids. I swear to God I'm going to freak out if I don't see them soon. Really. Where are those little cuties? I'm getting more and more annoyed.

The only other thing, really, is that I don't find the head Gryzzl dude to be particularly funny. I just think they could do so much more with his character.

There are too many funny things about this episode to even count.

Perd Hapley always cracks me up, but this was one of my favorite appearances by him. I particularly loved the fact that "not a judge" and "gavel" flashed under the screen for clarification. Very smooth. This scene also had a bad-ass Ben moment, so I'm happy about that. He really stood up for himself and made a great case for why Gryzzl was doing the wrong thing, even if they weren't breaking the law.

Actually, Ben in general was really great in this episode. I've been missing him from the A-plot for a while now, and I'm happy to see him back. He was so worried that he'd be hated again, like with Ice Town. He has tried so hard to build a good life for him and his loved ones. I was actually rather touched to see him working so hard to defend Pawnee.

The town council scene was also golden. For once, nobody was arbitrarily fighting against Leslie, or coming up with ridiculous objections to her plans. Pawnee really has changed!

The idea of Gryzzl's crazy privacy invasion is both funny and super relevant. I loved the personalized gifts that everybody was getting, and I loved the way that the Gryzzl tour tried to put a positive spin on all of this terrible behavior. Also, I love all the Gryzzl short-hand, and thought it was particularly amusing that apparently "totes" is a word that survives into 2017.

In subplot news, I really liked April's mini-me. April has always been a great character, and I liked to see her play off of... well, another version of herself, really. Craig usually isn't funny to me, but I actually saw a bit more complexity in him this week. I liked the moment when he lectured April and reminded her to be grateful. Also, his listing of good things about the world was pretty funny as well.

A success story for Andy! I'm glad he gets to keep up with Johnny Karate and also keep the rights to the character. This was a lovely little subplot. I wasn't expecting it. And hey! That was Dax Shepard playing the TV executive guy! So that was cool. Also, Tom might have a future with Lucy, after all. We'll have to see how that develops.

Okay! I think that's about all I've got. Onward to the next episode.

8/10