Parts of Rec: "Sex Education"

Left to right: Nick Offerman and Aziz Ansari

Welcome to Parts of Rec, a new column that will attempt to take the weekly brilliance of NBC show Parks and Recreation and cut it into the bare essentials. After all, time is precious and sometimes you cannot read pages and pages of reviews. While it will be impossible to bottle all of the highlights, I will do my best to cover the plot, as well as memorable moments and just what makes it great in general. Make sure to look for Parts of Rec every Friday following the episode.

Season 5, Episode 4

"Sex Education"

"1-1-0-1. Must eat babies for fuel."

-April (Aubrey Plaza)

After crashing a car while texting, Tom (Aziz Ansari) is prohibited from using screens for a week. This drives him crazy and he creates an iPad out of a notepad. Ron (Nick Offerman) begins to get concerned and invites him out to the woods, where there isn't a screen and the electric company doesn't know it exists. Meanwhile, Ann (Rashida Jones) comes back dressed as a cowboy after visiting her boyfriend at a ranch. She is a little too obsessed and everyone finds it a little ridiculous. Leslie (Amy Poehler) discovers that there is a population of elderly people who need to learn about safe sex. Along with Donna (Retta), Andy (Chris Pratt), and Ann, they hold a town meeting to show how to put a condom on a banana. A group that promotes decency protests the event and causes a media spur. Meanwhile, April (Aubrey Plaza) and Ben (Adam Scott) have to deal with a new delegate  who spends the entire time in the office staring at a screen. Ron eventually gets tired of Tom's behavior and forces him to do manual labor and look at people during conversations. Leslie gets to have her meeting and convince Ann that the cowboy getup is too much. Ben and April's delegate does his job eventually. 

Rating: 4 out of 5 

Left to right: Chris Pratt, Retta, and Rashida Jones

MVP: Andy (Chris Pratt)

It is a tough call this week, as both the Tom/Ron story and the sex education seminar were both equally fascinating. However, the sex seminar won in the end on the account that it featured Chris Pratt, Retta, Rashida Jones, and Amy Poehler doing what they do best. They handled a mob of elderly people who felt they were being invasive about their sex life. Sure, these are familiar crude jokes, but they never feel too crass for Parks and Recreation. Andy wins mostly because he's been a trooper for the past few weeks and this time, he had the best asides of everyone. Also, it explains why there are no more bananas.

Left to right: Amy Poehler and Jones

Best Scene: Tough call, but that sex seminar scene had a lot of great moments. It just featured the gang throwing out funny lines left and right. Somehow, I probably will give the award to the introduction of Ann in this episode, if just because of that outfit. Her presence embodies the great awkwardness and out of the loop that Ann can be. It also helps that this is followed by a boardroom scene involving discussion of sex questions that elderly people asked. The first five minutes post-credits was just really tight and brilliant.

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