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| Left to right: Aubrey Plaza, Jon Glaser, 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 17
"Partridge"
“There’s only one thing that I hate more than lying, and
that it skimmed milk. It is water with milk, which is lying.”
-Ron (Nick Offerman)
Leslie (Amy Poehler) and Ben (Adam Scott) return to Ben's hometown Partridge, where he was governor during a financially disastrous period that many considered to be the Ice Storm. Meanwhile, Ron (Nick Offerman) is being sued by Jamm (Jon Glaser) for punching him in the face. With Andy (Chris Pratt), April (Aubrey Plaza), and Tom (Aziz Ansari), they try and lie their way into the clear only for Ron to change his mind, as he doesn't like lying. Also, Ann (Rashida Jones) and Chris (Rob Lowe) are taking compatibility tests to see if they are right to have a baby together. Their results show 58%. Ben discovers that the current governor (J.K. Simmons) doesn't like him and did the whole welcome home ceremony to make fun of him. However, due to some health problems, Ben is forced into the hospital and shot full of morphine. Leslie tries to make everything all right, but the governor insists that he would never get reelected if he gave Ben an iota of respect. After coming out with the truth, Jamm thinks that he has won. However, when Tom, April, and Andy slap him with an affidavit and possibly a case of abuse towards Tom, he drops the charges. Ann and Chris consult professionals to see if they are compatible, but they're not. Their only loophole is that they promise to raise him to be a respectable person. Leslie gives Ben the key to the city, only for him to toss it into the lake.
Rating: 3.5 out of 5
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| Adam Scott |
I must admit that it came down between Ron and Ben. However, Ben gets the edge notably because he hasn't been an MVP this season as much as Ron. In this particular episode, he may be overshadowed by Leslie at times, but what gives him the lead is that he draws a lot of great jokes from being high on morphine. He plays it very subdued and therefor manages to pull off some of the more absurd moments, including when he is trying to feed a bronze statue of a bird. Most of all, he just wants the respect of his peers, which is unfortunately absent in Partridge. At very least, he somehow manages to come out of this crisis, high on morphine, but with some sense of dignity still in tact.
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| Left to right: Aziz Ansari and Nick Offerman |
Best scene: I would have to say that Ron having to deal with Jamm was a highlight of the episode for the sheer fact that we get to see his honest side shine. He doesn't want to have lies spoil his record, even though he clearly wants to punch Jamm in the face. Probably the best scene in the episode however was the first interrogation in which everyone is lying about Ron through hyperbolic lies. The most notable that clearly gets under Ron's skin is about how he is like a vegetarian. It is a great contradiction to the character and caps off great absurdity brought by Tom and Andy prior to April's compliments.
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