Parts of Rec: "Swing Vote"


Left to right: Rob Lowe and Jon Glaser
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 21
"Swing Vote"

Amy Poehler
"You drive me nuts with your rigid code of honor."
-Leslie (Amy Poehler)

The episode begins with Ron (Nick Offerman) announcing that he is going to apply a bill to defund certain government programs as well as a putt putt course. Leslie (Amy Poehler) is upset by this and demands that she try to persuade people to see her way. She convinces Jamm (Jon Glaser) to join her at the course with Chris (Rob Lowe), where they play a round together in hopes of convincing him to not pass the bill. Meanwhile, Tom (Aziz Ansari) is at a club and has to face the fact that Mona Lisa (Jenny Slate) is too obnoxious for him and wants Ann (Rashida Jones) to break up with her for him. Also, Andy (Chris Pratt) notices that his band Mouserat is playing, which annoys him because he feels like they kicked him out of the band. He decides to write a swan song to depart with. Meanwhile, Leslie decides that the only way to get the course back is he plays Ron a round of putt putt while Jamm gets snow cones from a vendor (Esther Povitsky). Ron essentially wins and causes Leslie to try and fight for him to change him mind, only to have it not happen. Ann eventually convinces Mona Lisa that Tom is broke, but that only leads to the two of them having sex. After Andy's swan song, the band admits that they just want him to show up to rehearsals. He is reinstated in the band, Tom is possibly back with Mona Lisa, and Leslie writes a bill that will hopefully pass to get the putt putt course back open.


Rating: 3 out of 5

Rob Lowe
MVP: Andy
(I apologize. I couldn't find a picture of him in this episode to post)
In what felt like a lackluster episode, Andy I felt had the best moments in the episode. His desire to quit music and be over with Mouserat was some of the more passionate, streamlined story lines that has been given to him this season. When he is asking for a computer fan, the simple reply to Ben's (Adam Scott) question of why he needs a computer fan, may have been simple, but was perfectly blunt in execution. Andy's song was actually pretty good and while very little else happened worth noting, he was definitely one of the funnier aspects of the episode.

Left to right: Poehler, Lowe, Glaser, and Nick Offerman
Best scene: It would probably have to be the swan song performance. As I stated before, there wasn't too many moments in this episode that stood out. True, Jamm was kind of sympathetic and I liked seeing Esther Povitsky, even if it was in a throwaway role. However, it has been awhile since Andy has gotten onstage and just sung. It was a nice touch and while lead to an anticlimactic ending, it was one of those moments you wished happened more often on the show.

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