This is just a monumental episode and those who have seen the show in its entirety would agree that this in many ways is really the beginning of Parks and Recreation as it is known today and its the point of no return for a series that began well under the shadow of The Office. Season 2 found its stride, even if it occasionally stumbled and an actor like Louis CK brought a much needed energy and weight to the season that helped the show establish its own identity. Now, the show is at that point where it is free to go completely in its own direction and here we are. Welcome to the show, Adam Scott and Rob Lowe!
This is a magnificent episode and one where everything works really well. There's very little here that's weak by any means so the episode has a nice energy and feel to it. Even the show's most problematic character (IMO), Tom Haverford, gets a nice storyline where he's pretty much his sleazy self but with a degree of humour (his whole animal lover schtick to the one girl is amusing as is him coming back for his "seed" to seemingly every woman in the bar later) but also thus far an infrequently seen humanity to the character when he meets bartender Lucy.
The April/Andy stuff is fantastic and the way episodes of April's jealousy and concern over Andy's potentially still existent feelings for Ann boil over here is deserved and organic development of that relationship. The same goes the other way with Andy, who confesses in a talking head that he likes April. The tease begins now. Also Andy using the mathematical "equation" to derive whether its appropriate for him to date April is classic Andy.
Then there's the little matter of two of the show's greatest and most important characters FINALLY being introduced at the pitch perfect time: Chris Traeger and Ben Wyatt. Immediately, they're such an interesting partnership and Rob Lowe and Adam Scott have such pitch perfect yet contrasting energies for their characters and good god, does the show immediately feel ever more alive. Where some of season two can suffer by having essentially two "straight men" in Mark and Ann, we now get two more absurdist figures arriving into the show.
Perhaps my favourite scene in this whole episode of which there are numerous is the bar scene with Ben and Leslie. It's superbly written, the chemistry between Poehler and Scott is so on point and commands a sense of attention and the way we see a friendship about to grow out of that scene is amazing. Chris so often makes Ben a villain, unintentionally, by the optimist vs. realist angle between the two but the whole Ice Town reveal is perfect and what Ben says to Leslie, that you need to be willing to make the hard decisions that could make yourself unpopular among your people to succeed at the game of politics is so on point.
Chris immediately makes an impression and Rob Lowe has such an amazing energy about him but he'll get his moments to shine a little later on. I do absolutely love the death hazard vitamin pill that Chris takes which requires Ben's presence.
Parks and Recreation will never be the same again...
This is when the show starts to actually get good. Everything before now is just ok at best. Ben and Chris are integral to the show, and Mark needs to get the hell out of here.
Ben Schwartz's mannerisms and whatnot during the conversation between Jean-Ralphio and Andy are so incredibly similar to his appearances on Jake & Amir. The "that's a good name" line is used almost verbatim. Love it.
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParentSpoilers2017-07-24T22:48:14Z
I rarely do this, but there are so many things big and small that play into the show’s longterm trajectory that I’m going to offer this proviso: DO NOT READ THIS REVIEW IF YOU HAVE NOT SEEN ALL OF PARKS AND REC. IT CONTAINS MAJOR SPOILERS FOR THE ENTIRE RUN OF THE SERIES AND YOU’LL DO YOURSELF A DISSERVICE BY SPOILING YOURSELF
Alright, with that out of the way, let’s talk about this one. What’s striking in retrospect is how “The Master Plan” plants the seeds for three of the show’s biggest relationships, and progresses a fourth considerably.
The biggest one of those is obviously Leslie and Ben. It’s so interesting to see where the two of them start with the knowledge of where they end up. I love that Leslie is instantly combative with him, so defensive of her department and the threat of budget cuts that she yells at him not once, not twice, but thrice. And I love Ben’s early characterization, as a non-nonsense but decent guy with Ice Town looming in his background and motivating him to show that he’s responsible. It’s a nice way to show that while he and Leslie are on opposite sides of their dispute, like all great Parks and Rec pairings, deep down they want the same things and have common ground.
The episode offers a tidy, compelling introduction to him and Chris, as the hatchetman and chipper cheerleader respectively. By the same token, the episode wrings some good comedy and Ron’s excitement at the prospect of cuts and government shutdowns and Leslie’s horror at the same thing.
We also get the start of Chris and Ann. It’s only the barest of beginnings, but Ann getting really drunk after breaking up with Mark and not remembering who she made out with made for a nice little mystery in the third act. I’m not crazy about Ann saying that she broke up with Mark because they didn’t fight enough, or deciding that she should be with Andy because they did argue, but I think there’s an argument for realism in how we rationalize the end of one relationship and look at others with rose-colored glasses. Plus, her intoxicated interactions with Chris in the flashback to the Snakehole Lounge were actually pretty amusing.
We also get the start of Tom and Lucy. It’s a minor plot in the episode, but I like that the show takes a typical Tom plot -- trying to use pickup artist style tricks to get women -- and has it be a bridge to Tom seeming like a human being. While I feel like the show ultimately rushed Tom and Lucy together at the end, they have good chemistry at the end of the episode here. The way she can call him on his crap in a funny way, and Tom can admit it in a funny way, makes you intrigued by them as a pairing and starts to show a more down-to-earth side to Tom that the show would visit all too infrequently.
Last, but certainly not least, it’s a heartrending episode for Andy-April boosters. Seeing how touched and clearly excited is that Andy clearly seems interested in her, how dismayed she is to see Ann flirting with him, how sad Andy is when he thinks he picked up the wrong signals after seeing her with Jean Ralphio, and how much pathos there is in the tag when Andy plays his little “will you go out with me” song is just a rollercoaster of emotions. Their shared weirdo energy is just so great, and what’s notable is that this doesn’t feel like the episode dragging out the “will-they-won’t-they” unnecessarily, but more earning the complicated feelings and worries the two have about each other.
Again, so much that starts in this episode becomes so important to the series as a whole, and how well all of it comes off is a great sign for where the show goes in its second season finale and beyond.