5x04 Sex Education

[7.2/10] I’ve talked about this before, but I think of this as the point where Parks and Rec got a little blunter. I’m 100% against abstinence-only education, but like with the Sweetums business in Ep. 2 of this season, when you make your opponent such a caricature, it takes away the force of you conquering them. Marcia and Marshall Langman have their laugh moments (Marshal’s rap in particular) but they’re straw men, and the show makes one side serious and noble and the other side cartoonishly ridiculous. That’s not really a recipe for persuasion and it undercuts the humor.

What I do like about the episode and this season is how it embraces the difficulty and complexity of governing. It’s not that Leslie was infallible, but in seasons past she had a solution for every problem no matter how challenging. Here, she’s facing situations where the public is against her, the press is against her, and that makes her job a lot harder – taking a stand means taking a hit. As sanctimonious as Ann is about this (admittedly, in taking a position I agree whole-heartedly with) I like that Leslie stands up for what she believes but that there’s a cost to it. That’s true of governance and it’s good storytelling.

But in the less grandiose stuff, my god to I love Perd. From his “Perd-verts” name for his fans, to his random aside about Pier One, to this usual redundancy, he was just a nonstop series of laughs this episode. The same goes for Andy being grossed out by all the seniors sex stuff, and the seniors themselves. (I especially liked when Leslie asked the crowd of seniors what the risks of unprotected sex were and someone yelled out “falling in love!”)

Tom and Ron’s story wore on me at first. Tom gets kind of obnoxious in his swagger business at times, and I know it’s intentional but it starts to great. Still, by the time it got to the sequence of Tom talking about the things he does on social media while Ron does outdoorsy things, and it went on and on and on, it was comically delightful as a contrast.

I don’t know that the story really earned its ending, with Tom saying he uses screens as a distraction because things in his life haven’t necessarily been going great. The problem is similar to the deal with Marcia Langman – if you make Tom so ridiculous so much of the time, it’s harder to pull back and view him as a down-to-earth human being afterward. Still, Ron wanting to help him, and telling him to go to Leslie when he feels like he needs someone to talk to about his problems because she “lives for that” is a good button to put on it.
Last, but certainly not least, I love the mini-story of Ben and April realizing that their congressional candidate is a veritable robot. They’ve developed a great dynamic this season, and their making fun of the guy, and ribbing each other, is delightful.

Plus I like the subtext of the episode – that Ben is good at what he does, but emotionally unsatisfied at putting all his effort into this candidate who’s an empty shell. It’s not as invigorating as working to support someone whom you not only love, but who gives their all into being a good legislator and works hard to make government better, as opposed to the perfect marionette for public (office) consumption.

Overall, the ham-fistedness of the A-story brings it down, and B-story with Ron and Tom takes a little while to get going and doesn’t perfectly stick the landing, but there’s still some good laughs and I appreciate it embracing the complexity.