7x10 The Johnny Karate Super Awesome Musical Explosion Show

[7.1/10] I love Andy Dwyer as a character. He’s boyish, goofball charms often carry the comedy of the show, and he’s even capable of stepping up to its more emotional moments as well. But a good chunk of this episode just felt too indulgent and dare I even say, implausible for me as P&R and Andy Dwyer fan.

But let’s talk about what I really liked about the episode. First and foremost, in such a lark of an ep, this one really nails the emotional moment between Andy and April. April’s growing worry that she’s dragging Andy away from what he’s meant to do peeks through long before she and Andy have their heart-to-heart. And Andy’s profession of love -- that she’s the thing that makes him happy and the one who gave him all this, and he has no doubt that they’ll find the same happiness together wherever they are -- is a great, heartfelt message.

I also really enjoyed the fake commercials. Ron Swanson’s as usual, was the best, with his “I am not a beggar” sales pitch for his construction company. The Exxon-Chipotle-Verizon juggarnaut was a fun jab at mismatched mergers. And the Paunch Burger spot perfectly captured the spirit and subtext of Hardees commercials in a lovely, Idiocracy-esque way.

But most of the main part of the episode was just a bit too much for me. There were some nice bits of recounting Andy’s strange journey to the present, and Donna and Ron’s oddly sweet rendition of “Kung Fu Fighting” was a treat, but the most part this was twenty-two minutes of unfiltered Andy Dwyer, and while I appreciated the format-bending charms they were going for (and, in principle at least, the John Cena cameo), I think it was a case of a side dish being turned into a main course and feeling like too much of a good thing.