There’s nothing we can’t do, if we work hard, never sleep, and shirk all other responsibilities
Wow, suddenly I’m really excited about Leslie’s campaign, and I want her to win this thing big time! That’s weird. I never wanted to see her lose, and it’s not that I was opposed to her winning, but I’ve been having trouble picturing her truly enjoying being on City Council: balancing the needs of all city services, not just the ones she feels strongly about, being fiscally responsible within a restrictive budget, making decisions in meetings but then relying on other people to carry them out. It’s easily something she could dream about as a young girl when she didn’t really understand what the different roles in government were, but as an adult reconsider whether that’s really what she wants. And since the show is called Parks and Recreation, I thought maybe, instead of moving so far beyond the premise of the show or having their beloved main character lose, the writers might take her on a different journey of figuring that out. Public service versus public office. It’s even possible she has greater power to accomplish what she wants where she’s at. On the council, she wouldn’t be able to double the size of the parks budget, but as the kind of city employee she’s been, she’s probable able to pretty much double what her department does simply by working as hard as she does. What would parks be without Leslie? (Even though in my dream scenario she gets promoted to parks director. Girl deserves some kind of promotion!)
I’m not sure I’ve changed my mind about any of that exactly, but a few things happened in Citizen Knope. Seeing Leslie’s campaign advisers give up on her, how upset Leslie was over that, and then the emotional whammy of all of her friends rallying around her-well, I’m not a robot! Of course I’m rooting for the Dillon Panthers. I mean, Leslie Knope. “Clear eyes, full hearts, can’t lose!” (I am a huge sucker for a good underdog story, anything about people not giving up, banding together, fighting back, winning against all odds. I became a hockey fan while rooting for the Minnesota Wild during the 2002-03 season. Nobody here will know what that means. Basically it’s the story of a young expansion hockey team made up of a bunch of hardworking nobodies who fell in love with their boss, started polling at 1 percent, overcame 3-1 playoff series deficits against much better teams twice, and made it to the Western Conference finals of a local city council election. Er, wait. I might have gotten some of those details mixed up.)
Anyway. About those advisers who gave up on Leslie. Who were they? Why were they involved in the first place? I thought that city council races, except in maybe major cities, were not partisan. But if they weren’t from a political party, I never could figure out who they were, and now we’ll never know. Leslie didn’t appear to be paying them. People don’t just work for free. What was their angle? It always seemed strange to me that they existed at all, but I don’t know enough about behind-the-scenes politics to say for sure whether city council elections in small cities would be run by actual political operatives. It would just surprise me. And I don’t even mind if a sitcom wants to take some liberties with reality where it’s convenient-Pawnee can have its own tabloid, and Tom and J-R can throw their End of the World party for the bargain price of ten grand, and Ann can be hired by her best friend, her love interest, and her ex-boyfriend. But a major plot point hinged on the implication that Leslie needed these people helping her. Otherwise, losing them wouldn’t seem like that big of a deal. The writers wanted us to believe that without political advisers, she was going to have drop out. And I just had trouble buying that.
I have all sorts of questions about how this went down. This episode starts toward the beginning of the suspension, so not much time has passed since the ethics hearing. Apparently the news has started to get out about Leslie’s scandal. We don’t know who was covering it, or how it was being covered. Leslie first met with her political advisers full of ideas on how to combat the bad press she was presumably getting, by going on Pawnee Today, etc, but Barnes and Elizabeth shot that down. It seems that Leslie didn’t even get a chance to tell her side of the story, because they told her to stay out of the spotlight. Go home, relax, let everyone slander you, and we’ll do some polling based on the unfair version of the story that is currently out there. Then we’ll let you know how we’re going to proceed. You can just imagine what the Pawnee media was doing with the sex scandal angle, and Leslie could probably have made some progress spinning it if she hadn’t been told not to bother trying. It wouldn’t have even been spin-just telling it like it happened: that they worked together, that they both loved their work, that they fell for each other while working for Pawnee. They weren’t married to other people or scamming the city. They made a mistake, and they paid the consequences for it, and if people like Dexhart can stay in office, the people of Pawnee can obviously learn to accept imperfection in their elected officials.
I’m dying to know details of that poll. I swear, I am a rational person who understands this is a sitcom, but part of me wants to dig out my old PLS 209: Research Methods in the Social Sciences textbook, put it next to Barnes’s fictional polling methodology, and rip it to shreds, just because I feel so defensive on Leslie’s behalf. How was the question phrased? That’s so important. “Leslie Knope, a candidate you’ve probably never heard of, was involved in a sex scandal with her boss. Would you vote for her?” Of course 99 percent of people polled said no! I’m sure it wasn’t that bad, but you gotta assume that most people being polled either haven’t heard of her at this point, because the election is still six months away and most people don’t pay that much attention to the names of their local bureaucrats (not even the PCP women knew who Leslie was), or that if they have heard of her, their major association with her name is currently “sex scandal.” Leslie has not had her chance to tell her side of the story. And honestly, if they’re actually doing this much polling for a local election that’s six months away, most people’s response was probably, I’m annoyed that you’ve called me three times, so I’m going to say no to whatever you’re asking and hang up now.
It makes sense that Barnes and Elizabeth would back out now, given how they asked her upfront if there was anything in her life that could be problematic. I can’t reasonably fault them for how they’ve handled this. I actually expected them to drop her outright, so I guess at least they took the time to do some research before walking away. Presumably, whoever they are, they have limited time and resources, so they have to devote those to candidates they think have the best chance. I just hated to see how that news affected Leslie, to find out that they didn’t think she could win, and to hear that 99 percent of Pawnee residents didn’t want her at that moment. You could see how she was hurting even as she was trying to stay positive. That one deleted scene, where Barnes and Elizabeth flat-out told her they didn’t think she could do it-ouch! They have obviously not met Leslie Knope, or been paying enough attention.
I actually really loved this episode. Can you tell? Ha. I put off writing the review a bit because I knew I wasn’t being rational and I was at risk of getting all ranty; apparently I’m still not quite past that. Oh well. Weird rantiness aside, I do admire the storytelling. It perfectly sets up the back half of the season to be the story of a scrappy underdog and her devoted ragtag team overcoming adversity. The political advisers giving up on her was necessary to the emotional ending, where the parks department banded together to whoop Leslie’s awesome Christmas-gift-giving ass. Now we get to see the kind of grass-roots campaign that will feel more Leslie’s style, and that will be much more satisfying to watch. And the one percent number, while painful, will make it all the more awesome to see her fight and win back the support of voters, whether she’s ultimately successful or not.
In other news … was anyone else in this episode? Oh yeah. I absolutely loved our first glimpses of Leslie and Ben in a committed relationship. They are newly reunited and immediately enduring an extremely stressful time in which any number of things could go wrong between them … but aren’t. There’s no evidence of bitterness or resentment or regret. Obviously they’re both unhappy with the career setbacks they’re enduring, but I didn’t get the sense at all that either one of them thought they made the wrong choice. They were just being so gentle and supportive and wonderful to each other, and not in an unbelievable way either.
I especially appreciated how supportive Leslie was here. We’ve seen her be steamroller Leslie, and certainly she had her crazy moments dealing with her suspension, but you can see how much she cares about Ben and how good she is for him. When he won’t stop repeating the words “resigned in disgrace,” she shuts that down, but gently. Ben can be a little negative sometimes, and she’s good at pulling him out of that without judging him for it. We’ve seen her do it before-Harvest Festival, The Bubble, maybe even Media Blitz off-screen. And we’ve seen Ben do it for Leslie at other times, when she’s her own version of crazy. It’s like they have their own system of checks and balances-they just balance each other out really well.
But what really got me was the way she was treating his job search. She wasn’t judgmental of the kinds of jobs he was applying for and didn’t suggest he do anything else until it was clear that Ben wasn’t happy with the opportunities he was finding. I really like that moment where Ben said he didn’t really like the carpet. He was trying so hard to be okay with it, and he was having trouble speaking up about the fact that he really wasn’t okay with it, probably because of the situation with why he was job searching to begin with, but Leslie could tell what was going on. She was the one to suggest he take more time, even though she herself couldn’t stand not being busy. And then he was the one who suggested she could still accomplish something outside of her job. They are both looking out for each other. And being really cute while they do it.
I’m not sure I’ve changed my mind about any of that exactly, but a few things happened in Citizen Knope. Seeing Leslie’s campaign advisers give up on her, how upset Leslie was over that, and then the emotional whammy of all of her friends rallying around her-well, I’m not a robot! Of course I’m rooting for the Dillon Panthers. I mean, Leslie Knope. “Clear eyes, full hearts, can’t lose!” (I am a huge sucker for a good underdog story, anything about people not giving up, banding together, fighting back, winning against all odds. I became a hockey fan while rooting for the Minnesota Wild during the 2002-03 season. Nobody here will know what that means. Basically it’s the story of a young expansion hockey team made up of a bunch of hardworking nobodies who fell in love with their boss, started polling at 1 percent, overcame 3-1 playoff series deficits against much better teams twice, and made it to the Western Conference finals of a local city council election. Er, wait. I might have gotten some of those details mixed up.)
Anyway. About those advisers who gave up on Leslie. Who were they? Why were they involved in the first place? I thought that city council races, except in maybe major cities, were not partisan. But if they weren’t from a political party, I never could figure out who they were, and now we’ll never know. Leslie didn’t appear to be paying them. People don’t just work for free. What was their angle? It always seemed strange to me that they existed at all, but I don’t know enough about behind-the-scenes politics to say for sure whether city council elections in small cities would be run by actual political operatives. It would just surprise me. And I don’t even mind if a sitcom wants to take some liberties with reality where it’s convenient-Pawnee can have its own tabloid, and Tom and J-R can throw their End of the World party for the bargain price of ten grand, and Ann can be hired by her best friend, her love interest, and her ex-boyfriend. But a major plot point hinged on the implication that Leslie needed these people helping her. Otherwise, losing them wouldn’t seem like that big of a deal. The writers wanted us to believe that without political advisers, she was going to have drop out. And I just had trouble buying that.
I have all sorts of questions about how this went down. This episode starts toward the beginning of the suspension, so not much time has passed since the ethics hearing. Apparently the news has started to get out about Leslie’s scandal. We don’t know who was covering it, or how it was being covered. Leslie first met with her political advisers full of ideas on how to combat the bad press she was presumably getting, by going on Pawnee Today, etc, but Barnes and Elizabeth shot that down. It seems that Leslie didn’t even get a chance to tell her side of the story, because they told her to stay out of the spotlight. Go home, relax, let everyone slander you, and we’ll do some polling based on the unfair version of the story that is currently out there. Then we’ll let you know how we’re going to proceed. You can just imagine what the Pawnee media was doing with the sex scandal angle, and Leslie could probably have made some progress spinning it if she hadn’t been told not to bother trying. It wouldn’t have even been spin-just telling it like it happened: that they worked together, that they both loved their work, that they fell for each other while working for Pawnee. They weren’t married to other people or scamming the city. They made a mistake, and they paid the consequences for it, and if people like Dexhart can stay in office, the people of Pawnee can obviously learn to accept imperfection in their elected officials.
I’m dying to know details of that poll. I swear, I am a rational person who understands this is a sitcom, but part of me wants to dig out my old PLS 209: Research Methods in the Social Sciences textbook, put it next to Barnes’s fictional polling methodology, and rip it to shreds, just because I feel so defensive on Leslie’s behalf. How was the question phrased? That’s so important. “Leslie Knope, a candidate you’ve probably never heard of, was involved in a sex scandal with her boss. Would you vote for her?” Of course 99 percent of people polled said no! I’m sure it wasn’t that bad, but you gotta assume that most people being polled either haven’t heard of her at this point, because the election is still six months away and most people don’t pay that much attention to the names of their local bureaucrats (not even the PCP women knew who Leslie was), or that if they have heard of her, their major association with her name is currently “sex scandal.” Leslie has not had her chance to tell her side of the story. And honestly, if they’re actually doing this much polling for a local election that’s six months away, most people’s response was probably, I’m annoyed that you’ve called me three times, so I’m going to say no to whatever you’re asking and hang up now.
It makes sense that Barnes and Elizabeth would back out now, given how they asked her upfront if there was anything in her life that could be problematic. I can’t reasonably fault them for how they’ve handled this. I actually expected them to drop her outright, so I guess at least they took the time to do some research before walking away. Presumably, whoever they are, they have limited time and resources, so they have to devote those to candidates they think have the best chance. I just hated to see how that news affected Leslie, to find out that they didn’t think she could win, and to hear that 99 percent of Pawnee residents didn’t want her at that moment. You could see how she was hurting even as she was trying to stay positive. That one deleted scene, where Barnes and Elizabeth flat-out told her they didn’t think she could do it-ouch! They have obviously not met Leslie Knope, or been paying enough attention.
I actually really loved this episode. Can you tell? Ha. I put off writing the review a bit because I knew I wasn’t being rational and I was at risk of getting all ranty; apparently I’m still not quite past that. Oh well. Weird rantiness aside, I do admire the storytelling. It perfectly sets up the back half of the season to be the story of a scrappy underdog and her devoted ragtag team overcoming adversity. The political advisers giving up on her was necessary to the emotional ending, where the parks department banded together to whoop Leslie’s awesome Christmas-gift-giving ass. Now we get to see the kind of grass-roots campaign that will feel more Leslie’s style, and that will be much more satisfying to watch. And the one percent number, while painful, will make it all the more awesome to see her fight and win back the support of voters, whether she’s ultimately successful or not.
In other news … was anyone else in this episode? Oh yeah. I absolutely loved our first glimpses of Leslie and Ben in a committed relationship. They are newly reunited and immediately enduring an extremely stressful time in which any number of things could go wrong between them … but aren’t. There’s no evidence of bitterness or resentment or regret. Obviously they’re both unhappy with the career setbacks they’re enduring, but I didn’t get the sense at all that either one of them thought they made the wrong choice. They were just being so gentle and supportive and wonderful to each other, and not in an unbelievable way either.
I especially appreciated how supportive Leslie was here. We’ve seen her be steamroller Leslie, and certainly she had her crazy moments dealing with her suspension, but you can see how much she cares about Ben and how good she is for him. When he won’t stop repeating the words “resigned in disgrace,” she shuts that down, but gently. Ben can be a little negative sometimes, and she’s good at pulling him out of that without judging him for it. We’ve seen her do it before-Harvest Festival, The Bubble, maybe even Media Blitz off-screen. And we’ve seen Ben do it for Leslie at other times, when she’s her own version of crazy. It’s like they have their own system of checks and balances-they just balance each other out really well.
But what really got me was the way she was treating his job search. She wasn’t judgmental of the kinds of jobs he was applying for and didn’t suggest he do anything else until it was clear that Ben wasn’t happy with the opportunities he was finding. I really like that moment where Ben said he didn’t really like the carpet. He was trying so hard to be okay with it, and he was having trouble speaking up about the fact that he really wasn’t okay with it, probably because of the situation with why he was job searching to begin with, but Leslie could tell what was going on. She was the one to suggest he take more time, even though she herself couldn’t stand not being busy. And then he was the one who suggested she could still accomplish something outside of her job. They are both looking out for each other. And being really cute while they do it.
- Clearly Ben really doesn’t want to work in the private sector. He doesn’t just like working with numbers; he wants what he’s doing to be meaningful. So I hope that beyond the specific plans they have for his immediate future, they find a way to get him back into government somehow.
- Some people have wondered why Ben didn’t go with Leslie into the party. It seems like a given that he would be more than willing to help out with Leslie’s campaign. But since he’s the reason her campaign fell apart to begin with, I could see how his involvement might require more of a private conversation. It would be a little presumptuous of him to offer to run it, putting her on the spot in front of everyone. And he might not even have the confidence to think that he’d be an asset to her campaign, given his sketchy political past. But he’s probably waiting at home to talk to her about it.
- ”See you at home later” … I just love that little detail so much, that it’s just assumed that they go home to each other at the end of the day now, whichever home that is. They probably had some prior plan so they didn’t need to specify which home.
- How about that romantic dinner Ben made for Leslie? Table cloth, candles, what looked like a box of dessert, a non-calzone entrée for her. So sweet. And then when she ran out in the middle of it, he didn’t even look put out. And Leslie calls him honey! It was a tiny bit ironic in The Trial, but just something she calls him here, and I’m a huge supporter of that.
- "Any damn thing you want."
- I don’t usually write up all the awesome details from week to week, because clearly there are too many of them, and that is what tumblr is for, right? But there are many, and here is a short noninclusive list, in the spirit of the season: salgar, marshmallow Ron Swanson, “Don’t eat my pickles Ann,” April killed the Black Eyed Peas, socks for Jerry, Elizabeth is not Jewish but she is gay, JEAN-RALPHIO TACKLING BEN, return of the boring accountant dude, calcu-later isn’t funny except for in how unfunny it is and that makes it hilarious, “I love me a calzone,” April and Andy lurking for table scraps, Leslie’s spaghetti tastes like Fruit Loops, poor Eddie, Leslie looks so cute in blue jeans, “Her daughter is an idiot,” Ron trying to make a gingerbread house, “Ann specifically” … well, anyway, you guys all saw the episode. You know what I’m talking about.
- Calc … u … later … So sorry. I couldn’t resist.