Parks and Recreation
Episode 6: Ben's
Parents
By: Carlos Uribe
Parks
and Recreation is a show about Pawnee's parks and recreation
department and a town councilwoman named Leslie Knope.
Spoilers
Ahoy!
Leslie
and Ben start the episode by telling everyone that they're getting
married. Leslie is so excited that she literally yellled off rooftops
and got some noise complaints. If there is a single doubt in anyone's
mind that she wants to get married to Ben then her sheer glee about
the proposal should easily dispel it. They're going to have an
engagement party and Leslie is excited. Ben isn't too happy because
his parents are coming. They have been divorced for thirty years and
they simply hate each other's guts. Ben makes the point multiple
times that they simply can't be in the same room together. He goes as
far as to pay a cab to wait outside his home so that Leslie and him
can escape at any time. The series easily built up the dispute
between Ben's parents to the point where one could easily be
disappointed. I can safely say that the hype that the episode was
building didn't do what actually came any justice. It was far worse
than Ben was warning us about. Ben's Parents is simply a hilarious
episode that shows us just how much Leslie and Ben love each other
and how they are willing to always stand with each other even if it's
against Ben's parents.
Who
are Ben's parents? There's the mother. She's an educator and she's
remarkably similar to Leslie's own mother. That doesn't mean they're
the same but the two are able to get along fine in the beginning.
There's the father. He's a tough, harsh man who is able to make the
word “twizzler” sound threatening. When he says he's a red vine
family, you don't want to mess with him. There's his girlfriend,
Ulani, who feels awkward since she wasn't invited. She faces a lot of
hostility from Ben's mother and she barely puts up with it. Leslie
tries to bring these three people together by using a quilt that she
made. It's a quilt that is supposed to represent the new family but
Ulani is upset when she isn't included. Leslie adds a square just for
her but only to find that Ben's mother cutting it out later. The
situation detroiates when it's revealed that Ulani is pregnant. Any
semblance of civility is gone from Ben's mother, whose now refusing
to attend the wedding if Ben's father is attending. The family
trouble ruined their engagement party. It isn't until Ben realizes
that he has to stand up to his parents and take charge that he's able
to. The only reason he can is because he has Leslie backing him up.
Ben gets his parents to agree to come to the wedding by not giving
them a choice. It's an amazing main plot that is able to highlight
the two working together while helping to provide some critical
information on just why Ben is the way he is.
There's
some real character development with Tom. He's serious about his
business idea that he wants Ron to invest in it. His initial
presentation is filled with everything that Ron would hate and it
takes April to point that out to him. Ron realizes that he can't
treat his company like a party but he needs to take it seriously. He
sets out to create a completely new business plan and he tries to get
his usual business partner to help him. Jean-Ralphio is more
interested in partying than actually putting in any work. The one
contribution that Jean-Ralphio tries to make only ends up being a
google search for Amanda Byne's side boob. Tom realizes that if he
wants his business to get the startup funds and to succeed then he
doesn't need someone whose not going to take it seriously. He fires
Jean-Ralphio. This action is enough to convince Ron that Tom is
serious about his business and Ron promises to invest in Tom's
company. Having Tom being self-aware of his problem and fixing it is
a huge character step for him. The episode is able to show this
character growth perfectly. The Tom who began the episode is a
different Tom that ended it and that made the episode so much
stronger. It was hard to take his failed business, Entertainment 720,
seriously but it has become so much easier to root for Rent-a-Swag to
actually succeed.
Tom
is growing up and Leslie and Ben are united as one. There's yet
another character who is dealing with stuff this episode and that's
Chris. Chris has been going to therapy and it's causing him to be
very emotional. When Ann gives a toast to Chris, it simply breaks him
apart because he's all alone. Ann, Chris, and April try their best to
help cheer him up. The character clearly has a lot of issues that's
hidden beneath his now-forced positivity. It's great that the
character is allowing himself to feel sad for the first time in what
is probably his life but this is merely repeating beats from previous
episodes This isn't necessarily a bad thing and the episode is able
to get quite a bit of jokes from his situation. It's just that this
plot eventually needs to have some actual development before it
becomes just Chris crying about stuff for no reason.
Not
that I have any actual fear of that happening at all. This is the
best show when it comes to knowing it's characters. They might
develop slowly over time but they have grown since the series has
first began. There is no doubt in my mind that they're taking Chris
somewhere even it's taking a few episodes to get there. This remains
my favorite comedy for a reason. Parks and Recreation delivered a
hilarious episode in Ben's Parents. The episode practically did
everything it could right. The show simply firing on all cylinders.
What is there for me to say, except that twizzlers are better than
red vines. What can I say? I come from a twizzler family.
Other Notes:
WHO
GOT THE SHRIMP?
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