Ron Swanson gets a makeover courtesy of two elementary school girls. He is about as pleased with this as you would expect.
Warning: Article contains spoilers.
So just how does a bill become a law in Pawnee, Indiana? As it turns out, it’s by trading a vote for a toilet, a parking spot and Invisalign. That seems about right.
The bill in question seems like a relatively modest one – Leslie wants to keep the community pool open an extra two weeks so the swim team, the Pawnee Porpoises, can practice – but, this being Pawnee, it runs into resistance from every corner. As we learn when Leslie makes a brief and mostly expository (but fun!) appearance on Joan Callamezzo’s Pawnee Today, the city council has a horrendous 3% approval rating (Who the hell is taking all these polls, anyway?) due to gridlock and infighting. That also seems about right.
The resistance comes specifically from Councilman Jam (Delocated’s Jon Glaser), a self-centered orthodontist introduced airing his junk in Leslie’s private bathroom. (Which he thinks she got just because she’s a girl.) He really, really wants that bathroom (and the office that goes with it) and refuses to support the bill until Leslie agrees to trade.
Leslie, being Leslie, is put off by his blatantly self-serving attitude and decides that she’d much rather work for the vote of a racist. (These are the kind of trade-offs one must make in Pawnee politics.) That racist is Councilman Milton, a guy who was initially elected as a Dixiecrat in 1948 on a platform of de-integrating baseball. (Also, he really likes Caesar salads.) Milton proves to be as mentally vacant and gross as you would expect of a 150-year-old racist, so Leslie is forced to make a deal with Jam and trade away her nice amenities for his vote.
All of this is very, very funny, but I think there are some problems with it as well, specifically with Jam. Glaser is hilarious in the role, but he also plays into Parks and Rec’s tendency to turn its villains into cartoons. It’s okay to portray a politician as kind of a jerk, but Jam is so aggressively antisocial it’s hard to see how he could ever win an election. To wit: in the final scene, he nearly reveals that he traded his vote for a toilet. In front of the press. After swearing at some kids. Who voted for this guy? I don’t want to sound overly critical – again, this was a very funny episode and Jam is a very funny character – but it’s a problem the writers have had more than once.
Meanwhile, Ron and Andy fix Lucy Lawless’ pothole. (This is not a euphemism. Yet.) Chris, who has started seeing a psychotherapist and seems instantly more chipper, decides that the city needs a 311 line for direct communication between citizens and their government. Predictably, everything goes awry – the phones don’t work, Jerry ends up taking a 911 call, Donna spends the whole time reading 50 Shades of Gray – and so Ron decides to take it upon himself to fix one poor woman’s problem. (With Andy’s help, of course.)
The woman in question is Diane (Lawless), a mother of two young girls and a potential match for Ron, who flirts with her in the best way he knows – explaining how to fix something. (In this case, a pothole in her driveway.) Andy spends most of his time bonding with the two girls, playing tag with them and letting them do his makeup, but notices Ron’s deeply-buried infatuation and does what he can to set the two up.
Again – this is my mantra for this episode – this subplot had some very funny moments (forcing Ron to interact with two young girls is brilliant) but has some character issues. Specifically, Diane feels like she was purposefully designed by the writers to be Ron’s dream girl. She’s self-possessed, brunette and shops at Food N Stuff – she feels more like an extension of (or at least reflection of) Ron than she does an independent human being. She doesn’t make much of an impression – the Tammys set a ridiculously high bar in terms of Ron Swanson paramours – but the writers don’t give Lawless a whole lot to do, either. (Most of the comedy comes from the little girls, not from Diane.) Still, she and Nick Offerman have a nice, understated chemistry and it’s nice to see Ron’s personal life developing some.
I don’t want to sound too harsh on this episode. It’s given a largely thankless task – introducing characters and plotlines that will only really start to develop later in the season – and still manages to turn out a damn funny episode of TV. Jam and Diane both have issues, but I laughed more than enough to compensate for it. It’s not the series’ best episode, but it’s still solidly within the B, B+ range.
Tidbits:
–One last complaint: The episode really doesn’t stick the landing, either. Tom pushes Jam into the pool and then it just sort of…ends.
–Ben and April are still stranded in D.C., but I enjoyed this subplot much more than I did last week’s. Maybe that’s just because I love embarrassing Ben moments, which “How a Bill Becomes a Law” was flush with. Not only do we get to hear him reading his Star Trek: The Next Generation fan fiction, we learn that he has a “Benji’s Cool Time Summer Jam Mix” CD in his car that includes Salt-N-Pepa’s “Shoop.”
–Also: April seems to be taking Ben’s advice about applying herself. At the very least, she’s decked out in a sharp pantsuit.
–Chris doesn’t get a whole lot to do – he only shows up in two scenes – but Rob Lowe makes the most of it. His babbling about his psychotherapist was genius. Genius, I say!
–Also genius: Having Leslie walk around with a half-finished perm for the entire episode.
–Ann gets even less to do; she’s entirely absent.
–Joan Callamezzo makes her first appearance of the season. Still MIA: Perd Hapley, Jean-Ralphio. Wherefore art thou, Crazy Ira and The Douche?
–We now know who four of the five councilors are – Leslie, Jam, Milton and the very bland Howser. (The only thing I can remember about him is that one time Leslie saw his penis. Yep.) Did I miss a mention of the fifth? Is it a mystery? Will it only be revealed in the series finale? Is it the smoke monster?
–Seriously, who is doing all this polling in Pawnee?
–“I’m not eating racist salad.”
–“I don’t want to brag, but I’ve got irritable bowel syndrome.”
–“You remind me of a young, beautiful Strom Thurmond.”
–“I don’t negotiate with dentists.”
–“Fun fact about me: I recently began intensive psychotherapy.”
–“I love this idea and I love me for thinking of it. My psychotherapist said I need to be more vocal about appreciating myself. ‘Thank you, Chris!’ ‘You’re welcome, Chris!’ I sound insane.”
–“Not only am I a city councilor, I’m a city councilor with porpoise!” I am a fan of bad puns.
–“She’s like the little sister I never had, because the little sister I do have is normal and not terrifying.”
–“Your highnesses, we do humbly request thine permission to befix doth holes yonder.”
–“K-I-S-S-I-S-S-I-P-P-I”
–“For the last time, Ron, it’s Princess Rainbow Sparkles.”
rgifford@umdbk.com
