Okay, this photo is from Breaking Bad. But there aren’t any photos of Banks on Parks, and, come on, when the episode guest stars Mike the Cleaner, you have to include Mike the Cleaner.
Parks and Recreation is the rare show that manages to reconcile broad comedy with emotional realism. It’s a show that can take a meaningful look at the nuances of its characters one moment and turn them into sitcom-y caricatures of themselves in the next without feeling jarring. It’s a testament to how fully the writers and actors understand the characters that, for example, Tom can go from giving a patently ludicrous strobe-light-and-dance-music-driven investment proposal at the outset of “Ben’s Parents” to seriously reconsidering his relationship with his best friend by the third act and have it feel like an entirely natural progression rooted in the complexities of Tom’s personality.
“Ben’s Parents” is an episode that offers two wonderful guest turns – one a returning favorite and one a hugely welcome newcomer. The former is Jean-Ralphio, one of the best supporting figures the show has yet to produce, while the latter is Ben’s dad Steve, played in all his gruff glory by the great Jonathan Banks (a.k.a. Breaking Bad’s Mike Ehrmantraut).
See, the newly betrothed Leslie and Ben, after announcing their engagement in a cold open that nails the balance between out-and-out joy and hilarious awkwardness (“Let me start at the beginning. In 1832…”), are holding an engagement party – and both of Ben’s long-divorced parents are invited. Leslie thinks she can smooth over three decades of spite with charm, white wine and a quilt, but all of this falls to pieces when Steve shows up with his young –and pregnant! – girlfriend Ulani. (Which I assume I’m misspelling. Feel free to correct me in the comments.)
Steve and ex-wife Julia’s hatred is both intense and hilariously petty – she sold his boat as scrap, he wants Ulani to have a square on Leslie’s unity quilt, etc. – and proves impossible to soothe regardless of Leslie’s best efforts at amiable, Minnesotan-friendly conversation. She and Ben revert to Plan B, which primarily involves making out in the back of a cab Ben hired in case they need to beat a hasty retreat.
They do, however, finally achieve a kind of victory, albeit a very minor one: Steve and Julia both agree to attend the wedding, as long as they’re seated far, far away from one another. A lesser show would have Ben and Leslie – or some outside factor – inspire a reconciliation (perhaps even a romantic reunion) between the unhappy couple, but Parks respects its characters too much for that. Julia and Steve hate each other, pure and simple, and have for three decades. One engagement party isn’t going to change that. But they can, at least, enjoy their son’s wedding – from opposite sides of the room.
In the background of all this, Chris is having some kind of weird nervous breakdown as he struggles to deal with his simultaneous joy for his friends and his own crippling loneliness and despair. My tolerance for Chris has been declining all season, and this is the moment when he becomes flat-out annoying. The character arrived in the second season as a robotically chipper but fundamentally well-put-together individual, but has evolved into someone who’s unstable and even a little psychotic, and he’s become my least favorite character in the process.
I much prefer Chris’ season-three incarnation as an odd but ultimately grounded and relatable health nut, not the pathological manic-depressive he’s become. He’s the one character the show isn’t able to reliably find the heart at the center of – his weird, irrational crying fits aren’t very funny and, at least in my experience, not a very accurate depiction of what a person in therapy goes through. Every character on Parks has their over-the-top moments, but Chris burst through the top about a year ago and hasn’t looked back since. The sooner the writers bring him back down to earth, the better.
Much better is the subplot concerning Tom’s efforts to convince Ron to invest in his latest business opportunity, Rent-a-Swag. After Entertainment 720 crashed and burned last season, it seemed like Tom might be stuck in his Parks Department job forever, a dispiriting fate for a man – okay, man-child – of such nutty, wide-eyed ambition. Instead, Tom seems to have learned from his past failure and is instead pursuing a more modest – but no less characteristically Haverford – venture.
He still has one anchor from his E720 days dragging him down, however: Business partner, con man and general moron Jean-Ralphio. I can’t possibly articulate how happy I was to see him again – for the first time this season, to boot – and his appearance delivers the goods, offering all the hilariously misguided swag you could possibly hope for. (His two interactions with Ron are pure gold.)
Parks has more on its mind than the free-association rapping and juvenile libido you would expect from Jean-Ralphio, however. (Although it delivers plenty of both.) Over the course of the episode, Tom comes to realize that his best friend is so much dead weight when it comes to their joint business venture. Jean-Ralphio freely admits Tom is more invested in the project than he is, and Tom finally cuts the cord, firing his loser buddy and securing Ron’s investment on his own. (Though, as the wonderful final scene makes clear, Tom and Jean-Ralphio’s oddball friendship will continue apace. Thank God.)
What makes the characters on Parks and Rec so compelling is their fallibility. They’re not superhuman, and, when the show is at its best, the writers don’t magically resolve their problems for them. Many a sitcom – and even many a drama – waves a magic wand at the end of each episode, tying up every loose end and resolving every problem just because that’s what convention dicates. The characters on Parks and Rec, however, have to earn their resolution – they have real personal and political challenges and they have to overcome them through real effort. And even that may not be enough – Steve and Julia don’t reconcile, after all; they just agree to hate each other from a distance. Crises aren’t solved simply because that’s what’s supposed to happen at the end of every half-hour; they’re solved (or not solved) because of the ingenuity and determination of Leslie Knope and company. Any show that can boast both that level of emotional realism and a ring pop engagement ring is a special show indeed.
Tidbits:
–Favorite (minor) moment of the episode: Steve and Ron staring each other down over the last remaining shrimp. Swanson v. Ehrmantraut, dueling for meat – it’s a matchup for the ages.
–The Chris subplot does at least give the show an excuse to bring back Champion, everyone’s favorite three-legged dog. Yay, Champion!
–I don’t think we’ve ever learned exactly what happened to Leslie’s dad, but we get some strong hints here that he’s deceased.
–Ben’s unity quilt square includes a calculator and a Game of Thrones reference. Also on the quilt: Li’l Sebastian (of course), the smallest park, a waffle (repurposed for Ulani) and Joe Biden.
–Does Australia really have a Harvey James Park?
–Guys, calm down: Red Vines and Twizzlers are both flavorless and horrible.
–I can’t tell if Chris naively interrogating Ann about Chris is super-awkward exposition for behind-the-curve viewers or a hilarious play on the same.
–Leslie and Ben never talk about anything sexual beyond making out. Theirs is at once a very physical and oddly chaste relationship.
–“Sure, in a wrestling match, Kirk would win. But who would you rather have at the helm of your Sovereign-class starship? Jean-Luc Picard, no contest.” Ben knows what’s up.
–“We’re a Twizzlers family.” Jonathan Banks kills that delivery. Candy has never been so terrifying.
–“Thank you, ox, for keeping this ship afloat.”
–“When Andy proposed to me he gave me a ring pop, but then he ate it first.”
–“Tommy, I will always be there for you. No matter what. But right now, I cannot be there for you because I have to go.”
–“Dave Matthews Ban d.” “Dave Matthews Band.”
–“What’s wrong with you? You just Googled ‘Amanda Bynes side boob.’” “What’s wrong with you? You have safe search on, that’s amateur hour!”
–“Tommy T, you just missed the craziest of crazies. Clubs. Girls. Dancing. Naked. Mom? Argument! Police. Fleeing the scene. Hiding in a dumpster. Coming here. Crashing on your couch for a week ‘cuase technically I’m homeless!”
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