Parks and Recreation Review - 4.14 'Operation Ann'

Posted by Dimitri Dorlis on 02.03.2012

Leslie tries to get Ann a date, which means Ann gets to do something! Meanwhile, Ben, Ron, and Andy go on a scavenger hunt.

Well, there’s no way I can get out of not talking about Ann this week. Not with a title like that. Maybe I just need a distraction or something.

LOOK, ROB LOWE IS TALKING ABOUT ANOTHER FOOTBALL PLAYER RETIRING!

Nope, guess that didn’t work. Oh well (ps go Giants I guess).



So, I tried to turn talking about Ann into my version of “Apologies to Matt Damon”. Unfortunately, Parks and Rec decided to throw me a curveball by having an Ann episode. So, now I have to talk about her.

Let’s start by tracing her character path so far. She began the series as a concerned citizen whose boyfriend injured himself at the local pit next to her house. This is how she meets Leslie, who becomes her best friend. Other things that have happened including dumping Andy, dating Chris and then being dumped by him, becoming more confident in herself, and being the definition of a character who’s sole purpose was to be supportive of Leslie. The main reason is that, after the park was built, the show needed to find a reason for Ann to keep showing up. Best way to do that was to have her become Leslie’s best friend and emotional anchor, which isn’t a bad position to be. However, that really hindered what Ann could do. She’s been relegated to sideline character for most of the past two seasons, something that a ton of fans seem to dislike, but the writers were backed into a corner.

Which brings us to this week, where the girls of Pawnee, or at least the girls we see most, are enjoying a Galentines Day lunch. Ann reveals that she’s in a bit of a rut when it comes to her love life, which prompts Leslie to help out her best friend in the entire world. Leslie gets the rest of the Parks Department to help out, which leads to some pretty disappointing bachelor candidates (including the return of Orin and Jerry hiring a male prostitute). Leslie also enlists the aid of Tom in an attempt to screen potential suitors. In the end, though, Ann ends up leaving the community Valentine’s Day dance early and dateless.

The Leslie/Ann dynamic is one of the strongest of the series. Despite only knowing each other for two years now, it’s always incredible to note how far each of these two is willing to go to make the other happy. For example, Ann gives up a ton of her time to help Leslie on her campaign. Tonight, Leslie tries to return the favor by sacrificing her Valentine’s Day with Ben to try and help Ann find someone to be with. It’s completely sweet and almost makes you forgive the show for turning Ann into a bit player over the past two seasons. Actually, screw it, I forgive them.

Of course, it was a little easier for Leslie to give up her time tonight, as she had sent Ben on a scavenger hunt for Valentine’s Day. Joining him on the scavenger hunt was Andy, who knows what things are, and Ron, who secretly loves riddles and scavenger hunts. I might get some flak for this, but I found this to be one of the best B-plots the show has ever done, and possibly one of the best B-plots of the television year. This was the perfect amount of zany humor to counter the slightly-more serious A-plot. At this point, I’m certain you could throw Andy and Ron into any plot and make it 100% better, and Andy has slowly become the MVP of the show for some of the best physical comedy since Chris Farley (ok, now I’m gonna get some flack).

Finally, over in our c-plot, Chris still can’t get over his loss of Melissa. This leads to some hilarious results as he’s also decided to DJ the Pawnee Valentine’s Day dance. All of the depressingly-sad music was perfect in this episode, and also was completely in character. Think about it. Chris is so cheery 24/7, and the one time we saw him date someone, he ended up breaking it off with Ann, and remained cheerful. So it stands to reason that if someone dumps him, his personality would change drastically. It takes a pep talk from Tom and a friendly wave from Ann to break Chris out of his funk, and also launch the show into its final act.

See, it turns out that Ann isn’t leaving the dance early because she’s tired, but rather because she found a date. April leads Leslie to believe that it’s with Chris, but gets Leslie to drop the issue and meet Ben at the end of the scavenger hunt, which turns out to be the Lil Sebastian Memorial Statue. The twosome then decide to confront Ann and Chris in the act, but find out that Ann isn’t meeting Chris but, surprisingly, Tom. April reveals that she set the two of them up, noticing that Tom was the only one to make Ann smile that night, and at the same time revealing that she may have finally forgiven Ann for dating/kissing Andy, or is at least willing to tolerate her. It’s an amazingly sweet ending to the episode, even if it’s revealed that the new couple literally has no chance of surviving through the nice. Will Ann become a bigger character after this? Probably not, but it was nice to have a whole episode almost focused on her.

Stray Observations
- “Dear Congress, it’s Leslie again.”
- “Ann, you beautiful spinster, I will find you love.” “Did you say something?” “Love you!”
- Things I could watch: Ron eating ribs.
- Prospective sweethearts for Ann: Ryan Gosling, Joe Biden, Sam Waterston.
- “I thought we had agreed that we weren’t gonna each other presents because we were too busy with the campaign I got you something.” Leslie and Ben are adorable.
- For some reason, Ben decides to follow Andy’s advice and talk to Ron about the cryptex. And to continue the theme of Andy being Ron’s surrogate son, both of their first suggestion is f**k.
- “I put in an ad on craigslist. Man seeking man for a night of casual fun. Fredrico here responded right away.” Tom’s face is priceless here.
- Lot of murals of slaughter in the Pawnee Town Hall.
- Orin’s face during Chris’s depressing music was even better than Tom’s face.
- Martin Starr had a great guest-cameo as a librarian.
- I would also watch a show where Tom rips into prospective bachelors.
- “What do you bring to the table?” “Where to begin? I’m an amateur juggler.” “Nope, you shouldn’t have begun there. Get out. No one’s trying to get with jugglers. Thanks for playing.”
- And now I’ve seen Ron Swanson at a gay club. There was no way that this wasn’t getting below a 9.5 for that alone.
- “I got lucky…..AND I LOVE RIDDLES.” And I love Ron Swanson.
- There is a Lil Sebastian memorial statue. There is a LIL SEBASTIAN MEMORIAL STATUE.
- “You love Italian men?” “Not as much as…Irish? Scottish? White? Whatever you are.”
- And now, thanks to the credits sequence, I want one full episode where Ron, Andy, and Ben solve a birthday scavenger hunt. Like, nothing else could happen in that episode, and it would be perfect.

The 411: I’ve only given one episode of Parks and Rec a 10 this season, although I probably should have given “End of the World” a 10 as well. This one had them all beat. It was the perfect amount of comedy and sweetness. This wasn’t just the best episode of Parks and Rec this season; this was the best comedy episode of the year. People can talk about how good Modern Family and, for some reason, Big Bang Theory is, but Parks and Rec has blown them all out of the water, none more so than this episode.

Final Score:  10.0   [ Virtually Perfect ]