A review of last night's "Parks and Recreation" coming up just as soon as I pretend toys are people... "Galentine's Day," written by "Parks" co-creator Mike Schur, wasn't as overtly comic by design as some other episodes this season, choosing instead to focus on updating the various romantic subplots: Leslie (with some help from Ron) realizes that she has to dump Justin, Tom finally tells Wendy how he feels, April dumps her gay boyfriends because she really wants Andy, and Mark makes a big effort to give Ann a proper (if intentionally-cliche) Valentine's Day, yet Ann seems unable to entirely let go of Andy.
And I think this far into the show's run, Schur and company have earned the right to do an episode like this, one that still had plenty of funny stuff - Andy's complete musical ignorance and running commentary about the senior center gig, John Larroquette's as the completely inappropriate dud of Leslie's mother's dreams, Tom reacting to Leslie and Justin's break-up like the son in a divorce ("Did I do something wrong?") - but that showed how seriously the show takes its characters, and how rich so many of them have become.
For the second week in a row, we get a glimpse of Ron and Leslie as work-spouses, a relationship that will never be romantic (and shouldn't be, right, folks?), yet where each one knows the other incredibly well and will look out for them even when they don't know they need it. And not that I think the show necessarily needs a love triangle(*), but Ann and Mark's conversation about how great things are "on paper," and her ensuing talking head, were a nice reaction to the general blandness of that relationship.
(*) It's also funny how, early in the series, it seemed that if we were going to get a triangle, it would be Leslie/Mark/Ann, and instead we're heading for the far less likely (but more alliterative) Ann/Andy/April grouping.
I was frustrated that we didn't get a clearer sense of what Tom and Wendy talked about before they hugged at the end of the dance, but beyond that, "Galentine's Day" was very satisfying. And Mouse Rat's rockabilly "The Way You Look Tonight" was really good.
What did everybody else think?