Parks and Recreation Review: "Summer Catalog"

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On this week's episode of Parks and Recreation, Leslie attempted to re-unite all the past Parks directors for a picnic in order to help her write the intro letter to the "Summer Catalog."  Of course, in typical Parks fashion, the event failed miserably while hard-working Leslie tried to make the best of it.

Sweater Switch

Luckily, Leslie had Ron with her as the present director, and their friendship and just Ron F'in Swanson's mere presence helped make a potentially unfunny storyline riddled with pothead and misogynist jokes, hilarious.

We're not sure why, but Ron's obsession with breakfast continues to delight us.  Whether it was him rooting through Leslie's bag to find the bacon he smelled, or taking Leslie out for a dinner of breakfast foods, we just about die everytime.  We had to re-wind and re-watch Ron's storming of the picnic table a couple times.  Priceless facial expression by Nick Offerman.

The side stories of the episode were based on the show's two primary (non-)relationships.  Tom's quest to become a photographer really doubled as a metaphor for showing how Ann was unhappy in the relationship, while Mark was.  We guess they need to find some excuse to break them up before Paul Schneider leaves the show.

As for our favorite non-relationship, Andy finally asked April out for drinks, only to have her not get into the bar due to her age.  Looks like the writers found a way to drag out this one another couple episodes, but at least they ended it by giving the two the cover of the catalog.

Overall, it was a pretty funny episode that took Parks back to its roots with Leslie's quest for Parks Director while delivering plenty of character and relationship development.  It wasn't the funniest episode to date, but enjoyable as always.

Our favorite Parks and Recreation quotes are after the jump.

Tom: An animal on the head, a manimal in the bed. | permalink
April: Can you Photoshop your life with better decisions, Jerry? | permalink
April: I used to play softball.
Andy: I used to play baseball! It's like the boy version of softball. | permalink

Summer Catalog Review

Editor Rating: 3.5 / 5.0
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User Rating:

Rating: 4.3 / 5.0 (4 Votes)

Eric Hochberger is the programmer of TV Fanatic, so please forgive his mediocre writing. His programming is far better. Follow him on Twitter and/or email him. Just don't request threaded comments. They're coming.

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Parks and Recreation Season 2 Episode 20 Quotes

Can you Photoshop your life with better decisions, Jerry?

April

An animal on the head, a manimal in the bed.

Tom