Parks and Recreation – Gimme Shelter

Oh, Parks and Recreation, my life has been positively empty without you. My favorite comedy returned last night and it seems changes are afoot. Click through for a full recap!

Ron told Chris he’d take the job as Assistant City Manager, but it turns out the job might not be Chris’s to offer – if Bobby Newport wins that seat on City Council, he’s going to bring a new City Manager with him. But that’s OK, because Leslie will win, right? Maybe not…

After convincing the current city councilor not to cut the Parks budget by 8%, Leslie was riding high. Until, of course, she and Ben found out where the cuts were being made instead. The animal shelter. That’s right y’all, Leslie Knope is a puppy killer.

So Leslie found a new way to save money in the budget – cut some D1 -level jobs that had been kicking around as an oversight. Problem solved, right? Wrong. That got the council on a job cutting binge, and they cut ALL D1-level jobs. So, sayonara, Ann.

Leslie eventually came up with a brilliant plan to save the Parks Department budget, the animal shelter and Ann’s job, but it came at the hefty price of political suicide. She advised Bobby Newport’s campaign manager that he should announce that he’ll use his personal fortune to save the local animal shelter. It’s a slam dunk PR move, and now Leslie will have to rely on kicking his butt during the debate (I can’t wait to see this) to help her out at the polls. Really, will Pawnee residents even watch a debate, let alone care who performs better?

I’ve got to say, I’m liking all this uncertainty. Leslie winning the election has always been a long shot, and I assumed that if she lost the result would be that she’d assume Ron’s old position when he went to work for Chris. But now Chris might be out the door too, and things have become a lot less predictable. I’m excited.

On the comedy front, this episode was pitch perfect. I loved the stuff with Ron and Chris – of course Ron Swanson is awesome at meditating, and can now use that as a way to avoid speaking to Chris. And I loved seeing April put some effort into a project (having an animal adoption fair at one of the parks) and failing miserably. I expected Andy to raise her spirits, but it was a nice touch that instead Tom came to the rescue.

What did you guys think of “Live Ammo”? Are you glad Parks is back in your life?

Favorite Quotes & Moments:

• Tom’s apartment? Bomb. Just bomb.
• I’m bouncing some business ideas off Russell Simmons on Twitter.
• April floundering at that meeting Leslie called a “thrill ride” was kind of how I feel every day.
• Ron spotted a hot, spinning cone of meat at a Greek restaurant and he’s going to eat all of it.
• Donna’s fake personal histories for all the animals.
• Donna: “A lot of these dogs have rescued people from burning buildings. This one helped Ray Charles around.”
  Andy: “What? This cat was in Boogie Nights?”
• “I have so many ideas. Some are simple like take down traffic lights and eliminate the post office. The bigger ones will be tougher, like ‘bring all this crumbling to the ground’.” – Ron
• Tom puts the same effort into custom drink names that I put into hypothetical roller derby nicknames. He has “The Beer-yonce Knowles”, I have “Beyon-slay Knowles” and “Kim Kar-smash-ian”.
• I didn’t even recognize Bradley Whitford. I had to read it on Twitter.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Couchtime/~3/tcrYwAVbVlk/