Parks & Recreation's sixth season premiere was more or less a perfect episode of one of my favourite shows currently on the air. It remains at that highly-sought-after level where it has firmly established exactly what each character is and wants and would do in a given situation, and then finds refreshing situations to put each character in so that they can tweak those traits. Leslie is still the overachiever, battling against the will of the ungrateful town she serves. She is pulled between her resolve to do good at any cost and her desire for gratitude. I loved the set-up for this episode, where Leslie is to be the recipient of an award, with the ceremony to be held in London. Those leading the charge to get her recalled see this as her "gallivanting across Europe." Parks & Recreation, since its fourth season, has become a cutting satire of how politics can become so petty, which is one of the show's most underrated qualities. Leslie is such a nice person, but Pawnee being what it is, of course it can't help but heap her with scorn.
I say "of course" because the essence of this brand of comedy is an expected outcome. Some comedy works by subverting expectations, but Parks & Recreation's is built largely around having those expectations play out exactly as you would expect them to. We know what the people of Pawnee think about things like this. Pawnee is such a richly-drawn and particular setting, blending its everytown qualities with quirks unique to its citizens. "They cling to their burgers and sodas, then they complain to me when their pants don't fit." One resident's request of Leslie during her "No Problem Too Small" campaign is delightfully, amazingly specific, and her response to Leslie's attempt to take care of it is perfect.
Tom is in the Daffy Duck role, unable to overcome the ill-deserved adversity of Henry Winkler's Dr. Sapperstein, father to Jean-Ralphio and Mona Lisa. Dr. Sapperstein takes vengeance on Tom because Jean-Ralphio claims he was cut out of Tom's Rent-A-Swag business, because of course he would lie about that. Mona Lisa's part in this is too funny to even discuss in a spoiler-friendly plot summary (in general, Jenny Slate is so amazing in this role that it's hard to believe she only spent a year on SNL.) The fact that clearing the air on this matter doesn't stop Dr. Sapperstein from continuing to screw with Tom's business is also perfect.
Continuing the themes of "characters behaving exactly as you expect them to," perpetual keeners Anne and Chris have finally gotten the news that Anne is pregnant, and are disappointed by the various responses in a nice runner through the episode that results in one of the most unnerving Jerry moments yet. We also get Andy meeting his British equivalent, an upper-class manchild played by Peter Serafinawicz, providing a handy explanation as to why Andy won't be around for a while (the fact that he'll be out there guarding the galaxy being somewhat far-fetched in-universe.)
But the best, best, best bit comes courtesy of Ron Swanson. Over the years, Leslie has demonstrated an ability to read her friends perfectly, to know exactly what to do for them that will show how familiar she is with their unique tastes and temperaments, and there is no better case study for this than the staunchly anti-European Ron Swanson, who is unimpressed by the sights of London and the "socialist air" in general (although he does appreciate the bar between two butcher shops.) Leslie sends him on a mystery tour that leads him to the distillery where they make his favourite whiskey, Lagavulin, which as it turns out is exactly the kind of isolated, quiet spot that Ron Swanson himself would endorse. She instructs him to tour it, then to sit on a hillside and read aloud a verse by The Scottish Poet, Robbie Burns. After doing so, he turns to the camera and gruffly says, "I don't know what she was expecting me to get out of that," but we know. And we know he knows. It's a moment of sweetness that isn't contrived or tacked on: it comes from exactly the same source as the humour from the earlier scenes where Ron is dismissive of London. It comes from our knowledge of Ron, and our knowledge of Leslie's knowledge of Ron, it's funny and fitting that she knows exactly what to give him that would sum up perfectly what Ron Swanson would want out of a trip to the U.K. It's a moment that couldn't have been dropped into any other script for any other show or an easy emotional reaction: it belongs exclusively to these characters, in this situation.
What we've got, in the 2000-and-somethings, is a brand of comedy that finds an interesting relationship between humour and heart. When we know who these characters are, and what they care about, we can laugh when it gets bent out of shape, and we can get real choked up when it finds a perfect form.
