When only four percent of scripted TV shows feature LGBT characters, what’s a gay girl to do? Why, strap on your gay goggles and watch TV along with us, of course! Our handy appraisal scale is better than any old letter grade. Other sites A+. We say, “What about our lezzy-lady feelings?”
Halloween really does bring out the best in TV writers, especially on sitcoms like Parks and Recreation (and Community!) where fictional universes already exist in a heightened state of surreality. I mean, what a day of rejoicing it must have been in the P&R writers room when they sat around and hammered out the character-appropriate Halloween costumes for their cast of nutters. Of course Ron Swanson is a pirate. Every year. Because that is his Halloween costume. And of course Andy is UFC superstar Chuck Liddell. Of course Jerry is Mr. Potato Head, Chris is Sherlock Holmes, and Donna is a sexy cop. (You know that woman owns at least a dozen pair of handcuffs.)
But most of course of all is April Ludgate as a sumo wrestler who’s lost the weight, and of course she is as stunning as ever in a costume that is certainly meant to mock the slutty nurses and cats and witches and whatever other half-dressed thing ladies are going as to Halloween this year. (Remember when she was Janet Snakehole and Andy was like, “I’ve got to be honest: I thought you’d be dressed a little sluttier”? And she slapped him in the face! God, I love you, April Ludgate.)
(Also, are you guys going to shout me down about cultural appropriation for saying that about April’s costume? Even though the insensitivity/apathy is so characteristically April? Probably? Ah, well – get at me!)
AFTERELLEN BAIT
It’s too bad that “Meet n’ Greet” kept Leslie away from Andy and April’s Halloween party. But, on the other hand, maybe it was a conscious decision from the writers because Leslie would have most certainly gone as Hillary Clinton, and that might have been a little too meta.
While the rest of the gang is getting drunk (or doing home improvement projects) over at the Dwyer/Wyatt House of Horrors, Leslie hires Tom and Entertainment 7Twenty to orchestrate a forum for her to touch base with Pawnee’s small business owners. Leslie is usually so full of marshmallows and rainbows it’s easy to forget that she’s a serious badass. But her rage comes out when she realizes Tom has hijacked her meet n’ greet with the Nipple King in a last-ditch effort to save himself and Jean-Ralphio from bankruptcy. And that rage is GLORIOUS. (Also coming out tonight: A new Knope blazer.)
FEELINGS, FEELINGS, FEELINGS
Amy Poehler makes it look so easy, going from “Look, I don’t like to throw around the word butthead too often. If you call everybody a butthead then it kind of loses its impact. But I can say without hesitation that Tom is being a real dick” and trying to drown him in his Hummer-limo hot-tub to sobbing over the tribute video he made her and promising to watch it every day for the rest of her life and then have it projected onto her tombstone.
And on the subject of feelings, if this didn’t give you a case of the “Awwwww”s, I’m pretty sure you’re dead inside.
One more feeling: Please look at the photo Ben has on his bulletin board in his home office:
Oh, Batman.
LUDGATE-ISMS
April and Andy’s cold open had some of my favorite April lines ever:
Andy: We’re throwing a Halloween party at our house. It’s going to be the greatest thing ever.
April: Someone will die.
Andy: Of fun.
April: And of murder!
Andy: We’re going to have beer, pumpkins.
April: Bloody goblins.
Andy: Fake ones. It’s going to be awesome. We’re going to have decorations.
April: Dead people that we just murdered.
Andy: Not murdered, but pictures of dead people from TV or movies.
April: Mutilated bodies.
Andy: Fake ones. Candy, dancing, tequila! There’s going to be all kinds of food and snacks!
April: Blood orphans!
Andy: No blood orphans! I … I don’t know what that is.
And while I loved that she turned Jerry’s Mr. Potato hide smile upside down, I loved it even more when she got revenge on Chris by stealing his keys. “Solve this mystery, genius.”
POEHLER PUPPET PALS
If I had a Leslie Knope action figure, I’d totally want it to say, “I stand by my decision to avoid salad – and other disgusting things.”
What did you think of “Meet n’ Greet”?
