Parks & Rec: The Final Season

[Spoilers are delivering fresh oranges herein.]


Ladies, amirite?
So, I am still feeling all the things about Parks & Rec's last season, and last night's double set of episodes was a perfect example of why.

It was a great reminder of why I loved the show as a political nerd; there were cameos from Senators Barbara Boxer, John McCain, Corey Booker, and Orrin Hatch, as well as an amazing cameo by former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright OMG.

And it was a great reminder of why I first fell in love with the characters: The scene where April thanks Leslie and hugs her; the scene in which April tells Ron that she hid his key under a strong old tree that reminds her of him; the scenes of Leslie and Ben turning the "Pie Mary" on its head and, later, Ben handing the mic over to Leslie, who uses her platform to tell "The Male Men," Pawnee's MRA group: "The Male Men? Where are you? You're ridiculous and men's rights is nothing," before launching into a speech destroying the press' treatment of women in politics:

I'm now going to give you permanent answers to all the silly questions that you're going to end up asking me and every other woman in this election in the next few months. Why did I change my hairstyle? I don't know. I just thought it would look better, or my kids got gum in it. Are you trying to have it all? That question makes no sense, it's a stupid question, stop asking it, don't ask it. Do you miss your kids while you're at work? Of course I do! Everybody does. And then, you know, sometimes I don't.

If you want to bake a pie, that's great; if you want to have a career, that's great, too. Do both or neither, doesn't matter. Just don't judge what someone else has decided to do. We're all just trying to find the right path for us as individuals on this earth.

And then there was the scene with Gary and Donna. Oh my heart. Gary drops his wedding band down a grate, then proceeds to lose down the same grate his keys, his watch, his phone, his belt, his back-up wedding band, and his heart medication trying to retrieve it.

Donna watches all of this, laughing at Gary at first, as per usual. She buys him dinner. They reminisce about his doofy maneuvers of days past, and he tells her about how Gayle calls him a bozo when he loses his wedding band and sends him out for fresh oranges as penance.

Suddenly, it's like Donna sees him as fully human for the first time. She thanks him for the walk down memory lane, and, the next morning, she shows up at his house with all his lost items, care of a handyman to whom she called in a favor, and a bag of oranges. She calls him her buddy.

This is a scene that I wish had come much, much sooner. That it didn't, and that it involved only Donna, thus ensuring Gary will still be the punchline and punching bag for everyone else, was a great reminder of why my love faded.

Anyway.

"You're ridiculous and men's rights is nothing." FOREVER.

The last time I saw MRAs being mocked on a TV show was on The Kroll Show. I like to imagine that Amy Poehler and Nick Kroll just sit around their flat drinking wine and writing MRA jokes.

Possibly because Iain and I sit around drinking wine and making MRA jokes, but no one pays us for it.

Discuss!