‘Parks and Recreation’ review: Ron Swanson should wear makeup more often

It’s always interesting to see government at work; however, we’re not quite sure that government ever worked quite like this before.

Thanks to Leslie Knope’s new post on the city council, we are currently celebrating something that “Parks and Recreation” did this summer that did they did not even have to do: reinvigorate their show. Rather than watching their stories get stale over several years, they actually took some initiative, and created some really interesting ways to keep the characters funny. Do we miss Leslie and Ben together? Definitely, but we do like that they are finding some interesting ways to spend their time apart.

Granted, we’re not quite sure that Ben the character enjoyed this week’s episode much, mostly because he spent the entire half-hour being stuck in a garage waiting for a Presidential motorcade to go by in Washington. But this plot was darn funny, and gave Adam Scott and Aubrey Plaza some time together to slowly lose their minds.

As for the Leslie storyline, we had another situation of her pleasing a good portion of Pawnee by keeping a pool open longer, while at the same time managing to anger a good many other people in the process. This actually was not really the story that interested us as much here as watching Ron Swanson embrace a new responsibility in the Parks Department: fixing a pothole himself. Not only that, but he also managed to get the phone number of a single mom in the process that seems perfect for him … even if he had to wear makeup in the process.

Did we really get anywhere closer to bringing Leslie and Ben back together this week? No, but we’re honestly okay with the wait so long as we are continuing to enjoy the journey.