Leslie hosts a bowling night for her campaign in NBC’s Parks and Recreation
I’m going to get this out of the way straight away: I think “Bowling For Votes” might have been a perfect episode of Parks and Recreation. It was funny and it was sweet and everything just worked. I have loved this show since its second season but even I can admit that, despite how consistently good it is, the perfect episodes are few and far between. Most episodes have been great but still have the odd thing that niggles me… but not “Bowling For Votes.” I loved every little bit of it.
This episode is all about fun. Leslie decides to host a bowling night for her campaign after learning from a focus groups that people (well, technically only one guy) doesn’t think she’s fun. Leslie knows she can be fun and wants to prove it but because this is Leslie we’re talking about, she goes nuts and goes all out in an attempt to change the mind of this one guy. Crazy Leslie can sometimes be annoying but luckily we’ve now got Ben as her campaign manager to restrain her and, as he puts it, “you should be knocking down all the pins, not just one.” Leslie ends up beating the guy and he calls her a bitch and Ben retaliates by punching him. Leslie holds a press conference to apologize and the guy still thinks Leslie is a bitch but the scandal seems to be the kick start her campaign needed. It’s all go from here.
Meanwhile, Jerry has organized Andy, April, Donna and Chris to call the community to ask for campaign donations. April vows to beat Chris because she hates his happiness but feels bad after Jerry’s daughter breaks up with him. I criticized April last week because I felt like the writers had dumbed her down too much but she was great in this episode. Chris was also good as the break-up gave us a chance to see how human he actually is. April offers the donation prize to Chris – two movie tickets, plus a third she paid for herself – and asks if he would like to go to the movies with her and Andy sometime.
While Leslie is trying to impress this guy, Ron, Ann and Tom are also bowling, each with their different methods. Ron is straight and simple, Ann seems to be able to bounce it out of the gutter and Tom… well, he just rolls it, much to the embarrassment of Ron. After Tom destroys both of them, Ron returns to the bowling alley in disguise to replicate Tom’s method and bowls a perfect game. A perfect place to end the perfect episode.
“Bowling For Votes” was perhaps one of the simplest episodes of Parks and Recreation this season but I can’t hold that against it. It was a great episode for Leslie and April in particular and Ron shined as always (“when I eat, it is the food that is scared”). Parks and Recreation seems to be the sole shining light amidst the current dark times NBC is going through and it is a show that the rest of their programming should try to aspire to.
Image credit: NBC
Craig McQuinn
Craig McQuinn is a poor student currently living in Australia. He was born in New Zealand and had to kill many wild animals to survive. He enjoys almost all forms of pop culture and his interests include superhero comics, TV shows on ...
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