How You Don't Like 90s R&B??

Parks and Recreation, S04E16

Leslie organizes a Sweet 16 party for Jerry who was born on February 29th to prove that she hasn't overextended herself between her campaign and government work.  Since I knew that Ron was the one who was suggesting that she take a break from work, I assumed that she wouldn't win the fight, and thus wasn't very invested in the story.  What was the most of interest to me was Ann and Tom's relationship.  It looked like the two would be over before they even started, and April was just fine with that.  In another side-story, Chris bonded with Champion and Andy felt a little jealous of how well Chris took care of his dog.  This story was also more entertaining to me than Leslie's quest to prove Ron wrong.

Let's talk about Chris and Andy for a moment.  I'm not the biggest animal person, but I felt like Andy's level of pet care-taking could practically be called animal abuse compared to all the things that Chris did for Champion in one day.  This included grooming and training (which also made Chris fluent in German in regards to all things concerning dogs).  In Andy's defense he is not some kind of overachieving superman, nor has the funds to do all the nice things for his dog he could.  I also don't think that Andy has ever thought about these sorts of thing.  His policy is that you have to let dogs be dogs.  Fair enough.  But I felt so bad that Chris was practically stalking Andy in order to spend some more time with the dog.  He is so obviously lonely.  He also scared the crap out of Andy when he was walking Champion.  Loved that.

Chris spells out his loneliness to all at Jerry's party, and I felt even worse for him.  But I think that he felt compelled to share his despair after hearing Tom announce that he and Ann were still strong as a couple.  He keeps making unhappy looks when Tom is talking about Ann; when is Chris going to do something about it, though??  I'm just waiting for that moment that encourages him to act a little angry.  So far it seems like Chris only has two states: hyper positive or hyper melancholy.  I haven't seen hyper pissed yet.  I really want to see it soon, as much as I like Tom.  Tom might scream like a little girl, which would make me giggle like a little girl.

If I can't get my giggle on, I was happy to see that Chris got his giggles on after Andy decided to lend out Champion to Chris from time to time to help him not feel so alone.  Say whatever you want about Andy but he is such a nice guy.  It's impossible to hate him.

Concerning Tom and Ann's relationship, I'm glad that things are starting off so rocky because it wouldn't make any sense.  We all know they are so completely different, and Tom and Ann start to see that these differences do matter.  Tom had especially funny complaints about Ann, including her disinterest in bluray, her low number of UGG boots, and depreciation of Paul Walker movies.  The best of Tom's "Oh-No-No's" was that Ann lacked a love of 90s R&B music.  Particularly insulting was that she had no idea who Ginuwine was.  I love that Tom believes that this topic is so important.  I can appreciate someone who thinks that "classic" R&B is vital.  I just wondered what kind of music does Ann does like anyway?  The best of Ann's "Oh-No-No's" was by far that Tom refers to himself as the "Brown Gosling."  I hate to say it but I am not a Ryan Gosling fan.  In fact, I don't really know who he is outside of everyone talking about him.  I've seen his picture, but I don't recognize him.  However, I'm not much of a celebrity follower.  I like who I like (like Aziz) and don't have time to worry about the mountain of others in the entertainment business.

I've gotten off topic.  My feelings about Tom and Ann deciding to stay together after April's drunken advice are mixed.  If for nothing else, I like them together so that April can continue to hate both of them while they annoy her.  And once again, I want to see if it will bring about the resurrection of Chris and Ann.  But Ann probably wouldn't take him back.  She would be a fool to after he broke up with her for reasons I'm not too sure about.  Perhaps he was just smart and realized they were too different?  Still, I'm not sure who would be a perfect match for Ann; she's pretty unenthusiastic about everything (in a way that differs from April) and only seems to get motivated through the forceful pushing of her bestie, Leslie.

We had pretty good development in this episode, so I was very pleased with it.  And we had a mentionable line from my favorite guy in Pawnee, Ron Swanson:

[Ron] Is this all the eggs we have?

[Donna] Yes.  What are you making?

[Ron] Eggs.

 Ron, you can make anything about food funny!  He is the highlight of my TV week most of the time.

I wonder if the next episode will be about how the quality of things at Parks and Rec will be down because Leslie is no longer running everything so smoothly.  It could mean a good opportunity for some Ron scenes, as he is the last person to be enthusiastic about doing work, and Leslie is the one who covers his lazy behind.  Crossing my finger, too, that we see the angry Chris come out.  Don't keep me waiting, Parks and Recreation!