Ron Loves Diane

Parks and Recreation, S05E11

Leslie wanted to initiate more goverment jobs for females, so she started by tackling the sanitation department.  She and April tried to prove that female garbage collectors could do the job just as well as males.  Chris was confused about where he stood with Shauna.  Tom asked Andy and Ben to teach him about basketball, so he could relate to his costumers.  Ron had Ann look over Diane's girls when he had exhausted himself watching them.

Besides the fridge business, I think Leslie and April had no problems really picking up trash.  It was cute to see something that Leslie had dragged April into that she actually enjoyed.  Even if it was to invade people's privacy.  I also liked that April was the one who convinced Leslie to think of another way to handle the fridge, so they wouldn't lose to the jerks setting them up to fail.  However, my favorite part of this story was when Leslie and Chris were having the meeting with the gender equality commission.  April pointed out there were only men present and Leslie spoke out:

[Leslie] Excuse me, everyone, did anyone notice that there are no women on the gender equality commission?

[Milton] There's a lady right next to you.  Oh, wait, no--it's just a very beautiful man.

I loved Chris looking offended for a second before he smiled at the compliment at the end.  Man, even guys like Milton can admit to Chris' good looks.

I could understand why Chris is a little confused about his standing with Shauna, but I was glad that Leslie gave him some advice about it:

[Leslie] I know you're not used to this, but maybe you should just try to keep it chill and see what happens.

[Chris] Great advice.  Impossible to follow, but great advice.

It's great that Chris can make his negativy sound positive.  It's not just his words, but his peppy, fast-paced voice.

I was surpsied in Tom's story that he doesn't know more about basketball than what he knows from the Kardashians' show.  Wow.  I knew he was sort of a non-traditional kind of guy, but I didn't know he was this bad.  After watching him play basketball like he had never heard of the sport in his life, he summed up his ignorance in one line:

Did I do basketball?

It was just a sad sight to watch him try to dribble and throw worse than what a preschooler would, and it got worse when the very type of customers he was trying to impress joined him on the court and schooled Tom and his friends in a game.  Tom's got some good friends who would put up with that and not call off the game before it even started.  But it was funny to see kids dominate them so hard.

Ron's story was just adorable.  To see someone like him just sitting like a statue while two little girls played with him as they pretty much wished was hilarious.  I admire that he loves Dianne so much that he would put up with that torture for as long as he did before he tried to pawn them off to Ann.  It's weird, though, that Ron still doesn't know her name (actually, no it isn't because Ron is like that):

[Ron] I thought your last name was Hanson for some reason.
[Ann] Nope, it's Perkins.  Always has been.
[Ron] You seem more like a Hanson.

The funniest thing about Ron asking Ann to watch over the kids was how bad and uneasy she was with the girls.  When she told them the scary story and the girls screamed, I loved how Ron forced a laugh and asked Ann:

What is wrong with you, woman?

It doesn't really surprise me, though.  Ann is sort of a hit or miss type of person with people.  She doesn't universally click with everyone and sort of easily gets on the bad foot with people.  It makes sense that with people out of her generation (not unlike April), she stumbles to connect and speak to them naturally.

The best thing about this story and possibly the whole episode was when Ron admitted to Ann that he loved Diane.  Aww!  Then to make it even better, Diane told him that she loved him and Ron said the same in the tiniest voice possible.  Yay!  Ron and Diane forever!

This was a pretty good episode, but I can't say that any of the stories were really that stronger than the other.  After that phenomenal last episode, I feel like I'm still expecting every story to be of the same caliber.  There were a few funny lines, and Tom's first try at basketball was one of the best jokes in there, but Ron's declaration of love for his girlfriend was the most awesome event of the episode.  Best of all, it wasn't anything I was expecting at all, making it a wonderful surprise.

My First Favorite Story

The Mindy Project, S01E03

Mindy got Shauna to get her into a club, and it ended up being an office outing.  Mindy was able to get into the VIP section and meet some interesting guys, but in the end she had to decide whether abandoning her friends was worth a possible hookup.

I didn't expect an episode about a club to be so good, but there were quite a few interesting moments.  One of such was when they first arrived and the group was waiting outside in the line.  Someone remarked that NBA players come to the club quite often:

[Mindy] This is amazing ’cause black guys love me.[Shauna] Keep your racism voice down.[Mindy] Sorry.  That’s not racist.  It’s a scientific fact that black guys love Indian girls.[Shauna] Don’t…[Mindy] Black guys also love ass, which I happen to have a lot of.

I love hearing about different stereotypes and was interested to see if Mindy could prove it to be true.  At first she didn't seem to be having any luck, and then she finally got into the VIP at what seemed to be at the request of one of the players.  It turned out to be from the sports attorney, but he turned out to be less of a douche than he first appeared (my first impression was that he was really rude and perhaps out to play her).  I loved when Mindy was just chilling with the players and having a great time.  She just seemed so cute, yet not awkward chatting with them.  It's just too bad she had other priorities than possibly the most amazing night of her life.

I'm actually glad that Mindy has a big heart and would rather stick by Shauna  and Betsy than go off have fun by herself.  I was pretty impressed with her.  It says a lot about her character.  If she had gone, it would have told me she was really only looking out for herself in the world, and I probably would have started to like her a lot less.

I also started to like Danny a little more in the episode, getting to see him cut loose and dance, but I felt bad that Shauna likes him and he went home with some random girl.  I hope that Shauna can get his attention one day because he doesn't seem to often give attention to anyone unless it's necessary.

I also felt like Morgan was off to a good start in this episode as well.  I loved that he had all these things with him like he was a bathroom attendant, but had no intention of being one, as I thought he did.  I mean, I was confused at first that he didn't understand why he was being given money; it took me a second to realize he had really just brought those toiletries for himself.  Wow.  Then, I thought it was sweet that he picked up everyone's tab at the end of the night with the money he had made (even though it was less than $40).  He could easily become one of my favorites.

This time, I definitely felt like this show has really started to win me over.  I at least care about some of the characters now and want to see how they might grow as people as the stories develop.  I wonder what will happen between Mindy and Josh.  He seems pretty into her, but I don't know if Mindy is there yet.  And I'd like to see Shauna have a real chance with Danny.  I think they could be at least an entertaining couple for a little while.