Wreston's All Right

Parks and Recreation, S05E08

Leslie and Ben got a decent person to build their new park, but because he was  from Eagleton, Leslie resisted hiring him against obvious proof that he was superb in his work.  Tom had his friends helped him set up his Rent-A-Swag store, but he was so focused on being responsible and frugal that he was neglecting his style and flair that was necessary for his business to succeed.  Andy found his security guard work to be boring and April came to play with him.

I think most people were wanting for Wreston to turn out to be a bad guy after all, but luckily he was a genuinely nice guy.  It's funny to see someone as sweet as Leslie fighting a nice guy tooth an nail to prove he's a scumbag.  Maybe I sort of wanted her to be right so she wouldn't seem so crazy.  But logically after Wreston's employees had sent Ben and Leslie that horrible model for the park anyone would have thought they had been duped.  Thank goodness Ben had a major man-crush on Wreston and refused to believe he was that much of a snake.

I loved how much Ben fell for Wreston.  He even slipped in an invitation to their wedding, having only known the man for a few hours.  It's weird because Ben doesn't really seem to take a shine to people so easily, unless they're related to something nerdy like accounting or maybe comic books or something.   It was also funny because Leslie was annoyed by it.

I'm still a little worried that Wreston being from Eagleton is going to bring some trouble somehow.  I don't know.  If his employees can go behind his back and send a fake model, who knows what else his staff might do when his back is turned?  I think that Leslie's suspicions sort of rubbed off on me.

I'm not too worried about Tom's store, though.  First all, he had all his friends working there, so at least he can count on them working to their best abilities.  His first penny-pinching version of the place was a little drab, but after using the investment from his friends and pieces from his house, it looked more like a place you would buy swag.

My favorite thing about that story was Chris learning woodwork from Ron.  I love when these two get together because they are such opposites!  Chris was so eager to learn, while Ron sounded like he couldn't be bothered to tell Chris the simplest thing to do.  I loved when Ron tried to give Chris busy work to keep him from bothering him with millions of questions:

[Ron] Here. I have designed something very important.  Why don’t you start work on that right away?
[Chris] Yes, sir!
[Ron to the camera] It’s a flight of stairs that leads to nowhere.

Ron, the master of getting overly enthusiastic people to be distracted.  It was nice that the stairs, though, ended up being a nice display piece to use in Tom's store.  Chris assumed that was Ron's plan all along and Ron didn't correct him.

My second favorite line from Ron was when Tom had set up a pathetic pizza party with a small toppings-less pizza, two drinks, and had turned off the majority of lights.  Only Ron was the one who seemed impressed by this:

If there were more food and fewer people, this would be a perfect party.

Chris also had a good line concerning the first version of Rent-A-Swag.  Everyone was commenting on how bad it had looked, but Chris almost was the sole voice of positivity:

[Chris] I think what’s important is we all had a goal, and we achieved it.
[Ann] So you like the place?
[Chris] Oh, no, it’s quite terrible.

I love how honest Chris is.  He might try to see things in the best light, but he's also not going to straight up lie when asked his opinion about something.

 In the April and Andy story, I wasn't that surprised that Andy was bored out of his mind.  I thought it was adorable that April came and they were playing around like kids.  It really reminds you how perfect they are together.  It's almost a shame that April had to make him realize that he had to retire the fantasy version of himself as an FBI agent for the real version of himself who helps lost kids find their mothers.  April's a really good wife to not just make him see his potential, but also give his imaginary character a final decommissioning session.  That was over the top, but really cute.

 I hope that Wreston continues to be the dream come true that saves the new park idea from being squashed before it's even started.  It would be pretty disappointing if Ben's new best friend turned out to be one of those evil Eagleton jerks.  I can't wait to see what kind of customers come to Tom's store and maybe he could move out of his store sooner rather than later with good sales.  I think that Andy will like his security job a little more, even without playing make-believe.  But there probably needs to be a robbery or something soon because he's too ADD to be kept content forever by the "glory" of saving one little boy.

A Dog Story Worse Than Old Yeller

American Dad, S07E14

A story about Stan falling in love with a dog?  How could that possibly not be a wonderful episode?  Luckily the writers are paying attention in some fashion because Francine pointed out that it's been done (though you can't blame shows like this for a little repetition when you've done so many stories), but it still didn't stop them from making us suffer through Stan attaching himself to another dog that ends badly.  We had to watch him obsess over a dog that needed to be put down in the most humane way possible, but instead was made into some Frankenstein monster of a dog.  If only the Hayley and Jeff story could have lightened the overall tone of this disturbing and slightly depressing story.  No such luck.

Since we were privileged to watch Stan's childhood dog, Freddie, meet an undeserved end, it was sort of a given that Kisses, the new dog, would not live long enough to repair the hole in Stan's heart that had been placed there by his mother's deceit (did you really need to lie to your son and make him kill his own dog?).  However, instead of being killed by a car in the street during some innocent frisbee play, Kisses is killed by an air balloon basket (not the most incredible part) which was piloted by what seems to be a gang of pirate kittens.  What in the world??  Okay, I know you writers have to throw our expectations out the window, but that is almost too hard to believe even in SF world.  They might as well just made the dog dead without us even knowing what happened if it was going to die in such a meaningless, only for a joke way.

The best thing about Stan refusing to let Kisses go, despite the dog was only alive thanks to a machine at first, was when he went to library and studied how to fix the dog on his own.  After he had defaced the library, a librarian urges the sleeping security guard to do something.  The guy's lazy, half-hearted attempts to stop Stan (he didn't even get up) were hilarious.  I hope they bring that man back.  He was great.  I also liked that they played the theme to Weird Science during his studying montage.

Another funny scene was when Stan stole Kisses and brought him to Dr. Lizzie (voiced by Amy Sedaris--yay!) .  She crackles for the longest time in what you think would be really disconcerting to the listener, but Stan, with his face dead serious, tells her that she has a beautiful laugh.  Amy did a good job of conveying a pretty creepy doctor who would be capable of turning that cute dog into something that only Jesus could love.

I think that Steve put it best to describe the sight of that dog which had eyes for testicles, a drumstick and a frog leg for hind legs, a softball mitt for a skull, and was dragging some kind of electric box on wheels:

Oh, God!  Please kill this dog!

Even as a cartoon, it was pretty hard to see that blind dog hobbling around and breathing for dear life.  It's beyond sick.  I'm glad that Freddie came to Stan in a dream to convince him to let the dog be at peace, but did he really have to blow it up to bits so that its bloody head hit their bedroom window??  Excessive much??  That dog had been through enough.  At least he could have killed it peacefully.  Watching this was almost on par with that horrible kitten cutaway gag on Family Guy.  Let's stop with all the dead animals, shall we?  I think I got my fill last Sunday, for real.

 Roger was being his creepy self, despite this disturbing episode, only slightly lightening the mood.  My favorite scene of his was when he was hitting on Jeff in the pool.  Also, even though it's pretty nasty, I like how he was trying to get Stan to have popcorn from a bucket he had clearly cut a hole into.  Which makes me wonder what kind of genitalia that he has.  I assume he's a male, but he is an alien so maybe he has something else that is some combo of both genders (he is bisexual, after all)?  Actually, I shouldn't wonder this.  I think I would be better off not knowing the answer to that mystery.

I feel like I could have been fine not watching this episode, though I'm not as disgusted by it as I may make it seem.  I've seen worse (where I had to turn away from the TV), but I think I was mostly bored by Stan connecting with a pet again.  Like Roger said, he is the only pet that family needs (and no one gives a damn about Klaus since technically he was originally a human).  I hope this episode marks the end of Stan ever having to deal with a dog again unless it's guard dogs or something less intense.  I don't think I can tolerate another bad end for a pet that didn't do anything wrong (though it was nice that it was dedicated to the real life Freddie who passed--aww).