Parks and Recreation: Season 5 Review - IGN (2024)

The answer, naturally, is freakin' great. Parks and Recreation, in its fifth year, continues to be one of the smartest and sweetest comedies on TV, featuring a wildly entertaining ensemble cast of characters who we all actively root for. That's right, one of Parks' strengths, and overall keys to longevity, is the fact that, smart or dumb, cheerful or grumpy, there's no one we'd kick out of the life raft. Yes, as always, some folks lend themselves better to comedic situations, but in any group dynamic there are standouts.

The biggest hiccups this season had was the sort of "stop-start" the show felt after the original finale "Leslie and Ben," leading us into episodes which were created to merely extended the season along to a still-good-but-lesser finale. A lot of the episodes leading up to the wonderful "Leslie and Ben" touched on Candyland cornerstones of Parks, giving them their due as if they might be the final time we saw them. Andy retired Burt Macklin, Leslie returned to Eagleton, Ron revealed his Duke Silver secret to Diane, Ben got betrayed by mini-calzones, Leslie beat Jamm and won her bid to turn the former pit into the Pawnee Commons and Andy even drunkenly played some Mouse Rat tunes after the wedding.

After that though, the show was still good but it felt a little bit like "Season 5b." Kind of like when Chuck's third season got extended and they had to add 6 more episodes after "Chuck vs. The Other Guy" - the intended finale. It's just what happens sometimes to bubble shows that don't necessarily have the luxury of doing long-term planning.

The other lull in Season 5 came with the Councilman Jamm character, who I will admit has grown on me now. But at the outset, he just wasn't that funny. They hadn't quite found his ticks and peculiarities yet other than the fact that he was a jerk. And the "Jamm'd" shtick didn't become great until it had some time to morph into things like "Self Jammed'd!" and "Retro-Jamm'd!"

On the upside though, we got some great stuff with Andy and April in Washington, D.C....

...an amazing "Fart Attack" from Jerry in "Halloween Surprise," the boys getting food poisoning while tasting wedding food, the "Wyld Stallyns!" stoners from "Animal Control," and Ron trying to force himself a banana...

Plus, there was Ben's Star Trek TNG fan-fic, the Gergich breakfast song, a Leslie/Tammy II brawl, Tom dating Mona Lisa, Ron reminiscing about all the times he wanted to punch Jamm in the face, and Andy bumbling around D.C. and referencing the movie "First Kid."

Oh, and Ron having a little Swanson with Diane is also damn great. I do still think he should consider a new career as the host of "You're On With Ron" after taking over Pawnee Today from a sloshed Joan Callamezzo. "Your house isn't haunted. You're lonely."

I will admit that there's a part of me that's become less invested in Leslie's manic passion for government over the years, and sometimes her stories are retreads of past embarrassments (complete with Ron advice), but I did go all-in on her relationship with Ben. There wasn't much to their spur of the moment decision to get married -- and then eventually marrying inside the Parks department -- that wasn't lifted out of the sitcom playbook, but this show still finds a way to transcend cliches. Likewise for Ann and Chris deciding to have a baby together. But it all still worked because the show handles sentiment delightfully. It also tends to circle the wagons a bit, with our main players sometimes feeling like the lone heroes waging war against the crazy, irrational townsfolk that they love. Like in the finale when Leslie discovered that she'd unintentionally created her own Legion of Doom.

We left the season with Tom's business and Leslie's job in jeopardy, but April is on the rise. And her slow, grumpy climb up the ladder has been one of the most rewarding elements of this show. In fact, she got bumped up several times this year; first working for Ben on a campaign, then leading her own town hall meeting, then becoming the Director of Animal Control and then finally getting accepted to Veterinary School. Things didn't work out as well for Andy though. I'm afraid the glimmer he had in his eye in last year's finale about becoming a cop lead him down a path of fail. Of all the times for Pawnee to decide to require relevant qualifications and minimal competency. He's working with Ben at the Sweetums non-profit division, but I do hope something else lines up for him that feels more "Andy."

Parks and Rec continues to be a gem, still creating a whimsical mix of small town befuddlement and on-point pop culture-isms. Leslie can fight against 512 oz "child size" sodas while Ben can get all persnickety over Ann's assumptions about the Lannisters. Tom can slather himself with whiskey-infused lotions and stare are vodka light flashes while Paunch Burger can post a "Coming Soon" sign with the tagline "Start drooling, fatties." The best of both worlds.