Parks and Recreation, "Christmas Scandal": No-Mole-Butt

A review of "Parks and Recreation" coming up just as soon as the department deputy directs itself...

Though I ultimately enjoyed "Christmas Scandal," I thought the main plot about Leslie being embroiled in Councilman Dexhart's scandals didn't really work. The central conceit of the series is that Leslie treats her mundane, small-town civil service job as if it were a high-stakes national politics job, while everyone else sees their world for what it is. "Christmas Scandal" was the exact opposite of that. There were certainly some funny moments as Pawnee turned into a scandal factory - complete with its own tabloid and the cable access show turning into a cross between Nancy Grace and Fox News, and with Leslie dropping trou to make the problem go away - but it was all so counter to what the show is about that I was distracted by it.

What worked for me was the subplot that spun out of Leslie's problems, with the rest of the parks department (plus Mark) discovering how hard it is to fill in for all the things Leslie does in a given day. Ron running a public forum was a natural winner ("You don't have to know my last name"), but the problems all the characters had, and the joy on all their faces (and on Leslie's face) when Leslie returned to work in the tag, said everything about how important Leslie is to this place.

And that, in turn, makes me mostly okay with Leslie's decision to not go with Dave to San Diego. I'll miss Louis CK - who had another great talking head as Dave got confused by the documentary crew's question about loving Leslie - but he has an FX show coming up, so he couldn't stay around forever. And while Amy Poehler showed just how much Leslie had fallen for the guy with that wonderful smile she flashed him at the end of their lunch date, I also believe that she cares more about her job than anything else, even if it means saying goodbye to a really good guy like Dave.

All that, and movement on the inspired Andy/April relationship, compensates for the misconceived A-story.

What did everybody else think?