Back To The Future

Parks And Recreation is back for its final thirteen, and they've decided to go weird.  Maybe it's a case of Go Big Or Go Home (or do both).  Actually, the weirdness started at the end of last season when they flashforwarded three years ahead, and we saw Leslie with triplet toddlers and a job at the National Park Service.

The new season, then, almost feels like Lost when they flashforwarded, and it took some time to figure out just what happened.  Of course, Lost didn't include jokes about Shia LaBeouf designer dresses and Kevin James taking over the Bourne series.

But last season's vision was just a hint.  In the first two new half-hours, "2017" and "Ron And Jammy" we get to see how everyone ended up.  Tom has several successful restaurants, Ron runs a successful construction business, Ben is running things in Pawnee, April has a respectable Pawnee government job, Andy has a ninja TV show--in general everyone is doing great.

But are they happy?  How could they if the plot is to keep moving forward.  Tom has no one to share his success with so he tries to hook up with an old girlfriend (who will move back to Pawnee to work with him but has a boyfriend).  April feels she and Andy have grown boring, and she's sold out her dreams so investigates becoming a mortician (before giving up on it).  The biggest shock of all--Leslie and Ron are in the middle of a feud for some as of yet unspecified reason.  After not talking for two years, they're now fighting over some Eagleton land--he wants to develop it, she wants to turn it into a national park.

But let's not skim over that too quickly--Leslie and Ron hate each other.  Their relationship has been the center of the show.  I suppose the producers wanted to shake things up, ensure we're awake.  But it's impossible to believe the two won't make up--there are already indications of that as they work together to help save Jeremy Jamm from the clutches of Tammy, Ron's ex.

So it looks like we've got enough tension to carry us through to the end, where I assume the characters will find permanent happiness.  Parks And Rec is weird, but not cruel.