Parks and Recreation “Citizen Knope” Review

Poor Leslie! That’s my first thought about Parks and Recreation this week. With the scandal of sleeping with Ben out in the open and her suspension still in place, she’s pretty much going crazy. So crazy in fact, that she starts a private citizen’s group called “PCP” to take up some of her time. The group doesn’t last too long, and Leslie is also left with some pretty disturbing news: her campaign consultants have polled Pawnee, and her votes are down to 1%. Poor thing. They then drop another bomb on her: they will no longer be helping with her campaign. Candidates don’t really recover from 1%.

Meanwhile, Ben is trying to find a job in the private sector after he resigned in shame. After several interviews he actually turns down a position (because of advice from a very unlikely source) and it seems that Ben may be spreading his wings outside of Pawnee in the near future. While it wasn’t explicitly said in “Citizen Knope”, Ben is going to be looking for a job that he wants to do – something that he’s passionate about… who wants to bet this affects his and Leslie’s relationship and opens the door for him to exit stage right? I really don’t want that to happen. I love Ben and Leslie, but I’m not sure where exactly Ben will fit in now that he’s not working for the parks department.

Which, speaking of the department, it’s Christmas time and everyone is attempting to make a thoughtful gift for Leslie. What do they come up with? A gingerbread model of the office. It’s actually a great idea and turns out to be really cute (which is exactly what the staff was going for), but they also give Leslie a better gift. Chris lifts her suspension, and everyone else is stepping into help her with her election campaign.

That’s right, Leslie Knope is still going to run for office with the help of her friends. It was really sweet to see everyone (even Tom) step up and be willing to put their lives on hold to help Leslie win this election. While she can be a bit… much sometimes, Leslie really means well and deserves to have supportive friends, which is exactly what everyone turned out to be. With the exception of Gerry. He had no idea what was going on.

Overall, a great Parks and Recreation episode that, while lacking in laughs, left me with the warm fuzzies.