Culture

[This Week in TV] Parks and Recreation, Agent Carter, Girls, Bob's Burgers

This Week in TV is a new weekly feature reviewing the best, worst and most interesting episodes of television from the past seven days. The plan is to cover a wide variety of shows, but not always the same ones each week, so let us know in the comments which ones you'd particularly like to read about. This week sees Parks and Recreation return for its final season, Lena Dunham's Girls make its fourth season debut, Hayley Atwell continue to kick ass in fabulous period clothing in Agent Carter and cult animation Bob's Burgers hit a season high point.

Parks and Recreation - "2017"/"Ron & Jammy": Parks and Rec threw quite the curveball into its final season with the reveal it would be taking place two years into the future in a growing and more prosperous version of Pawnee, a city formerly known for its slogan: 'First in friendship, fourth in obesity'. Aside from artificially intelligent tablets which may or may not wish to steal their owners' skin - just be sure to turn it off at night - the sci-fi trappings are kept firmly on the down-low, a sensible decision which nevertheless make the show's leap forward in time feel less consequential than might have been imagined.

The biggest change is that Leslie and Ron have had a big falling out over a project called Morning Star, the details of which are not disclosed. The two obviously haven't seen each other in a while when they come face to face mounting competing bids for a vast swath of parkland which Ron, who now runs a development company, wishes to commercialise, while Leslie intends to turn into a national park. Their animosity never feels particularly shocking or serious because their reconciliation and Leslie's success in turning the land into a park feel so inevitable. Even if the producers do throw in a late game twist, nothing here suggests that's likely and at the end of 'Ron & Jammy', the old friendship is already on its way to being rekindled.

Nevertheless, while Parks is a long way from its S2/3 pinnacle, it is still capable of delivering a steady supply of laughs, of which Jon Hamm's cameo early in "2017" is perhaps the biggest and most unexpected ("He's very stupid."). Aziz Ansari's silky bluster as Tom continues to be a goldmine of easy laughs, particularly when set against Adam Scott's desert-dry incredulousness as Ben: the sight of the pair of them breaking down in tears at Tom's real introductory speech for Ben's award (having previously hijacked the moment for self-promotion) was magnificent proof of how well the two actors work together. Ben is one of television's best anchors for larger than life characters, which also made his scenes with the unhinged Joan Calamezzo an additional treat.

Megan Mullally's Tammy ("She's here...") is another who never fails, in no small part since she's usually reserved to a single appearance per season, preventing fatigue from settling into what is essentially a one-joke character. Fortunately it's a very good joke and Mullally continues to play the hell out of it, particularly in her deranged disrobing in the library and the staff's total indifference to what was going on. Meanwhile, a dreary Andy and April subplot was salvaged by the appearance of Werner Herzog (naturally), making 'Ron & Jammy' an episode where the guest stars very much stole the show.

Girls - "Iowa": Girls picked up where it left off last season in story and tone, representative of a show confident in its voice if unlikely to win over any of its haters anytime soon. For the record I'm a fan, and it continues to amuse no end how the show's detractors persist in complaining that its biggest flaw is Lena Dunham supposedly presenting herself as 'the voice of her generation' despite the fact that, in the throughly insecure and self-absorbed Hannah, she's clearly enjoying dismantling the idea of anyone heaping such pretentious accolades upon themselves.

Nevertheless, Hannah is enjoying some success, having been accepted to a writers' school in Iowa following a successful stint writing for a magazine last season. The opening dinner scene between her and her parents is very funny, a back-and-forth of barbed compliments and put-downs. Meanwhile, Adam's burgeoning acting career is proving rife with creative frustrations - a hilariously terrible depression meds commercial he's starring in has apparently had all the best story bits edited out - and Marnie's trainwreck of a life continues to be as gratifying as ever. She starts off well enough, getting her salad tossed by her bandmate, with whom she's having an affair, but it's all downhill from there until she's being heckled off-stage in tears by an unimpressed child. Superb.

Once again, Dunham continues to show little idea of what to do with Shoshana or Jessa, despite both being amusing enough in their limited appearances. We meet Shosh's parents, who are every bit as terrible as expected, while Jessa calling Hannah out on the hypocrisy of pursuing her dreams outside New York is a clear cover for her own inability to find any sort of stability in her life.

Marvel's Agent Carter - "Time and Tide": Agent Carter got off to a solid if not especially substantial start last week with two episodes providing plenty of excitement and a charismatic central performance from Hayley Atwell, but not much beneath the surface. The third episode slows things down a little, offering a more in-depth look at the double lives of its central characters. Peggy continues to struggle to keep her investigations secret and one step ahead of her employers at SSR (Strategic Scientific Reserve), the cost of which is also taking its toll on her personal life. Another colleague turns up dead by the end of the episode and while Peggy wasn't as close to him as to her murdered roommate Colleen last week, the guilt still weighs heavily on her shoulders. The closing shot of her sitting at the bar, about to confide to a very limited extent to Angie, was nicely representative of distance she's forced to maintain even among those she'd like to call friends.

Meanwhile, we also learn a little more about Jarvis' past. Peggy is distraught to discover that even he has secrets, having narrowly avoided being charged with treason after being kicked out of the British army for forging a general's signature to save his Jewish wife during WW2. It's a welcome shot of depth for a character who has previously been little more than an amusing caricature, but diminished by the decision to keep Mrs. Jarvis off-screen, robbing the revelation of any emotional weight without a face to put to the name. It also feels as though Jarvis disclosed the full story a little too soon, where it might have made his relationship with Peggy a little livelier had he held out on his initial reticence for an episode or two.

As for the wider plot arcs, we learn how Stark's technology was stolen, which never feels any more substantial than time wasted on an acilliary detail, and the reveal that the symbol teased last week was pointing towards the ship where the stolen goods were being stored was a fairly limp payoff. Leviathan continues to be little more than a threatening name for anyone without comic foreknowledge, but the mysterious female assassin who kills Krzeminski is made slightly more interesting by a new girl, Dottie, moving in next door to Peggie in her weirdly conversative housing block. The action scenes are effective, if over-edited, and Carter continues a much stronger push out of the gate than Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. managed but could still do with shifting up a gear or two if it is ever to fulfil its great potential.

Bob's Burgers - "Speakeasy Rider": After an inconsistent fourth season, Bob's Burgers has been steadily finding its feet again in recent weeks and following in the footsteps of the wonderful "Tina Tailor Soldier Spy" and 'Midday Run', 'Speakeasy Rider' suggests a show getting back to its best. It's a great sign of how strong the supporting cast is that so many characters could return for this one episode, whether in cameos (Critter and Mudfap from S3's "Ear-sy Rider") or more prominent roles (Bryce from "Full Bars", health inspector Hugo and Mr. Fischoeder), and feel welcome and familiar despite having been absent for so long. Hugo, in particular, was wonderful to have back and his frustrated antagonism makes him one of Bob's most enjoyable opponents. His job makes him a serious threat to the restaurant, but blinding insecurity and the ridiculousness of his demands (opening at 6am) make him delightfully unpredictable and ridiculous.

None of the plots had any great stakes, with Bob's speakeasy always feeling half-hearted and Gene's interest in flag waving even less than that, but the charisma between the leads and returning supporting characters (Louise to Mr. Fischoeder: "I missed you, where've you been?" "Oh... around.") elevated the dialogue to terrific heights. The episode's focus was always on the conflict between Tina and Louise in the go-kart league and while it was fun to see Tina confronting her sister for a change, it was a shame that she had to be the one to make the conciliary gesture at the end. On the one hand, it's definitely in character, but it still would've been nice for Louise to acknowledge in some way that she sometimes takes unfair advantage of her sister's malleability. Still, the racing scenes were a lot of fun and Bob and Linda turning up to watch the climactic showdown was as great as it always is when the Belcher parents realise what unsupervised adventures their children have been off having on their own, only to shrug and turn out to support them anyway.

by Xander Markham