HitFix First Look: A 'Parks and Recreation' gift-giving dilemma
What can Leslie's friends get her to equal what she gives them?
Rob Lowe and Amy Poehler in a scene from this week's "Parks and Recreation" Christmas episode.
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It's Christmas in Pawnee on this week's "Parks and Recreation," in what may be my favorite episode of the season so far. They've done a bunch of episodes that have been insanely funny ("Ron & Tammys," "The Treaty") and many that have been incredibly sweet ("End of the World," last week's "The Trial of Leslie Knope"), but Thursday's "Citizen Knope" comes at you hard with both barrels.
Without giving too much away, the episode deals with what both Leslie and Ben are up to professionally in the wake of what happened at the end of last week's episode, while the rest of her friends and co-workers are struggling with a tricky holiday question: what do you get for the woman who, year after year, gets you the most creative, thoughtful, awesome Christmas presents?
It's an outstanding half-hour, and representative of everything that's made me love "Parks and Rec" so much this year. You'll all get to enjoy it Thursday night at 8:30, but to whet your appetites, here's an early scene - exclusive to HitFix for the evening - from the Christmas gift subplot, as we see just how high a bar Leslie sets in terms of gift-giving. All her selections are fantastic, but April's present is probably my favorite. Enjoy.
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About This Blog
All through his childhood, Alan Sepinwall's relatives told his parents, "All that boy does is watch television! How's he going to make a living doing that?" His career as a TV critic has been 15 years and counting of his attempt to answer their concerns. "What's Alan Watching" is a blog whose title is self-explanatory: Alan watches TV shows, then writes about what he watched. He can be reached at sepinwall@hitfix.com
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December 6, 2011 at 6:36PM EST Reply to CommentApril's gift is my favorite but Ron's reaction nearly brought me to tears from laughing so hard.
Sometimes this show is perfect.
TJ Oh man. I'm almost upset I watched that. Completely out of context to the episode, and yet Ron's Present is easily one of the best moments in the show's history. That was amazing.
December 6, 2011 at 7:00PM ESTCol Bat Guano Slaughtering the Black Eyed Peas was good, but bringing Ron Swanson to tears topped it.
December 7, 2011 at 3:01AM ESTKristina
December 6, 2011 at 6:43PM EST Reply to CommentOh my God April's gift is pretty epic but Ron's was probably the best I LITERALLY laughed out loud. It was so good it makes me furious.
Jayme Just curious. Literally in the literal sense or literally in the Chris Traeger sense?
December 7, 2011 at 2:22PM ESTkt
December 6, 2011 at 6:55PM EST Reply to CommentAw, Leslie's so sweet.
I love that character so much.
Tuffie L'Rue
December 6, 2011 at 6:59PM EST Reply to CommentI think Ron's is the best! It's SO perfect for him that it's ridiculous.
LJA
December 6, 2011 at 7:08PM EST Reply to CommentAwesome sauce.
Marie
December 6, 2011 at 7:25PM EST Reply to CommentI wonder what Leslie got for Ben.
Petrie She's been suspended and he is out of a job. Whatever she gave him, she probably gave it to him repeatedly.
December 6, 2011 at 8:00PM ESTTammy
December 6, 2011 at 8:16PM EST Reply to CommentIt's a shame that the NBC Store doesn't sell poster-sized prints of any of the paintings on the show. If it did, I would probably buy Jerry's painting first (the sight of Tom in that one never fails to make me laugh), but this would also be a must-buy. They're all so delightfully strange.
EMSC
December 6, 2011 at 9:42PM EST Reply to CommentDammit Alan you gave me Parks and Rec blue balls!
ItsOnLikeDonkeyKong
December 6, 2011 at 10:32PM EST Reply to CommentOmg, I'm so jealous, I want April's gift!
ItsOnLikeDonkeyKong
December 6, 2011 at 10:33PM EST Reply to CommentI'm so jealous of April's gift.
Marissa
December 6, 2011 at 11:55PM EST Reply to CommentSeriously, this show is the only thing that gets me through the week.
Innocent Food Stuff
December 7, 2011 at 3:19AM EST Reply to CommentI laugh the second Aubrey Plaza comes on the screen. She is perfection in this role. Perfection my friends.
gladly
December 8, 2011 at 12:19AM EST Reply to CommentThey've made Donna's role ever-so-slightly bigger it seems this year, and I love her. Her robe is magnificent. One day, NBC will run out failed pilots and supersize a P&R episode. Probably not, but I can dream.