I think why this makes me so mad is that the writers being so unaware of how unpleasent they've made Tom is exactly what happened with Michael and The Office. You simply cannot have a guy be as selfish, pathetic, stupid, etc as Tom's been this season and then expect Ann of all people to be interested in him. It worked as a bit in the previous ep because it made sense that Ann might go to dinner with him when he exposed his more human side.

Then they have this ep, where all of Tom's negative traits (and not even the wanna-be alpha male ones that in theory might be appealing, but the baby talking, infantile, bull**** that no woman ever would tolerate) and Ann doesn't instantly walk away?

It's just such bad writing, such bad awareness of the characters, it shatters any faith I had in the show. (especially when you couple that with the character assassination on Dave). Per IMDB, Daniels and Schur are the only credited writers, which makes it even worse)

The Duke Silver stuff, which was a bit funny- was still written with everybody being just slightly stupider than they've been previously written. Basically everybody but Leslie was out of character, (I thought the Ben bit with the cops was too silly, although really well played by Adam Scott).

I love this show. I want it to be good. It makes me incredibly sad and angry to see it make the same damn mistakes The Office did

I miss Entertainment 720 Tom.

Harris Wittels of Analyze Phish fame wrote last night's episode.

That makes me feel slightly better.

YO HARRIS, IF I SEE YOU IN THE STREET, IT WON'T BE NICE. I WILL INSULT YOUR SHOES.

Ya that's the bull**** premise behind 93% of romantic comedies where this gorgeous, intelligent girl somehow can't find a date. Count me in the group that really didn't like the Tom/Ann plot, however I didn't mind Dave's characterization at all. Yes Dave is a very different character since we left him, he is also in an incredibly desperate mode and Parks and Rec regularly have characters act in outsized/cartoonish ways in certain contexts. Ben acts like a spaz in front of cops, Chris gets depressed and plays funeral music, etc. it's not a betrayal of a character to have him act weirdly in a desperate situation.

agreed. thats the biggest problem I have with this show... I think its lame that all the characters end up dating each other. hopin they kill the ann and tom fling asap

They had it perfectly set up to be a one episode thing. Ann is feeling a little down on Valentines Day, Tom makes her laugh a little and April sets up their date, but then she comes to her senses when Tom acts like Tom, and it's a perfectly self contained one episode storyline. There's no reason to drag it into a second episode in such a clunky way unless they plan on going somewhere with it, but there's no way to salvage it given how awful it was and how pathetic it made both characters look. I should also point out that even if it wasn't done so badly, it still would be tough to work out since neither character is all that strong on their own and need to play off of the stronger characters, so it was pretty much doomed from the start.

i dont find this guy funny at all. well, that's unfair, im sure ive liked some of his other episodes, but in interviews, i hate him.

obviously humblebrag was a great idea too

I obviously agree the writing was poor, in terms of continuity but there's way to much hate for such a funny ep. They made it work, IMO.

I don't even think the tom/Ann plot is *that* bad. It's not like she was serious with the "you wore me down" line. Nor was Tom serious with the singing. It seemed like he was admitting he's super lame but Ann seems to like him despite the lameness and she should just go for it. I agree it's a stretch but not outlandish for them to date a few times (or even longer if Tom's character develops well).

As for Louis ck, I think I'm closer to pudge then the rest. I'm fine with the character acting weird in the situation but they just went a bit far. It was funny, though, so I don't really care.

This show has always taken its characters to extremes. It's better when the characters' actions make sense but I don't think it takes away too much from the show's overall quality.

I actually liked the Dave/Ben/Leslie bits, and some of the Duke Silver stuff.

For those hoping that it's a big gag with Tom, I'm starting to think it's not. He just doesn't seem to get it. He used to be one of my favorite characters, but he is so past the line of douchiness that he's hard to watch now. They need to rein that character in big time, or he could really start polarizing viewers (if he hasn't been already, lately).

The thing that was great about Dave's character is that he was more grounded and stable and that Leslie brought out a bit of life in him. Having him get just insane felt really wrong. Now perhaps I would have been able to tolerate/justify that if the rest of the ep wasn't written with the same disregard for the characters. (both Andy and April were slightly out of character as well, just in funny ways, but it still struck me as lazy writing when you're bending the characters to fit your jokes).

would anyone be opposed to seeing an entire episode of Duke Silver? it opens on the office wondering where Ron is, Leslie tells them he took a couple days off, and we follow him to a few gigs, and it's just all Ron with maybe one or two shots of hte rest of the crew? Kind of a bottle episode where everything is put on hold for a week to do a stand alone story about Ron/Duke.

I'd snap call on that.

Pretty much any Ron focused episode is a snapcall

Taaaaaake me out to the ballllgame

weird, only glanced over the posts here but I can probably list 10 lol moments in this episode if I rewatched.

A good amount of Ben/Police stuff though, and I liked Andy's mug of honey
April was good too this episode (the 2 scenes with Jerry + the talk with Ron in the beginning)

Agree however with taking the characters to extremes which obviously distracts from the jokes (and is def. worrysome for the future of the show ).
I was entertained by the episode though

edit: also was I the only one that laughed at the 'if you two spoon, who spoons who?' line?

I don't want an all-Ron ep unless Andy goes along as his sidekick.

I agree that Dave's character was a little too "confident" in his weirdness, if that's what you're trying to say. I always viewed him as the "Thanks for the dance" type guy, when you have the awkward moment of stepping in someone's path (he's the guy in the path who doesn't smoothly get out of the way). I still thought he was really "funny", but it would have been nice for him to be more awkward/shy about what he was doing than just creepy and slightly awkward.

would have to be April

April and Ron are missing, only Andy knows. The department thinks Ron and April ran away together, so they go on the search. All the while, Andy is fighting the urge to not let their secret out. He tries to keep them off the case, but in classic Andy fashion, leads them right to a Duke Silver show, outing Ron in the process.

there. that's your episode.

Or, if you don't want him to be found out, he slips out just in time again to keep the mystery alive.

I'm rooting for some kind of Regarding Henry-style plot for Tom in the near future. Maybe it'll give him a personality-ectomy.

The best thing to do is have an intervention episode that literally only has Ron, April, and Tom (maybe Ann, but I'm not sure).

I was thinking the only way this works is if Ann's pulling a long con to get revenge on him for being such a douche. I would enjoy that.

(on Tom, people forget that even with the 720 stuff he was a total dick to Leslie. He's been loathsome all season)

louis ck makes me love everything he comes in contact with

Tom's BS this ep was so bad that I forgot how much I disliked this bit as well.

rare miss, this one

I can't tell if Louis' acting is worse on Parks or in The Invention of Lying. He has terrible beats, terrible emphasis, terrible pacing.