(S01E03) I know I said last week's episode was titled "The Reporter." That's what the online sources had and it was supposed to be the second episode. Instead, the scheduled third episode "Canvassing" was bumped up and that's what we saw as episode number two. (Ed. note: I fixed the title on the previous post - Joel) This happens in TV land all the time, though it's odd to do it on a six episode series that has a sort of progression. Still, I should have been more vigilant and kept up with it. If I could just convince the upper brass at the networks to CC me on these kinds of decisions!

The only hint I got that these were aired out of order was early on this episode when Ann talks about how Leslie put together a committee in less than a week (which was in the first episode) and how this was her first experience with government. There was no mention of "last week" and the disastrous town hall meeting ... because technically it hasn't happened yet. Parks & Recreation time travel! I guess it's just too tempting for the suits to futz with the air order of new series.

Other than that, things were pretty self-contained. The story went about as well as you'd expect it to and Leslie was about as good an interview subject as you'd expect. What we did get out of it, though, was some more character development for Mark (Paul Schneider). We already knew that Leslie had a crush on her, but up to this point he's sort of come across as this pretty cool guy who's nice to her because he ... well he seems to kind of pity her.

But now we learn that he's also a bit of a douche, and pretty stupid in his own right. More to the point, he's incredibly self-absorbed. First, when tasked with trying to convince the reporter to write a nice piece, he proceeds to sleep with her. Then to prolong the lovemaking, he tells her to just come back to bed because that park is never, ever, ever, ever going to get made and he's stunned to find out she might used that in the story. Well, he can fix that, right?

You'd think so. He actually does a fine job and she even agrees to retract his comments and lighten the tone of the story, but she's doing so because they're romantically involved. Fine, sure, great, right? No, Mark can't have that. Sure they hooked up but he needed to make it very clear that he didn't see much beyond that. Because Mark can't see beyond his own ego, which Leslie is oblivious to because she's in love with him. I was pleased to see some more depth given to another member of the cast, even if it's not exactly quality depth.

We also got a strange Scrabble exchange that goes down between head honcho Ron and slacker Tom. At first Tom appears to be painfully awful at Scrabble, losing to Ron every time. Ron ribs him pretty hard for it. Later, we find out that Tom is intentionally losing to the boss, but since he doesn't care about the job or much of anything, why does he care about Ron's ego?

In the end it turns out that Ron knows Tom's letting him win and he puts up with it because Tom with no ambition, drive, social skills or capabilities whatsoever is exactly the kind of government employee Ron is looking for. Dear god is Tom in trouble if anyone else ever shows up to oversee things.

I'm starting to like a few of these characters a little bit, though I'm not really connecting with Leslie herself. I don't mind idiots as main characters, as I think it can work quite well, there's just something about her that's not clicking with me the right way. Tom, Ron, Mark, Ann, Andy and even April are bringing more to the show right now than she is. But maybe that's the point. Surround yourself with greatness (we'll see if they can achieve that level) and you become better by association?