Parks and Recreation
(2009–2020)
Andy is injured when Leslie goes out on her own to fill the hole, and he decides to sue Pawnee as a result.
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Title: Kaboom (22 Oct 2009)
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| Episode complete credited cast: | |||
| Amy Poehler | ... | Leslie Knope | |
| Rashida Jones | ... | Ann Perkins | |
| Paul Schneider | ... | Mark Brendanawicz | |
| Aziz Ansari | ... | Tom Haverford | |
| Nick Offerman | ... | Ron Swanson | |
| Aubrey Plaza | ... | April Ludgate (credit only) | |
| Chris Pratt | ... | Andy Dwyer | |
| Paul Scheer | ... | Keef Slertner | |
| Jim O'Heir | ... | Jerry Gergich | |
| Retta | ... | Donna Meagle | |
| H. Jon Benjamin | ... | Scott Braddock | |
| Chris Tallman | ... | Wendell Adams | |
Leslie, Ann and the rest of the Parks Department volunteer to help the organization KaBOOM! build a playground for a neighboring town. After building an entire playground in one day, Leslie gets frustrated at the (lack of) progress with the pit, and takes some advice from Mark to cut through the red tape. Written by NBC Publicity
"Kaboom" is an episode that has some good moments, but overall is kind of a mess and brings back some problems that arose from the first season.
The episode revolves around the idea of Leslie acting on instinct instead of permission to fill the pit after being inspired by the charitable organization KaBOOM! Led by their enthusiastic leader, Keef, played by the always reliable Paul Scheer. Now, this episode starts strong as we see everyone at the charity helping build a new park, including Andy who says he is there to "help", but is really just stealing food. However, what comes next is what I think is one of the biggest mistakes the show has made in its entire run (there aren't many). Which is filling the pit way too early in the series.
This is just my opinion of course, but I think the show could have made this a much bigger moment, possibly being in the finale of Season 2 or even 3. But kind of randomly throwing it in the middle of the sixth episode of the season doesn't do it enough justice. This was a major goal for Leslie in the pilot of the show, so obviously it's a big deal, and after this episode, it's kind of forgotten for awhile. Also, another problem I had is the use of Andy's character in this episode. One of the biggest issues I had with Season 1 was how some characters acted completely different than what they would end up becoming later on in the series. Andy Dwyer (who acted like a jerk for most of Season 1) is kind of that same old person in this episode as well. He just isn't the lovable Andy that we will grow to love which is unfortunately something I have to criticize the episode for.
This episode does have some great moments including Andy getting injured (again) and a great guest appearance by H. Jon Benjamin who plays the town's attorney. The only appearance we ever get from him in the series by the way, which I'm frankly surprised because he is absolutely hysterical in this. Also the ending has a great twist which I won't spoil, but is a nice capper. The issues I have with this episode really reside more in the middle, but like I've said before, a bad Parks episode is better than most sitcom's average episodes, so this episode absolutely is still worth watching.