Parks and Recreation Recap: Ms. Knope Goes to Washington

Four months felt like a long time, right? But now that “Parks and Recreation” has returned, it’s hard to know what to think anymore.

First: the name “Parks and Recreation” suggests a very particular setting and milieu, but the characters seem to be outgrowing it. Leslie Knope is now a member of the Pawnee City Council. Ben Wyatt is working in Washington, D.C., with April Ludgate in tow. Ron Swanson is taking on greater responsibilities in the Parks Department in Leslie’s absence, with the strong possibility of climbing even higher.

What is strange is that, despite these obvious changes, this episode was full of the same character notes we’ve seen over and over. Yes, Tom constantly has horrid ideas for fashion accessories. Yes, Ron is a man’s man confounded by the bourgeois hang-ups of those around him. Leslie eats up her visit to Washington, D.C., wanting to go see every piece of presidential history minutiae she can. April slips china plates into her purse at a congressional cocktail party, and Andy wears his “MouseRat” T-shirt and is as dumb as ever.

Maybe the long break has made them seem especially stale, but as their lives have become consistently more complicated, these characters are starting to feel limited. Why don’t they grow? Why don’t they change? The entire history of the series is beginning to look meaningless. Leslie Knope started out incompetent at her job and awkwardly fixated on Mark Brendanawicz. Now, she’s a city councilwoman in a committed relationship with Ben Wyatt, yet the character does not seem to have changed in the slightest. She’s still just perky, happy, and innocent…isn’t there more there?

And it’s finally time to say it: Leslie and Ben does not work. The characters are both likable people, but Amy Poehler and Adam Scott have no chemistry whatsoever. What is more, the characters are too much alike to allow for any conflict. Over the last two seasons, a great deal of the show’s energy has been focused on developing this relationship, and it is not getting any value in return. And this lack of value in return is becoming a glaring flaw.

The strange thing is that the relationship the show’s makers refuse to ever take seriously, Tom Haverford and Ann Perkins, has such incredible possibilities. Rashida Jones and Aziz Ansari work great together, and the idea of these two very different people at loggerheads with one another has endless comic possibilities, plus it is organically tied into the show’s history, going back to the very first episode.

But no. “Haverkins” is a background gag in episode after episode of Ben and Leslie’s semi-married bliss, as dull and placid as the National Mall we visited this week.

This premiere was not bad, but like too many episodes last season, it did not cross the line from competent to exceptional. And if “Parks and Recreation” has a future, things need to get shaken up.