I was open to Ann and Tom dating for a bit in Operation Ann because Tom acted like a real person in it. (And I still think that episode was excellent.) But he's given no reasons since for her to stay with him. When they were like "April, you were right, our reasons for fighting were stupid," I wanted to yell "NO, they…

I said this last week, but I actually never agreed with the criticism of Ann up until this season. She was a very crucial - and often quite funny - player in seasons 2 and 3 as Leslie's main sounding board. And as to her other relationships - her and Brandanawicz were fine (not that funny, but they never detracted…

Jerry had a talking head, which I noticed afterwards seemed very unusual. The only other sort-of-talking-head they had with him was his brief comment to the camera in Hunting Trip (S2) about the trip being the one time a year he could pee standing up.

Haley Joel Osmond is weird-enough-looking these days that I guess he could pass as Ann/Tom-spawn.

Yes. And where had he heard of Angela Merkel?

Oh, I also assumed the Benz was a Treat Yo Self purchase, but looks like she has family money.

Granny Meagle. Who died at 83. Sandwiched between two 24-year-olds.

I find it sort of funny how the show doesn't even make a pretense that this takes place in the actual Indiana. Donna's lakehouse was so obviously nowhere in the Midwest. (And when she said it was "out on the foothills" I couldn't help but wonder - foothills of what?)

Well he didn't know anything about her sheets. Unless they went back to his place.

The Ann/Tom thing is single-handedly dragging this down. I can understand the writers see this as a funny little detour, but if they're going to have them together for a bit they at least need to have Ann credibly say what she sees in him. All they do is have Tom being super-annoying, Ann getting exasperated, then her…

Eh, maybe. Both UAN and Whitney seem to suggest that the post-Office slot isn't that plum any more. The Office doesn't have much lead-in anymore.

Up All Night does about average for NBC in the demos, but its overall ratings are a lot worse now than they were when it was on Wednesdays at 8. Ironically the move was made to give UAN a better timeslot, and it didn't happen.

I'm pretty sure there are other city planners. No reason why they'd have to show his replacement.

I feel like people are judging this episode based on expectations (both pre- and post-) rather than taking it on its own. I mean, I have complaints about this episode too, but overall I thought it was funny and far from the worst of the season. I thought Ron and Tammys, Born and Raised, Meet & Greet, and even Campaign…

I don't think Mark is coming back this season. Schur has said in interviews they have a story arc in mind for him, but it looks like the rest of the season will be focused on the campaign.

Eh, partly. But I actually think S2 was every bit as good as S3.

@avclub-33807fbc68d335db8080d3c10cb78822:disqus In Season 1, Tom's Diddy affectations are clearly just an act to keep himself from getting bored. (Granted, his pickup artist stuff was already there, though that was also toned down compared to later.) But he was clearly written as just a young guy, stuck in a boring…

I think you're reading a little too much into that line from Ben. Couples tease each other. Big deal.

Maybe he means Floyd (i.e. Jason Sudeikis' character)? Because that episode was terrible.

No I know - they ended both the Tom/Lucy thing and the Ron/Wendy thing in order to have Ron and Tammy II. What I thought was odd about the Tom/Wendy pairing was not that it ended but that they made a really big deal out of it at the end of S2, and then we actually never saw them interact in S3 - until they broke up 3…