It’s Christmas in Pawnee on this week’s “Parks and Recreation,” in what may be my favorite episode of the season so far. They’ve done a bunch of episodes that have been insanely funny (“Ron & Tammys,” “The Treaty”) and many that have been incredibly sweet (“End of the World,” last week’s “The Trial of Leslie Knope”), but Thursday’s “Citizen Knope” comes at you hard with both barrels.
Without giving too much away, the episode deals with what both Leslie and Ben are up to professionally in the wake of what happened at the end of last week’s episode, while the rest of her friends and co-workers are struggling with a tricky holiday question: what do you get for the woman who, year after year, gets you the most creative, thoughtful, awesome Christmas presents?
It’s an outstanding half-hour, and representative of everything that’s made me love “Parks and Rec” so much this year. You’ll all get to enjoy it Thursday night at 8:30, but to whet your appetites, here’s an early scene – exclusive to HitFix for the evening – from the Christmas gift subplot, as we see just how high a bar Leslie sets in terms of gift-giving. All her selections are fantastic, but April’s present is probably my favorite. Enjoy.