Tomorrow night’s “Parks and Recreation” – titled “Flu Season 2,” though it wisely doesn’t try to simply replicate the beats of the show’s funniest episode – is one of my favorites of this season, with a good mix of big laughs and big emotion, and a moment for everyone in the cast to shine. There isn’t a Ron Swanson story in there, necessarily, but he spends most of the episode as a sounding board for Ben, and in the process Nick Offerman once again reminds you how much he can do with very little material.
Comic minimalism has long been his strength on this show (remember that Mike Schur says they figured the character out in the episode where Ron sneezed himself into a hernia and could barely move or speak), and it’s been a delight watching how many different emotions he can convey with very little change of expression, and with that great big mustache obscuring his mouth half the time. NBC put together an Offerman highlight reel – titled “The Swanson Way” – to remind you of the man’s genius, and it’s exclusive to HitFix right now. Enjoy.