In the beginning she insists on interviewing for her new role as head of department, even though the job is already hers, demanding special treatment in the end when Ron interviews her as he would anyone else. Enthusiasm with no vent or direction is a destructive force, and Leslie bizarrely enough reigns over “New Beginnings” as a marauding wave of negativity. If not handled correctly, the story of Leslie Knope could turn into When Perkiness Attacks. Ron thinks she should leave Tom to sink or swim in his new role, which she does eventually do, but only after an episode of hectoring on her part. Tom needs to make a big presentation to the council to run through the positive points of the venture, which he is all set to do, when Leslie freaks out about what she perceives as his inability to do even the simplest task. Knowing this, Tom – in his role as Business Liason – reaches out to a local lemonade company to run the stand.

The story here is that Stu, owner of a stew stand in one of the city’s parks, wants to retire. Leslie just lingers around, casting aspersions on Tom’s abilities in his new self-created job role of Business Liason (which he excels at in the end, here at least) and bugging Ron about her concerns. What we get instead is a hodgepodge filler episode where not much happens at all except Chris and Ann decide not to marry, maybe.

When you think about it, “New Beginnings” would have been a great title for last week’s episode, as opposed to this week’s.

Watch parks and rec season 6 episode 1