Sorry for missing last week. My sister was getting married, and it put the kibosh on reviewing the Parks and Rec opener, which I wasn’t even aware had premiered until it came up during the reception, between one of my friends and cousin Jane, both of whom raved about it while I bit my tongue, cheek, lip, and anything with gnawing range for having missed it.

They also mentioned that next week’s episode would feature a drinking contest between Tammy I, Ron’s mom, and Leslie. Add to that the fact that the episode is titled “Ron & Tammys,” the Ron-and-Tammy episodes being among the series’ best, I was very excited for tonight.

But to back up a bit, we’re finally introduced to what we can only believe is the demon whose evil outdoes even Satan (Tammy II): Tammy I (Patricia Clarkson, looking sexy in an appropriately red dress). The cliffhanger that Season 3 ended on, where Leslie told Ron that Tammy I was waiting in his office (and scaring away Tammy II with a mere shot of I’s shoes) certainly lived up to the hype, and, just to reinforce it, there was a great scene last week when Tammy I put April in her place (and further magnified the threat by having her work for the IRS and auditing Ron).

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You already know the premise: A jilted/disillusioned–with-love-20/30-something revisits his/her past lovers to understand why he/she can’t find love, and finally realizes that her true love has been right there all along, in one form or another.

In this case, the Disillusionee is Ally Darling (Anna Faris), a recently-fired-then-slept-with-her-boss 20/30-something who reads a magazine article that says women who’ve slept with over 20 partners tend to not find true love. Ally is at number 19. Fearful of the consequences, she makes the decision that the next new guy she sleeps with will be the guy she marries. She also decides to seek out her former boyfriends/casual hookups, hoping to reignite some of the past’s embers and hence keep her number at 19.

There’s more than a passing similarity to High Fidelity in the premise and also in the choice to have several notable comedians—Andy Samberg, Parks and Rec’s (and Faris’s real-life husband) Chris Pratt, the BBCOffice’s Martin Freeman, Zachary Quinto (not so much a comedian, but hey)—and the perfect guy who’s been there all along is her next-door neighbor Colin (Captain America’s Chris Evans).

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The upcoming film Moneyball has already had its share of problems. After being shutdown only days from shooting in 2009, the film finally found its way back into production with a new director, Bennett Miller, and will be released later this year.

As the release is getting closer, we’ve got the first trailer for the film today from the folks over at Yahoo Movies. In this one we get an earnest Brand Pitt and a rebellous and wisecracking Jonah Hill.

Together, they make an unusual odd couple but at least in the trailer, the odd pairing seems to work. Now if the film can only live up to all the hype surrounding it and Pitt and Hill can really pull things off.

Well then, friends, we may just have a homerun on our hands. See what I did there? Sports metaphors and all that. . . nevermind.

Moneyball, which in addition to Pitt and Hill features Philip Seymour Hoffman, Robin Wright and Chris Pratt, hits theaters on September 23rd. Check out the trailer after the break.

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You didn’t think I’d let the season finale of Parks & Rec go by without a writeup (however late), did you? Well, given my inability to balance it among The Office recaps and the usual movie reviews and whatever else is kicking around in my head and just oozing to be ignored, I can’t blame you.

I did, in fact, have a recap of the season’s best episode “Ron and Tammy II,” but it ran to over a 1,000+ words, and I still hadn’t scratched the surface of its brilliance (“Real piece of work…”), so sometimes quality overtakes quantity regarding something or other that probably likely also begins with “q.”

But that’s not to say that recapping the final two episodes is a mild attempt to do them justice, it’s just a shorter, briefer form of justice. A McJustice. Plus both of them were awesome enders to an equally awesome season.

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