This show is so terribly written and not funny that it doesn't warrant a real review -- except that I will say that it's obviously trying quite hard to be an Arrested Development rip-off with its characters -- but rather, a list of the moments from the pilot episode that made me cringe So, without further ado...

Zero Dark Veep? That could have been the title of this week's episode, "Hostages," in which the administration finally did something about that Uzbekistan hostage crisis that's been simmering on the backburner since the premiere.

If nothing else, "Basic Human Anatomy" demonstrated the advantage of having an Oscar-winning screenwriter finally on your writing staff. On the heels of last week's Christmas-themed debacle, Jim "Dean Pelton" Rash swooped in and saved the series at the 11th hour episode, penning the only successful high concept half hour so far this season. The high concept in question was body switching, that old staple of '70s and '80s comedies like Vice Versa (sorry Abed, we dig that one, Judge Reinhold and all), Like Father, Like Son and Freaky Friday (not the Lindsay Lohan version -- the 1976 Jodie Foster-starring, fortune cookie-free original), the latter of which caused buddies Abed and Troy to trade identities just in time for Troy to make a big decision about his ill-advised romance with Britta.

I like mini golf as much as the next person with a soul and warm blood, but "Swing Vote" didn't work for me. The characters didn't do anything particularly interesting, the storylines were contrived, the conceit of the episode was in most cases, literally, "Well, I guess none of this really mattered," and it generally just felt like the writers went on vacation and left outlines to a bunch of substitutes about what each Pawnee friend is like and how plots usually go for a group. I wouldn't say that Parks and Recreation has run its course, nor do I think next week's Season 5 finale should also be the series finale, but episodes like this do make me wonder how much farther the show can take these characters without feeling like it's spinning its wheels each week. In any event, I hope that this is the last we see of Jenny Slate's Mona-Lisa, who is unfortunately the poster child of why "Swing Vote" wasn't very good.

With the midterm cluster[redacted] behind them, "Signals" sends Selina Meyer and her staff on to the next disaster, which in this case awaits them in North Carolina where a pig picnic organized by the state's pork board will serve as the launching pad for POTUS's new "U.S. Hay" campaign aimed at increasing the administration's facetime with rural America. Selina is being dispatched to attend this bit of political theater, but two personal bombshells trip her up from the jump. First, her daughter Catherine pens a controversial review of the pro-Palestinian (and Oscar-nominated) documentary 5 Broken Cameras that threatens to upset ties with Israel. Then, a tabloid report exposes all the secret signals she and her staff use to extricate her from unpleasant situations... like a pig roast. Given all that tsuris, it's no wonder that the tart-tongued insults were flying fast and furious last night. Here were the episode's finest put-downs.

The first scene of "Jerry's Retirement" has the triumphant return of Ben's Letters to Cleo shirt, so you knew it was going to be fun. I didn't love it as much as "Article Two," but the premise of Jerry retiring was hilarious, and it only further confirms my theory that in the season finale, we'll learn that Leslie, April and Ann are all pregnant... you know, assuming there's a bit of a time-jump or something. Until then, let's do this:

"Article Two" and "Jerry's Retirement" are easily two highlights of the fifth Parks and Recreation season -- though for the sake of transparency, they aired at a time when I really needed a laugh.

The Community gang celebrated Christmas last night, but all that audiences got from "Intro to Knots" was a lump of coal. The premise was the fatal flaw on last week's all-puppet outing, but in this case execution was the thing that proved to be lacking. Conceived in part as an homage to Alfred Hitchcock's one-set, one-take, real-time feature film stunt Rope, "Knots" was built around the most consistent element Community has had going for it during this all-over-the-map fourth season -- the cast -- and, unfortunately, they dropped the ball. Maybe it was the aftermath of Chevy Chase's departure (this episode was filmed after he quit the show, necessitating Ken Jeong's presence as the study group's sixth wheel) or maybe it was the simple exhaustion that sets in after ten episodes are in the can with three left to shoot, but there was a noticeable disconnect between the performers and the material throughout the half-hour. Only guest star Malcolm McDowell seemed to have any energy and he spent the majority of the episode tied up (or so we assumed) in a chair.

While I probably wouldn't recommend someone who's never seen Awkward to watch "Cha-Cha-Cha-Changes"/"Responsibly Irresponsible" as a way to understand what all the hype is about, as a fan of the show, I'm so happy that it's back and as dark as ever. The problems the show's always had are still there -- Val's role, the emotional intelligence of Lacey, the bizarrely silent extras (or is that new?), Tamara's speech patterns, the more ridiculously cartoonish moments -- and I think Jenna's pregnancy scare felt out-of-nowhere and was really oddly acted between Ashley Rickards and Nikki Deloach. Still, there were some pretty great gags last night that cracked me up and made me hope I was at least half as wise-beyond-my-years in high school as Jenna Hamilton is. Given that I really appreciate MTV letting this show continue to exist, I'll resist nitpicking and instead go over the highlights:

It's been some time since Vince Vaughn has actually been in a movie that anybody gave a damn about, so seeing him hosting Saturday Night Live this past weekend was kind of like falling down the rabbit hole and emerging in the year 2005, when Wedding Crashers was the biggest thing in comedy. Not coincidentally, Vaughn's newest movie, The Internship (due in theaters in June) re-teams him with his now similarly irrelevant Crashers co-star, Owen Wilson, who surprisingly didn't stop by for a cameo appearance. In fact, there were no special guest stars at all, leaving Vaughn to be one of the few hosts this season who has had to carry the show all by his lonesome. And boy did he really suck at it. You know, as much as the stunt cameo thing can hurt SNL, this week's crop of sketches were so clunky and painfully protracted, they would actually have benefitted from a celebrity drive-by or two if only to liven things up and distract from the host's clearly disinterested presence. Here were the Vaughn-centric sketches most in need of a celebrity cameo.