Well, spoiler in the title, the government shuts down; it turns out it’s hard to keep that from happening when you’re shouting at each other over blasting EMD beats. The plot in this episode that really, really works has to do with Selina’s garbage; say no more but Tony Hale and Tim Simons do wonderful work as the mismatched pair sent to a local garbage dump to retrieve something incriminating from Selina’s garbage. Another plot that works really well has to do with a guy killed by a bear in a National Park; he was close to a Ranger’s Station when it happened – of course, no Rangers were in evidence due to the shutdown. This plot really captures the way complex stories get boiled down to sensationalist narratives and it’s pretty funny. There’s one massive laugh that comes from this storyline. Anyway, this one’s a bit of a letdown after the last two, but it’s a solid enough episode. Conditionally recommended. 3 stars.
tl;dr – a government shutdown doesn’t provide quite the laughs you might expect, but this episode isn’t bad, just not as excellent as this season has been so far. 3 stars.