‘Central Park’ Recap: ‘A Triptych Down Memory Lane’

Written by John Edward Betancourt

Caution: This article contains spoilers for Episode 304 of ‘Central Park’. To revisit the season three premiere, click here.
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For the most part, movies and television shows work hard to keep the mundane little moments of life, off of the silver and small screen and with good reason. After all, we’re in the theater or on our couches to be entertained, so, if possible, we’d like to not see the simple stuff that we deal with on a daily basis in our quality entertainment. But now and again, you run into shows and movies… that work to defy that particular rule. Simply because they believe they can find value in the little things we do and create a compelling story revolving around that and one such show that abides by that particular edict is Central Park on Apple TV+.
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Simply because, this is a series that not only wants to stand out from the rest, but it really wants to plunge us into the lives of everyday people and remind us of our shared experiences in this life. It just so happens that some toe-tapping tunes will accompany those moments and well… this is a series that succeeds at this particular quest. Because time and time again, we find ourselves compelled to see where the little moments present in this series take us and how on earth this show can make them interesting and well, the show’s ability to thrive in showing us the mundane is top of mind today, simply because it once again put that on display.

For when we catch up with the Tillerman family in ‘A Triptych Down Memory Lane’, it is just another day. One where the cable guy is coming to make sure their connection is working and where Owen and Paige are working hard to get the new park campaign rolling and to keep rolling on her novel, respectively, while trying to go about their daily duties, and well… that alone is something we can relate to. Since so many of us have big things, we’re working on and pushing to accomplish on the side as we do our best to keep our regular day rolling and well… seeing that here in a relatable and natural fashion with a little bit of comedy compels. And it doesn’t hurt that we want to see these characters succeed since we love them so. 

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But what’s wild is that the show went above and beyond in making everyday stuffs compelling here, thanks to an unfortunate twist for Owen. Because he and Paige had been working so hard on their respective creations that they didn’t think twice about the important way in which they were storing their work. For they were using the family hard drive, the one complete with critical pictures and memories, to save their new bodies of work and it was so important to Owen’s new project that he brought it to the office on several occasions… and left it there. And since Elwood just thought it was nothing more than a new work device, he too was using it and he made sure to password protect it and forgot the password, which brought forth great worry from Owen.
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Because if the password was entered incorrectly ten times… the drive would auto wipe everything as a security measure. Which meant, they had to work with Elwood from afar to figure out how to refresh his memory on that very password. That led to some dynamic and fun fantasy sequences, where everyone worked to jog his memory through their stories and ideas and of course… eventually he remembered the password and avoided quite the nightmare for the family but what matters more here… is that something that would be considered boring on any other show or in any other movie… was downright compelling to watch here through and through.

Simply because, we cared about that data, and we cared about seeing this family not lose their memories. Which means… we cared about a data backup. Something that few of us pay any mind to because doing so is a routine motion now and that’s quite magical to say the least. Because it takes a special show to make something so boring and so routine as compelling and fun as it was here, but that’s simply what this show does and does well and what’s truly amazing, is that an episode like this, leaves us eager for more. So, we can be pleasantly surprised by something unique and special, and it will be genuinely fascinating to see what kind of story awaits us when Central Park returns next week. Until then.

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