Reviewing - Parks and Recreation
When The Office ended, my family immediately went on the hunt for the next great comedy series that we could all agree on. Parks and Recreation was a natural next choice – it’s in the same mockumentary style, and it’s made by Greg Daniels and some of the other important people behind The Office. We fell in love almost instantly, and caught up on the show as quickly as we could so that we could track with it as new episodes were released. With a terrific cast that have found further success elsewhere (Amy Poehler, Chris Pratt, Rashida Jones and Aubrey Plaza to name a few) and a score of lovable minor characters, Parks and Rec is the perfect follow-up for anyone like us who still miss Michael Scott.
Season One
I hope I’m not outraging anyone in saying this, but I really think that Season One of Parks and Rec is better than Season One of The Office. The tone seems much more consistent with the rest of the series, for one thing. Further, I found myself liking pretty much all of the characters – except for Mark Brendanawicz, although I don’t think we’re meant to like him all that much anyway. Leslie Knope is similar to Michael Scott in the sense that she’s a bit odd and at times it seems like she’s not exactly the best person for her own position. Where the characters differ comes down mainly to work ethic – Leslie loves her job to the point of insanity, whereas Michael finds almost any excuse to avoid doing his work. Either way, Leslie’s a lot of fun, and she’s a great lead for the series. It’s a short first season, but it lays the groundwork for what’s to come.
Season Two
I think the people you watch something with can have a big impact on how much you enjoy it. I’m wondering if that’s the case for me and Season Two, because I didn’t love this season even though I remember enjoying it when my siblings and I watched it together years ago. Maybe it’s because this season felt too focused on sex-based jokes, but on the whole I didn’t find many reasons to stick around. However, this is the season where Chris Pratt’s character Andy really won my heart – particularly in “The Possum”. Andy is such a lovable character. He brings life to every scene he’s in. Two other characters add a lot to the series, but they don’t show up until the very end of this season: Ben Wyatt and Chris Traeger. They’re both terrific; Season Three and onwards will all benefit hugely because of them. “Hunting Trip” and “Beauty Pageant” were two other highlights of this season for me, but on the whole I was happy to get into Season Three and leave this season behind.
Season Three
Season Three is a definite improvement in my book over the first two seasons. Rob Lowe’s Chris Traeger is magnificent, and Ben has moments of humour as well despite being mainly a love interest for Leslie. The original Ron and Tammy episode back in Season Two didn’t work for me during this watch-through, perhaps because it was too much too soon. But when Tammy comes back for Season Three, she’s already an established character, and I think that’s part of why I found “Ron & Tammy Part Two” more enjoyable. Maybe it’s also because of the Tammy-Tom dynamic that was too much fun.
Any episode that mentioned Lil’ Sebastian was an instant hit – he’s an icon of the show in every way. “Jerry’s Painting” was also a standout episode this season for me. Most interesting of all was the Andy-April wedding that seemed to be a one-off joke but actually ended up being thought-provoking and poignant. The love story that Andy and April have is almost nothing like my own – and that’s okay.
There are two things about this season that I have a bone to pick with. First, the episode where Tom and Leslie kissed strained credulity for me knowing Leslie’s character. She can be ridiculous, but her commitment to her job pretty much always comes first – and that moment just didn’t make sense to me. The other thing was the way that First Nations Peoples were represented, particularly in “Harvest Festival”. There have been moments where First Nations Peoples have played a role in the show so far, although it’s mainly been through blatantly (and purposely) racist murals. Obviously, part of the humour of this show is that the people of Pawnee are backward, naïve, and crazy. It makes sense when characters say outlandish or culturally insensitive things. But as far as I could tell, “Harvest Festival” didn’t do a great job of representing an actual First Nations character. Sure, the guy was independent, financially stable, and pulled a fast one on our main characters. But he also played into a stereotype – and our main characters refused to respect the territorial claim that he brought to their attention. Worst, he performs a caricatured ‘curse-breaking chant’. I know it’s tongue-in-cheek, but I still think this is over the line.
But all in all, this show continues to be one filled with great characters who consistently meet up in ways that provide opportunity for good jokes. Let’s do Season Four!
Season Four
This is the best season yet for me. The story arc of Leslie running for City Council is a blast because it gives us a whole bunch of hilarious scenarios, like in “The Comeback Kid” where she inadvertently holds an event on an ice rink. That was gold. We also get to see “Treat Yo Self” Day, and we spend a fair amount of time with Jean Ralphio and Tom as they run Entertainment 720 to the ground. All of those plot threads were great. And of course, we got Paul Rudd as Bobby Newport running against Leslie. He was a welcome guest star and a fun opponent for Leslie. But beyond the laughs, what really made this season stand out was the heart that really started to shine. The way Leslie’s friends surrounded and supported her during her run was really sweet, and Leslie’s genuine love for her city shined through in all of her campaign stuff. And yeah, this is the season where Ben and Leslie get together for real, which is nice too. What’s interesting about this show is that we traditionally have the male in a romantic relationship take the lead. There’s nothing wrong with that – Jim Halpert is a great example of this done well. But here, Leslie is the one in the driver’s seat, and I think that’s pretty cool. Ben is a capable and independent character, but it’s clear that Leslie is the one wearing the pants. Not only does this make perfect sense given her character and given that she’s the protagonist, but it’s just a refreshing change of scenery. Well done!
Season Five
Leslie is a member of the City Council now, but somehow finds herself with just as many obstacles (if not more) preventing her from making Pawnee a better place. There’s not much of an overarching narrative this season, although we do follow Tom Haverford as he continues trying to build a successful name for himself. Ron also finds a love interest that isn’t named Tammy, and Tom meets Jean Ralphio’s sister Mona Lisa. Honestly, sometimes I feel like it’s the supporting characters that make this show what it is: people like Mona Lisa, Perd Hapley, and Councilman Jamm. They’re terrific – and the Saperstein siblings in particular are chaotic fun in every episode they pop up in. “Jerry’s Retirement” is a standout episode for me this season, as we see what a wonderful life Jerry actually has in spite of all the trash he puts up with at work. Then, of course, there’s Leslie and Ben’s wedding, and “Emergency Response” is a lot of fun too. Andy and Jerry continue to be my two favourite characters, even though there’s lots of people to love here.
Season Six
This is the season of unexpected turns. First of all, Leslie isn’t part of City Council anymore. It’s a real curveball for her character, and one that she struggles to get through. As a result, it’s exciting and fun. Then we lose Chris and Ann, which is really unfortunate because of how much they both bring to the show. Ann is the ‘straight man’ to Leslie – the normal one who makes everything funnier. Chris is literally the best, and it’s a shame to see them go. That said, their sendoff episode was really nice. But what was really fun was the Eagleton-Pawnee merger. The very idea of that is fun to think about, and the difficulties that ensued made for great television. The new characters that we got were great – the new Ron was a blast, Kristin Bell stuck around for a few episodes, and Billy Eichner’s character was too loud not to love. The end of this season really felt like a sendoff for the entire show. It was heartfelt, closure-focused, and let us see pretty much all of our favourite characters for a few moments. It very much felt like a seventh season might not be coming. If this show had ended at the end of this season, it would have been a satisfying conclusion. That said, I’m still glad we got Season Seven.
Season Seven
As final seasons go, this was a lot of fun. There were some aspects I didn’t love – Ron and Leslie’s forced fiasco for example – but on the whole, there’s a whole lot to like about this conclusion. First of all, the Johnny Karate episode is solid gold. The Pawnee commercials, the John Cena cameo, and the way we got to just enjoy our characters in a new environment was zany and hilarious. Loved that. The series finale too was really interesting in the way that we got to jump even further forward in time to see how our characters ended up. It was interesting how they left Leslie’s career on a bit of an ambiguous note – it certainly seems like she ends up as President, but we don’t know for sure. Speaking of Presidents, Joe Biden returned this season for a quick moment. There were a lot of cameos this season, actually. Keegan-Michael Key had a recurring role, Dax Shepard showed up for an episode, Questlove was there, and so was Bill Murray, John Hamm, Paul Rudd, and even Werner freaking Herzog in a hysterical brief scene. It was a short season, but it went out on a high note and maintained the quality of the last few seasons.
Parks and Recreation isn’t The Office and isn’t destined for the same level of greatness. But it’s still a really fun show with an eclectic and lovable cast of characters. It’s got a lot of heart, a lot of weirdness, and it’s consistent. And it’s got Jerry Gergich. Thanks for the ride, Pawnee.
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