I don’t actually talk about Parks and Rec that often on here, and it almost strikes me as odd,
until I remember that I don’t actually have that much to say about it. Not in a
bad way, mind, it’s just…how do you talk about a show that’s pretty much
perfect?
Yeah, I know, I’m setting the stakes pretty high here, but
let me explain.
Parks and Recreation
is pretty much my perfect storm of things that I love in a television show.
First, it’s written and produced by a woman, stars a woman, and has tons of
female characters. Second, those female characters (and the male characters)
are all racially and ideologically diverse. Third, the writing is excellent.
Fourth, the subject material makes me smile, and fifth, I just love it, okay?
Leslie Knope reminds me of whom I wanted to be when I was
sixteen and starting a chapter of Amnesty International at my high school
because it matters, dammit, and I want to make the world a better place! (I
still want to make the world a better place, mind, just now I do it through yelling
on the internet. Eh, things change.)
At any rate, Parks and
Recreation has returned for its improbably sixth season, and I would like
to take this opportunity to give it the glorious bath of love that it deserves.
So, if you’re one of those people who really only reads my
blog because you like it when I get pissed off and rant a lot, I would skip on
over to these articles here, because this is going to be disgustingly positive.
For the two of you who don’t already know, Parks and Recreation follows the
exploits of the Parks and Recreation department in Pawnee, Indiana. Or, well,
it used to follow those exploits. Now it follows the exploits of a bunch of
random government employees and their various friends and lovers, but still in
Pawnee because where else would they go?
Head of the pack is Leslie Knope, played by Amy Poehler who
also writes and produces the show. Leslie is overwhelmingly positive,
unabashedly feminist, blissfully ambitious, and completely insane. I love her.
I want to stand next to her and just bask sometimes. Leslie started out as the
Deputy Director of Parks and Recreation for the city (I think, I’m too lazy to
google it) and has now advanced to holding a seat on the City Council.
Only things aren’t going so well on the City Council.
Leslie’s approval rating is in the toilet, and her attempts to climb out of
that toilet are meeting with little success. Ann (Rashida Jones) wants Leslie
to remain positive, but it’s hard when her latest efforts are met with
complaints about slugs instead of issues.
Into this strolls April (Aubrey Plaza), who has found a
solution to all of this. She nominated Leslie for an award for women in
government, and shockingly, Leslie won. She gets to accept the award next month
in London. All of this, mind, happens in the first five minutes, to set up the
basic premise of the episode, which is that our gang takes on London.
There are also the side plots, where Ron (Nick Offerman) and
Diane (Lucy Lawless) get married in the first two minutes of the show, are
going to have a baby, and Ron ends up in London alone while Diane has morning
sickness. Ben (Adam Scott) and Andy (Chris Pratt) are off to London to talk to
some investors for their afterschool arts program, and Andy manages to
completely insult everyone there in minutes, but it all turns out okay in the
end because Andy is disturbingly lovable.
And Tom (Aziz Ansari) has his own plotline about someone
with a competing formalwear store in Pawnee, but that was easily my least
favorite part of the episode.
But that’s the thing. My least
favorite part of the episode was still miles above my favorite part of most
other shows. While I don’t necessarily like Tom, his character is so well
mapped out, and the story is so funny, that I care. I don’t even really want to
care, but I do! It’s like witchcraft.
Ultimately, I think that’s what
makes Parks and Rec a great show. Not
only is it well written and possessing of a preternaturally good cast, it’s
also full of really interesting characters. Not necessarily nice characters, or
ones you’d really want to hang out with all the time, but good ones. They’re
thorough, complete people. You can guess how they’re going to react to things.
You can sympathize with their pains. And you can absolutely love them even
though they’re being dumb.
That’s good writing.
More than that, though, I love Parks and Rec for its heart. There are a
lot of good sitcoms out there, but few that are so actually and genuinely good,
you know? Not just well crafted or acted, but about good people doing good
things. And that makes sense. It’s hard to make competence and conviction
funny. Nice people are kind of boring. Only here, they aren’t.
Leslie is the queen of nice, but
she’s never dull. And being nice doesn’t stop her from being ambitious or
feminist or blatantly funny. Her marriage with Ben is stable and loving, but
that doesn’t make it less funny. It actually makes it moreso, because they are
so different and yet so utterly in disgusting weird love. Or Andy and April,
who aren’t always nice but do want the right thing. Or Ann. Or Donna. Or any
character on this show. They’re all good. It’s a show about good people doing
good things and it’s wonderful.
So, in answer to a question no
one really asked, this is why I don’t talk about Parks and Recreation much. Because to me, it is perfect. I have
nothing to complain about, and not a whole lot to say. It makes me happy and it
makes me feel good about the world. What more could I want?
You should watch it.
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