Parks & Recreation (#14)

A show that makes you feel good AND is funny? But...how?

This list started when I rewatched The Good Place and felt compelled to write about how remarkably great it is. It’s not a coincidence, then, that Parks & Recreation also shows up here because it’s even better - and from the same creative minds.

That was VERY much not the case in the bumpy first season, which I honestly have mostly forgotten about. There are still some gems between Andy Dwyer (Chris Pratt) and April Ludgate (Aubrey Plaza) and we meet stalwarts Leslie Knope (Amy Poehler) and Ron Swanson (Nick Offerman), who are the lead actors on the show. The first two seasons (and in fairness, the first ‘season’ was all of six episodes) spent way, way too much time focused on a love triangle between Dwyer, Ann Perkins (Rashida Jones) and Mark Brendanawicz (Paul Schneider). For whatever reason, the Brendanawicz character just didn’t click — and the show clearly realized the errors of its ways and shifted gears.

That said, like most “bad” seasons of TV we remember, it’s way less painful than we might think, it’s just not nearly as good as the rest of the run of the show. And even in Season 2, the first real official season, there are gems that will last through the entire show.

We learn how insanely earnest Leslie Knope is, how much friendship and waffles mean to her, and the kooky people she works with. That includes April and Andy (the latter who runs a very shaky shoeshine stand in the building), but also folks like Tom Haverford (Aziz Ansari), Garry “Jerry” Grgich (Jim O’Heir), Donna Meagle (Retta). The latter wouldn’t become cast members until Season 3, but that’s truly where the show took off and became the show I’m so fond of. That season (okay, technically the end of Season 2), we met the tag team of Ben Wyatt (Adam Scott) and Chris Traeger (Rob Lowe) who helped send this show into orbit.

This amazing cast doesn’t even include recurring folks like Ben Schwartz, Jenny Slate, Jay Jackson (as Perd Hapley), Megan Mullally, Lucy Lawless and Jon Glaser. And of course, as the show got more popular there were many cameos by famous folks, including - in a way that oddly made sense at the time - former NBA star Detlef Schrempf.

Like the very best of showrunner Michael Schur’s work, what makes Parks work so well is that it is SO sweet and heartwarming while also being incredibly funny. Running gags like Galentine’s Day, Treat Yo’Self and L’il Sebastian, among SO many others, stem from the minds of comic geniuses.

And while the character of Ron Swanson started as a hardcore libertarian who was trying to destroy government from the inside, the relationship between him and Leslie - someone who loves government so much she has a picture of Madeline Albright in her office - became the true joy of the show itself.

Somehow, Ron Swanson became a cult hero, and it’s not just because of his Pyramid of Greatness:

It’s also for moments like this, let alone his alter ego Duke Silver.

In doing an exceptionally limited amount of ‘research’ for this post, I came across this nugget from Wikipedia:

The idea was partly inspired by the portrayal of local politics on the HBO drama series The Wire, as well as the renewed interest in and optimism about politics stemming from the 2008 United States presidential election

I’ve never once made a comparison in my head between this show and The Wire (a show no one who knows me will shocked to learn that it will be discussed later), but … man, that last part of the sentence is interesting. Remember when we were optimistic about politics in this country? It feels like a lifetime ago, but it really wasn’t all that long ago. As messed up as it can seem these days, we’re not that far away from a happier, more positive time.

Anyway, back to the show itself.

What show could make a riveting plot point out of turning a construction pit into a park? What other show could make a joke out of Settlers of Cataan to a degree that many folks have tried to buy the fake ‘Cones of Dunshire” game? What other kind of show can make rampant, pervasive diarrhea funny? The answer is - no other show.

Lowe as perpetually optimistic Chris Traeger is low key comic genius, while the always charming Adam Scott is so, so good as the eventual love interest of Leslie. It’s hard to watch this show and not think about the power of community, that we can do good things and still be good people, etc. It’s a hilarious commentary on the problems with our political system without being preachy. It’s a love song to “old school men” without ever venturing into actually being toxic. And it’s a truly great platform for a litany of great actors and writers.

But regardless of ANY of that, it’s even harder to watch this show and not laugh your tush off.

Did you just get jammed? Treat Yo Self and take a look at where we are so far with our countdown.