Parks and Rec

Posted in the star wars thread but this belongs here:

I have never really invested in this show. On the recommendation of friends I've slogged through the first 10 or so episodes, but it just feels kind of empty to me. I like a lot of the people involved with the show, but I just don't seem to get whatever it is that people love so much. Does it take a full season to really find its groove?

The first season wasn't great. Season 2 it got really fucking good though.

You could (and probably should) jump straight to when Rob Lowe and Adam Scott joined the cast (Season 2, Episode 23 - "The Master Plan"). There are bits of gold in Season 2, but I wouldn't slog through all of it to find them without already being a fan.

Season 3, in my opinion, is one of the best seasons any comedy has produced*. Seasons 4 and 5 aren't up to that level, but is still one of the best comedies this year. (Then again, that's a race with only 2 contestants, 30 Rock and itself.)

*Part of that is behind the scenes stuff: Due to Poehler's pregnancy and then NBC's scheduling, they only produced 10 episodes during the usual shooting year. You give that writer's room a whole year to produce material for 10 episodes, and you're not going to get any filler.

Homsar_sl said:

I tell everyone to just skip forward to when Scott and lows join, before that the show is pretty terrible

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Truth. Before that it waslit-trah-lyjust a crappier version of The Office.

It's sort of a light comedy. And a lot of the funny comes from the extra web stuff they do -- like releasing the full playlist for "Bens Cool Summer Jamz" or whatever it was, and the list of 3,000,000 things that Leslie Knope was for and against when she was running for council. And of course Swanson's chart of manliness.

Good to know my dislike of the first season is justified. I'll skip ahead as advised, but I feel odd doing it.

Teddite_sl said:

Good to know my dislike of the first season is justified. I'll skip ahead as advised, but I feel fully doing it.

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I think it was a Paleyfest panel thing where some of the writers or the creator(Michael Schur) mentioned that season one sucked and no one should watch it.

i think folks are going too far saying skip season 2 up until Lowe/Scott show up though. They got in to their groove pretty early in the season.

But yeah, feel free to skip season one, with the blessing of the creators.

Yep, forget about Season 1 it wasn't very good. IMO this might be the funniest show on non-cable TV at the moment.

I don't remember which episode it was (I want to say towards the beginning of season 2), but the first actual "lol" the show got out of me was when they start filling in the big pit and Andy is sleeping down there under the tarp.

The second episode of the second season is the one where Leslie and Tom stake out the pit and the one after is where Ann finds out Andy is living in the pit, according to IMDB. Both good episodes. Like I said, it really started hitting it stride right off the bat when they stopped trying to be The Office and just focused on their best characters. Mark never worked, they got him the fuck out of Dodge. Ron and Andy did work, they got more screentime and development.

And I think episode 3 is when Leslie invents the brilliant game Pizza Fight, which she dominates Louis CK at.



Their whole date with her all hammered is awesome. Don't skip most of season 2.

This show just flat out makes me feel good.

I know that sounds like a simple statement but it is very profound. No other program has consistently brought a warm smile to my face in this day and age. At my place this is one of the few shows we put all the phones/tablets/books down for and actually pay attention to.

I completely hated the first season and stopped after episode 2. My girlfriend was watching season 2 a few months later while I was working on my computer so I kept listening to it in the background. Within and hour I was like time to marathon all of this.

Season 3 episode 13 "The Fight" is pretty much my favorite episode.

Ron Swanson is always pure awesome.