K-SCORE: 92
Creator: Michael Shur, Greg Daniels
Starring: Amy Poehler, Nick Offerman, Aziz Ansari, Aubrey Plaza, Chris Pratt, Rashida Jones, Adam Scott, Rob Lowe, Retta, Jim O’heir, Paul Schneider
Spoiler Level: Moderate
It’s time for significant change in the production of the sitcom. Parks and Rec has more amazing characters than any TV comedy ever. They were brilliantly crafted and the actors who played them did a truly fantastic job of bringing them to life. These are people so funny and so lovable at the same time that you’d watch them doing just about anything for just about any length of time. But eventually the creators of this show realized that that was the case and embraced the concept. Plots drop off severely, character conflicts are nonexistent starting three seasons before the actual finale, development is little more than a showering of the characters with success, love, and riches, and the small town charm of the setting fades as this all happens. If you run out of conflicts for your characters, stop utilizing them. If you no longer trust your ability to make new good characters, stop making them. If you can’t expand upon your premise any further, stop writing entirely. Parks and Rec is easily two seasons too long, but it’s not even that simple. It could have been a seven, eight, or even nine season arc, if there was indeed an arc to speak of, but after awhile, every direction the writers go is cowardly, as they’re unwilling to actually threaten the dynamic between their brilliant characters. That’s fine if they don’t think they can improve what they built in season two and perfected in season three, but then they have to end it.
Parks and Rec is beloved, and rightly so. I could spend five pages talking about how Michael Shur, Greg Daniels, and these talented actors created these characters, what makes them work, and why they’re so funny, but I’ll let others do that work. Cynical, as I am, I want to talk about why Parks and Rec erodes. Just don’t think I don’t notice its greatness and appreciate it.
Season three of this show is one of the best seasons of any television show that I’ve ever watched. Every single episode is hilarious, fun, and brilliant. The plotlines develop the characters from people you were interested in and liked initially into characters you love and want to see thrive, and they run concurrently as everyone struggles to deal with the hilarious bureaucracy of local governments and small town insanity. But once they bring April and Andy together, Leslie and Ben together, Ann and Chris, and give Tom his own business, there’s not that much left for them to do with these people. By the end of season four, when passionate Pawnee-loving Leslie Knope has moved onward and upward from her position as deputy parks director, there’s next to nothing for them to do. So they start stripping a few of those things away only to give them right back. Ben Wyatt - make him resign and then two episodes later give him an even better job than he had before. Leslie - recall her from the city council and then give her an even better job than she had before. Andy - break up his band and then give him an even more fitting musical career. Chris and Ann - break them up and then have them have a baby together. It’s not actual growth by that point. Before season four, you can feel the creators of the show putting together a puzzle. After season four, they’re just removing a few pieces every episode and then putting them right back in place because it’s the only way it all fits together.
The effect of this is that, after a while, you start to feel like the whole cast and crew of Parks and Rec just got paid to pat themselves on the back for three years. There are two enormous concerts honoring the miniature horse Lil’ Sebastian. The couples in the show, Chris and Ann, Leslie and Ben, April and Andy, Ron and Diane, all have lots and lots of kids. Everyone’s careers take off in every direction to the highest possible degree, regardless of age, qualifications, or past failures. They even often give themselves the jobs they want, creating the feeling that the best avenue to success in Indiana government is just being friends with the former members of the Pawnee parks department. The number of times that the characters have open and honest admissions of love and friendship that end in warm hugs and happy tears is close to a hundred - every conceivable pair of people have a moment like this. Need an April and Chris, “I love you - I love you too,” moment? It’s in there. Want a Leslie and Donna one? It’s in there. Ron and Tom? Sure. We get it. They love each other more than anything and they’re all there for each other all the time and they’re going to enrich each other’s lives for all time.
Simultaneously, Parks and Rec’s later seasons drop the ball with characters that they created who don’t fit in perfectly with the group. They treat ancillary characters as largely irrelevant, not worrying about developing them into anything either positively or negatively. They just use them to enhance the humor of scenes as the main cast takes a three-season victory lap. Ron’s ex-wives named Tammy, Jean-Ralphio, his sister, Councilman Jamm, Councilman Dexhart, Dr. Saperstein, Orin, Crazy Ira and the Douche, Joan Callamezzo, Shauna Malwae-Tweep (a personal favorite), Marcia and Marshall Langman, Greg Pikitis, Pistol Pete, and Jen Barkley are all exceptional characters and they don’t really do anything significant with any of them while they have nothing left to do with the main cast. Even the ones who are villainous like Jamm, Dexhart, and Dr. Saperstein, sort of fizzle into irrelevance by the end, instead of being punished for their corruption or being somehow bested by the main cast. This is where the show missed the bulk of their opportunities.
Sitcoms have run into the same problems for decades. Once the core cast is established, the writers inevitably can only drive them together in incestuous couplings, create drama surrounding their weddings, spark their careers, and given them a bunch of kids. There’s a line at the end of season nine of The Office, Steve Carell's only comment in the finale, “It’s like all my kids grew up and then got married to each other.” Yeah. It’s weird. But it’s the predestined conclusion when the only firmly established thing at the start is cast and setting. I’d really love to see the next generation’s Parks and Rec capture the magic of tone, setting, and characters that made the show successful, but then also have plans for where to go with the whole thing. It just isn’t how television is written most of the time.
If Ron Swanson was the only good character in Parks and Rec, it would still be worth watching all seven seasons. The number of laugh-out-loud moments in this show is an order of magnitude higher than your average comedy. It’s one of those things that I’m just constantly happy exists because I know I can always throw it on and feel better. But it does stop innovating less than halfway through its run, and it refuses to make courageous choices in direction for fear of ruining anything that worked well in the early seasons. And I have a few small complaints too. Tom should have been a party planner, not a restaurateur. The Douche should have been elected mayor and ruled Pawnee with a combination of fiscally sound policies and fart jokes. Also, I would have liked to see Ron succeed in his goal of “Bringing all this crashing to the ground.”
