Parks and Reckoning: the final season

[mimic]

I love Parks as it is. If I want gritty realism, I'll watch The Wire.

I suppose a lot of the humor of Parks nowadays are the little inside jokes with the audience - in this latest one we had callback to Ron's love of riddles, Barney, the animal control guys, the Burrito from Park Safety. The show is taking a victory lap. It's well earned, and I'm enjoying the hell out of it.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

I do think some of the best moments of the series have been when Leslie beats the system and scores a big victory, but it only works when she has to fight for it, endure aggravating systemic inertia, and outsmart self interested cynics. All the characters are getting exactly what they want just a little too easily this season.

It took her six years to make a pit into a tiny little park, and six months to turn a giant plot of expensive land owned by a big corporation into a national park.

 

[Mr Light]

Thank god I've been re-watching the series this past month or I never would have gotten all these endless callbacks from early seasons

It's a little bizarre how the show doesn't even take place in the Parks Dept anymore.

The Donna/Jerry subplot was actually a callback to a Season Four episode I just saw when they're running Leslie's campaign. Jerry spends an entire night licking thousands of envelopes and Donna cancels her bubble bath with a hot fireman to watch him with rapt attention. Come morning he finishes and figures out he did the wrong envelopes and happily starts over and she stays to help.

I'm up to the start of Season Five now. I really don't remember S5-6 at all but I think that 4 was my favorite season. I really, really loved Leslie's campaign running against Paul Rudd. It felt like the climax of the series in a lot of ways.

 

[1001001]

I am okay with the sweetness. It kind of gives everyone a final bow.

Garry and Donna had a nice moment there. Good for them!

 

[Cyke101]

I love Parks as it is. If I want gritty realism, I'll watch The Wire.

I thought it was pretty clear early on (season 2 really) that the show was going to be a little saccharine, which flies against many trends in TV. One thing I appreciate is the lack of cynicism overall. Yeah, they're going to face challenges and people who are just straight up jerks (Jam, for example), but every show needs conflict anyway. It also makes people who are otherwise fairly realistic, like Leslie's current boss (the one who recruited her last season, I forget his name) thus stand out compared to the citizens of Pawnee.

But in that approach, the sometimes sentimental, sometimes overly sweet lack of cynicism harkens back to Frank Capra's optimistic movies. There's an analysis that's both appreciative and critical of government, which leads to the urging of a democratic system that overcomes corruption (both Leslie and Ron are polar opposites about the nature of government, but are both devoted to honesty and integrity). So the show is too idealistic at times because that's not how our government acts in the real world, but the show's idealistic for the right intentions, I think.

 

[Masiral]

Parks & Rec is Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, not House of Cards.

 

[mimic]

My other favorite comedy is Brooklyn Nine-Nine (also created by Michael Schur) and it certainly isn't a realistic depiction of a police precinct. At least, I'm assuming it isn't.

But I appreciate that the characters in both Parks and B99 Genuwinely enjoy one another's company.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

Parks & Rec and Brooklyn Nine Nine are different shows. Parks & Rec is satire, Brooklyn Nine Nine is more like madcap.

 

[J.T.B.]

Parks & Rec is Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, not House of Cards.

Well, maybe, except for the top-level criminal corruption, conspiracy to destroy the protagonist's reputation, suicide attempt, that sort of thing. Some fairly dark stuff going on in "Mr. Smith."

 

[Saga]

the Johnny Karate episode was hilarious.

 

[Masiral]

Bill Murray finally appears as the Mayor!

 

[Caretaker]

Wow! After tonight's two episodes, I don't know how next week's finale could possibly top this week's events.

Unfortunately, I'll have All My Life running through my head for the next few days.

 

[Cyke101]

Parks & Rec is Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, not House of Cards.

Yep yep. Way more Frank Capra than Kevin Spacey.

Parks & Rec is Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, not House of Cards.

Well, maybe, except for the top-level criminal corruption, conspiracy to destroy the protagonist's reputation, suicide attempt, that sort of thing. Some fairly dark stuff going on in "Mr. Smith."

Parks & Rec had top-level sexytimes (Mayor Gunderson and Mrs. Beavers), the smear campaign that cost Leslie her council seat, Jam's Tammy-fueled descent into darkness, and Pyongyang as the sister city to Pawnee. Not as dark, but hey, Pawnee's no longer fourth in obesity, so that's a plus.

-----

Anyway, back on topic, in this week's reviews, AV Club has an excellent rundown of how these past few episodes haven't been about giving everyone happy endings, but making sure everyone knows what they would need personally in order to be that happy ending. In particular, Garry's thankless hard work over the decades got him the mayoral seat, Andy's perfectly happy giving up his cool job to support April's cool job because that's how he got it in the first place, mysterious Donna is settling down, and Tom saw past his selfishness for Lucy.

 

[1001001]

Two more good episodes. The Mayor interviews were great. I'm glad to see Tom and Lucy staying together.

 

[the G-man]

I love Parks as it is. If I want gritty realism, I'll watch The Wire

I've worked in municipal government (FT or PT) for the better part of 20 years. In some ways, "Parks" is the most realistic depiction of government ever put to television.

Which is, probably why I sometimes get a little picky about things on the show. It's almost a protective thing. I love the show and especially love when they get things right.

And, yes, in most of the places I've worked I'm considered the offices Ron Swanson.

Speaking of which....

 

[JirinPanthosa]

I'm more like Ben Wyatt than any other television character.

 

[Mr Light]

I just saw the "Johnny Karate" episode and I didn't really like it. Andy is a one note joke that is best in small doses. I found it tedious to sit through 20 minutes of the dumb Andy show. Particularly when it's the 3rd to last episode of the series. This should have only been half of an episode.

 

[shivkala]

"Johnny Karate" reminded me of how some shows use their final season to try a different kind of episode. For The Office, it was "The Farm" (a backdoor pilot/experiment for a Dwight spin-off).

Anyway, I'm surprised no one has posted about the death of producer Harris Wittels. It's a sad real-life loss as we prepare to say good-bye to our favorite Pawneeans.

"Today, I lost a friend," Poehler said. "I lost a dear young man in my life, who was struggling with addiction and who died. Just a few hours before we came. [...] I'm sharing it with you because life and death live so close together and we walk that fine line every day. At the end of the day when things happen in our lives we turn to the people that we love and we look to our family and our community for support and we lean on people in a hope that they will ease our pain."

 

[JirinPanthosa]

I just saw the "Johnny Karate" episode and I didn't really like it. Andy is a one note joke that is best in small doses. I found it tedious to sit through 20 minutes of the dumb Andy show. Particularly when it's the 3rd to last episode of the series. This should have only been half of an episode.

I liked the idea of the episode but I wish they'd played it more like it was really designed to be an episode of a children's show.

I love episodes in especially long running series that just commit to a theme and run with it exclusively for the episode. Having the whole episode be one character filming a children's TV show is the sort of thing they might do on Community. But I feel like they didn't commit to the theme enough, I would have much rather the episode just been about Johnny Karate tracking down his stolen guitar.

And I think right at the end of the run was the perfect time to do it. Just like a few episodes before Michael left was the perfect time to do Threat Level Midnight.

I also love the Terence & Philip April Fools episode of South Park. Shows with hundreds of episodes should have MORE complete show within a show episodes. Stargate should have done a full episode of Wormhole XTreme.

 

[Caretaker]

I'd be up to seeing a crossover (as Andy Samberg suggests) with Leslie Knope appearing on Brooklyn Nine Nine. I don't know what it would take to make it happen.