Parks and Reckoning: the final season

[J.T.B.]

More to the point, and I doubt that they have the guts to run with this, but it could be a clever twist that Leslie, by taking all this extremely valuable land off the tax rolls, essentially bankrupts the city again.

Interesting, but yeah, that will not happen. That would undercut one of the underlying themes of the show, government being overall a positive force.

I always found it amusing on the show that the joke is supposed to be (or at least was for most of the show) that Pawnee is sort of a rundown, trashy city, but they always manage to have a rich music scene, cool festivals, huge parks, a variety of interesting businesses, and so forth, and the national park just seemed to be another extension of that. It just manifests whatever extension of the city is necessary to fit the needs of the story.

A TV station, an NPR station... Agreed, IIRC I posted something similar last year.

Except most of those things are credited to Leslie. I figure if she never existed, Pawnee would just be the rundown, trashy city you mentioned.

Well, either the city has a big enough economy to support it all or not, not much Leslie could do about that from the Parks Department.

Anyway, I've found the new season poor to mediocre. I'm at a loss as to why the time-jump was necessary. If it was just to set up Leslie and Ron to be adversaries for a couple of episodes, I'm undewhelmed, because everything else seems about the way it was before. Leslie works in the same building with the same people, and the National Parks region seems to run itself except for its Pawnee business. Leslie and Ben have kids, apparently, but it doesn't seem to have changed their lives much. Everything seems back in its old grooves: Tom is obnoxious but tender-hearted for a nice girl, Andy acts dumb but comes out with something smart, April hates something about her job/life, people treat good old Jerry/Terry as a door mat, Donna is aloof... seen it, seen it, seen it.

The show hasn't gotten as directionless and self-indulgent as The Office did, but it's passed its usefulness date for me.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

Also Pawnee absorbed Eagleton which was rich but incredibly in debt.

 

[tomalak301]

Can we change the title of the thread to the actual show title "Parks and Recreation" or was the "Reckoning" done on purpose?

 

[JirinPanthosa]

I assume 'Reckoning' was because it's the last episodes.

I just came back from a trip to San Diego. I went to a lot of the biggest tourist locations, but my favorite spots, the spots that created the greatest memories, are the Torrey Pines State Park and the Point Loma spots in the National Park area.

I think that's the point of the show summed up. You want a quick profit, sell to a developer. You want immortality, create something beautiful. I'm rooting for Leslie but I somehow feel this show is not going to end up idyllic for her.

 

[the G-man]

Can we change the title of the thread to the actual show title "Parks and Recreation" or was the "Reckoning" done on purpose?

It was done on purpose. It was a little joke because it's the final season. I would be surprised if anybody out there seriously thought it was referring to a different show

 

[bigdaddy]

I just watched the first episode of the season again, and it turns out they actually mention the size of the Newport property and potential Grizzle HQ/national park during the announcement. It's 25 square miles centering around Lake Pawnee, so it's fairly small.

Actually in comparison to the city itself it may be about the same size or only slightly smaller. And since the park is supposed to be
IN the city limits that would have the effect of turning nearly the entire city into a park...which, now that I think of it, might be Leslie's while plan

Maybe it is like Rochester where if you ask people where they are from they say Rochester but they are actually from Henrietta, Penfield, Pittsfield or Brockport. So the park is outside the city limits but still run by the city.

Or it could be like Brighton NY, which is technically not included in Rochester's 37 square miles but for all real life purpose is now part of the city of Rochester (To the point that you say Rochester when mailing things there.)

I love dorking out over fictional maps.

 

[the G-man]

I'm pretty sure they said the park was officially in city limits. Otherwise, it couldn't be subject to city regulations (zoning and otherwise).

Furthermore even in Parks fictional world there's no evidence that the city can exercise legal jurisdiction outside its borders. In fact if that were the case, prior to the merger Pawnee would've been attempting to regulate Eagleton, and vice versa, all the time

 

[the G-man]

On another note, apparently this ad has been decreed offensive to actual sufferers of celiac disease:

http://youtu.be/wi68a0LsLDA

 

[JirinPanthosa]

Oh, give me a break. If anything should be declared offensive to people with celiac disease, it's all the people who avoid gluten and DON'T have it. As a great man George Costanza once said about men who shave their heads, "It's like riding around in a wheelchair".

I liked this week's pair of episodes in general, I like how it had the whole team working together again. Only it seemed a bit too easy to convince them to give over that land.

 

[1001001]

I am going to change my username to Les Vegetables.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

I will admit, I can be sentimental. It fills me with happy feelings to see these characters I've emotionally invested in get happy endings. But now they're going just a little overboard with the wish fulfillment.

I wonder if the final six episodes will have any kind of Ann/Chris/Mark closures.

Did the actor playing Mark leave the show on good terms? Sure he was the worst character, but usually unless there's off-camera grudges, departing characters get a cameo or two.

 

[shivkala]

Every scene with Ginuwine was pure gold!

 

[Aldo]

So I forgot to record the show yesterday and when I went online I only saw one new one.

I thought they were airing two a night, or was last night the only time they aired one?

 

[Locutus of Bored]

Yeah, it was only one new episode, and then a repeat of the first episode of the season: 2017. NBC of course said "Another all new episode of Parks & Rec coming up" in the bumper though.

I'm going to LITERALLY be depressed if we don't get a Anne and Chris appearance before the end. Donna's wedding seemed like the natural place to do it. It's not like Michigan is Tibet or something, they could easily take a day trip to the wedding.

The Genuwine scenes were great.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

Chris Traeger is literally the greatest character in the history of television.

 

[Cyke101]

I'm a bit late to the thread, but I can forgive the Ron vs. Leslie arc since it got us that wonderful episode where they resolve their issue. Ron explaining what happened the day he left the dept was just one big punch to the gut, beautifully acted by Offerman.

And I say that because I'd like to think that that Ron, who grudgingly accepts his colleagues as his friends, came through for Tom at the wedding today. Yeah, Ron kept making things worse, but he did it out of real concern while maintaining his classic Ron-isms, and in the end it all helped Tom really come to terms about his feelings for Lucy.

Plus, Donna's gift to Gerry was just so unabashedly sweet, but also a long time coming. It's not just 6 seasons of a running joke, but we're adding another 3 years in there, too, plus the years they worked together before the show started as well.

 

[shivkala]

Chris Traeger is literally the greatest character in the history of television.

Ann's no slouch, either. She is the most beautiful, glowing, sun goddess ever.

 

[1001001]

The wedding was well done.

And I'm glad to see something going right for Tom.

I don't know about Chris and Ann making the scene, but I certainly hope so. I did read that Lucy Lawless said she will "probably be back".

 

[Cyke101]

I've finally caught up with this week's episodes. Yes, we always expect the center to be a government plot with Leslie's usual hyperactivity, but in this final season and NBC wanting to burn through these episodes as quickly as possible, it's really nice to see the show slow down and take its time with the other cast. The gang teaming up to help April find a job is sweet of course, but the second episode had a subplot of just Donna and Gary. There was no real action to the subplot, no urgency to it, no conflict to it, and yet it was sorely needed to flesh Gary out just a bit more. The whole point of the subplot was, even if they weren't part of the main action, the two of them were just catching up and reminiscing about old times, and that's good enough to be entertaining. A little sentimental, yes, but these are people who grew together and are just taking a break from wacky adventures to simply just enjoy each other's time as friends.

And Barney came back! I honestly thought we had seen the last of him in the season finale, because Ben was finally secure, but it was a brilliant idea to have someone else -- in this case, April -- act as Ben's liaison to Barney.

 

[J.T.B.]

The show has become so "sweet" it's nauseating, it's as if the scripts are mostly filler to get to pre-plotted hugging moments. And for a show which seems to have a core message of government work being able to make a positive difference, very little actual work is shown being done. Is the staff on the clock while they try to get April a new job or plan Donna's wedding? A stark difference between the more realistic -- and for me much preferable -- early seasons with Mark Brendanewicz and Dave Sanderson, when everyone seemed more like real working people than increasingly eccentric goofy characters.