It’s kind of awkward to start a TV blog midseason, but one benefit has been getting to skip the play-by-play of my complete turnaround on Parks and Recreation. In a nutshell: When a new comedy from the producers of The Office (U.S.) featuring Amy Poehler, (fellow Tamilian) Aziz Ansari, and Rashida Jones was first announced last year, I was giddy with anticipation. I’d been a huge Aziz Ansari fan since his work on Human Giant (one of my top two sketch comedy crews, the other being Goodness Gracious Me), and loved Rashida Jones on Stella and The Office (U.S.) (not to mention that one of her parents produced one of the best albums of all time and the other was on my favorite TV show ever).
Parks and Recreation never really found its stride (possibly b/c of postponement due to Poehler’s pregnancy) during Season 1, however, and I watched mostly out of obligation. Season 2 has been completely different — it’s consistently funny and has incorporated several political allegories in its plots that have raised it to the level of (and possibly above) the two other NBC Thursday night sitcoms I love, The Office and 30 Rock.
Onto Episode 13, synopsis here.
I was thrilled that Will Arnett (Amy Poehler’s real-life husband) guested on this week’s episode — they’ve been my “First (and only) Couple of Comedy” since Poehler’s fantastic guest appearances as Arnett’s wife on Arrested Development, and it was only a matter of time before Arnett on “Parks” happened.
As usual, Arnett utilized his slightly insane, raspy onscreen persona to maximum effect, starting with his crazy-eyed “No, Badgers” insistence on rooting for Wisconsin during their blind date. Just as GOB’s naive incompetence and Devon Banks’s smarmy foil to Jack Donaghy both perfectly match the tones of their respective shows, Arnett’s super-creepy “Chris” had an atypically non-jovial, more real vibe to match the mockumentary style. Every line Arnett delivered was ridiculously funny (making me wonder whether he improvised at all), and my only regret about his appearance is that his misogynistic excess makes a re-appearance unlikely.
This episode was nicely balanced with all the main characters getting good screen time, which I hope is a permanent shift away from the focus on Poehler’s character, Leslie Knope. Unlike Steve Carell’s Michael Scott, Knope isn’t quite interesting enough to dominate the show (at least, not yet). Just as importantly, several “Parks” characters are capable of carrying the show. For instance, Ron Swanson’s (Nick Offerman) misanthropic annoyance with Pawnee’s citizens and Tom Haverford’s (Aziz Ansari) assistant interviews were highlights of “The Set Up.”
The character who’s most improved from Season 1 to Season 2 is Andy (Chris Pratt), who was a generic, insensitive boyfriend in Season 1, but is now an idiotic-yet-lovable manchild along the lines of a funny Chris Klein character.
Unfortunately, despite the first instance of imperfection in Ann Perkins (Rashida Jones), she still hasn’t found a voice on the show. Even worse is her totally boring boyfriend, Mark (whose character name I had to look up). Ann and Mark both play the redundant role of the “normal” character (think Jim and Pam without the history), and I think Mark has to go.
The only other annoying aspect of the show is the overuse of characters looking at the camera. Most egregious is April (Aubrey Plaza), who I like, but she needs to stop. We’ve agreed to suspend our disbelief and buy into the idea of this perpetual documentary, but you don’t need to remind us of this structural gimmick every five minutes.
Finally, if you’ve read any of my prior blog entries, you’ve probably noticed that I watch almost all of these shows with my partner, who’s consistently offered insights that I feel compelled to mention. From now on, her comments will be a part of what I’ll call “JB’s Take.” I’m sure she’ll be mortified that her initials are online, but hopefully she’ll forgive me.
JB’s Take: “April is like the female version of Ron” (when April made it clear that she was the perfect candidate to be Ron’s assistant).
