This is one of the finest comedies on network television right now. The first season was a little understated, but since then it’s been exquisite. It’s a parody of reality shows, local government, and middle America. Last night’s episode with Patricia Clarkson guesting as Tammy One was incredible. With the exception of Rob Lowe as a totally superfluous character, every other member of the cast and their characterizations are outstanding. Aubrey Plaza as April is incredible (although perhaps not even acting). Rashida Jones is interestingly the daughter of Quincy Jones and Peggy Lipton. Chris Pratt plays a dumb blond guy better than anyone I’ve ever seen. Nick Offerman is owning his role as a tea-bagging big L libertarian.
If this isn’t part of your ‘Must See TV’ you are only cheating yourself.
I expected him to finish off the jug, and see that the mustache was back
Well the first season was too subtle. And it is a serial story line, so picking up a couple of episodes may not work that well. I’m not going to be critical of someone who tries it and doesn’t like it, sorry it didn’t work for you.
Hey! I just had a thought - maybe Tom is going to hire Ben away from Town Hall to be their accountant, opening the door for Ben and Leslie to get back together! Ok probably not but I’m rooting for Beslie.
Somewhere along the line, I picked up a strong aversion to Amy Poehler and I’m not even sure where. But it kept me from watching this show for the last couple seasons. A few nights ago, I was testing some streaming/remote desktop thing and went to Netflix and the first season of P&R was top of the list so I hit it just because it was there. Wound up watching the first few episodes and enjoying them so now I plan to catch up.
I have an aversion to Aubrey Plaza as well but that stems directly from her horrible character in “Funny People” which sucked the life out of every scene she was in. And every scene in that film regardless was on life support to begin with. She still represented dim spots for me in P&R but maybe I’ll grow to accept her.
I thought the first season wasn’t well executed at all. And then, wonder of wonders, it was not cancelled. Someone with vision actually said “This is not working. We’re going to keep the cast, keep the premise, keep the storylines, but in Season 2 we’re going to make it funny.” They didn’t change Leslie from a parks employee to the manager of the grocery store, or turn April into a perky bimbo because audiences like perky bimboes.
I have a weekly TV night get together with some friends where we go through series, and this is our current show. I too was lukewarm on the first season and never would have continued if not urging from friends, but it’s really turned into a charming, funny show. I think Nick Offerman is hysterical. I’m really looking forward to finishing the later episodes.
Saw a few minutes of the first episode and turned the channel. Saw a few minutes last year a started watching. Great show. Aubery did look unusually good last night. It took me a long time to warm to her character. Maybe she was too realistic and I didn’t have the background to understand her characters hatred of Rashida’s.
Is it a show you have to watch from the beginning? I didnt get in to it because the first season was bad, but I didn’t want to jump in to the middle of a series.
The Leslie character evolved from an annoying female Michael Scott to an earnest and plucky middle manager who loves public service and her hometown. I hated her the first season, and now find myself rooting for her.
Not really. But you may need to watch more than one episode to catch everything. The extent of the odd-ballery of these characters and the locale are still emerging. But you know these people in real life. You just don’t get to see them in an environment where they represent normalcy.
I agree. I think one of my favorite moments so far came from Leslie trying to get the the chief of police to get his officers to volunteer to run security for the Harvest Festival. At the crucial moment, the chief just shrugged and instantly agreed, since he knew that Leslie was a good egg who always worked for the benefit of Pawnee and thus he’d help her any way he could.
In contrast, Michael Scott’s antics ran for years without success, creating a gradually-widening plot hole that left us wondering how he managed to not get fired. Some posters here suggest he might be a savant - that mingled in with his many petty failures were a few brilliant successes that made it all worthwhile - but I didn’t see enough of them to support this. It seemed like every episode was him alienating yet another Dunder-Mifflin client, or shutting the office down to take everyone on some lame corporate retreat.
I disagree with this - Chris Traeger is literally one of the funniest characters on television. He’s hysterical. It’s just that on P&R the curve is really, really high, (it has Ron F-ing Swanson, for goodness sakes) and the entire cast is written and acted exceptionally well.
Skip the first season, start with the beginning of the second when they figured out what they were doing.
I think this was the biggest change and improvement they made from Season 1 to Season 2. Leslie is not an idiot, like Michael Scott. She’s actually quite smart and witty, but a bit quirky. Quite lovable. After S1, P&R stopped going for “uncomfortable” humor and became much more character-driven.
