One of my favorite things about the show is the conflict in political philosophies between Ron Swanson and Leslie Knope and how despite that, they’re very good friends. How many sitcom characters even have a political philosophy?
Clayton Forrester didn’t even have tech that advanced, and he lived in Next Sunday AD!
Just saw the last too episodes… Loved the “Male Men”. 
Not sure how I feel about this last season as a whole. I think it was a bit too much “who can get to come back for a cameo.”
It did get much funnier once the Grzzyl/National Park plot wrapped up.
I did like that they dialed back how awful the average citizens of Pawnee are. It had gotten to the point where you couldn’t see how anyone with a brain would love Pawnee at all since it seemed like a nightmare town.
So at Garry’s funeral it’s implied that either Leslie and/or Ben are high-level politicians with a Secret Service detail… any guesses? I do think the joke about Christie Brinkley looking exactly the same 50 years in the future was great.
(I actually ate at the real world “JJ’s Diner” a few weeks ago. It’s 4 and Twenty Pies out in the San Fernando Valley. They let them keep the JJs sign which was nice.)
The season had good and bad moments, but I thought the finale was brilliant in tone and execution. One of the most satisfying series finales I can recall since, I don’t know, maybe Cheers.
I thought this season, including the final, were just ‘ok’.
I agree the finale was really touching, but also think that the Johnny Karate episode could have been a series finale in its own right.
Weird to think that the actor playing the biggest doofus in the show (Chris Pratt) is almost certainly going to be the biggest star to come out of it.
I agree–I really loved the finale.
Thirded. Also loved the Johnny Karate finale episode.
For me the last series finale that I liked as much as this one was the one for Friday Night Lights.
I think it’s pretty damn obvious Leslie was either the incumbent or a retired President by 2048. All the set up was toward suggesting that.
Why do you think that?
I loved the last season. There was a parade of cameos, but I felt that they were all used well . The Johnny Karate episode was great, I would watch a whole series of that. My favorite moment of the season was when Leslie opened her front door and it was Ron standing in the rain with a drone that he shot down, I laughed for a long time after seeing that.
I agree, it’s Leslie’s show, she’s the one who became governor, and she’s the more ambitious one. I think sometime in the first or second season she said something about becoming president. If Ben is president, it’s because they became consecutive presidents like I think Leslie predicted at another point.
Does anyone remember who the Secret Service agent addressed when he said it was time to go? Presumably whichever one of Leslie or Ben that was, is the one who is a current or former President.
I thought it was great. There’s this huge trend in TV today toward grim and miserable, even among comedies (Always Sunny, f’rinstance). Our modern cynical view of life means that anything positive and upbeat must be cheesy and poor quality. Parks and Recreation really bucked that trend. It was a show that was always positive, where everyone was a good guy, and the good guys always won. And yet, despite that, it was genuinely funny. It was brilliantly written, with solid, interesting characters, and just really FUNNY. It never dipped into Full House-style sentimentality or that nonsense. But it was really nice to have a show worth watching that didn’t make you want to kill yourself from the Bleak Grimness of Grit.
There really needs to be a primetime Johnny Karate spinoff show.