The TV Show about the Parks and Recreation Dept. in Pawnee, IN

I'm fine with Ben. He provides a nice foil to most characters on the show just by being the straight man, while also taking some of the butt-monkey status away from Jerry. I also love the deadpan manner in which he calls people on their nonsense:

Joan: When I was 18, Val Kilmer saw me at a mall and told me I should model.
Ben: That never happened.
 
[quote name='Twilight Sparkle']
Joan: When I was 18, Val Kilmer saw me at a mall and told me I should model.
Ben: That never happened.[/QUOTE]

See, I don't see why PNR needs joke explainers like Ben or Mark. So much of what Ben is doing is unnecessary, too often he's doing his take on Jim Halpert Face.

I know it's just one line, but really, what's it add? How does it make it funnier? Were they concerned the audience would get confused, that we actually think Joan was trained by Val Kilmer? PNR is already funny, I don't need Ben there to confirm every funny line or situation for me for it to register. However, the suits or the creator probably think otherwise.

IMO, PNR is beyond straightmen. And when they do need them, it can come from guest or bit parts (Louis CK was great for this, as his awkward energy was way funnier than Ben's awkward shifting). They don't need a dedicated straightman, as the cast can easily shift between manic and straight from scene to scene, that's the fun of the show. It's playing off of those manic elements we all have.

And to bring it back to Ben, again, his "crazy" is the Repressed Geek thing, which IMO doesn't add much to the character. Worse yet, it's not funny. They tried out the Boy Mayor thing, that didn't stick. Now he's The Batman. Whatever dudes. You're forcing it.
 
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[quote name='dothog']See, I don't see why PNR needs joke explainers like Ben or Mark. So much of what Ben is doing is unnecessary, too often he's doing his take on Jim Halpert Face.

I know it's just one line, but really, what's it add? How does it make it funnier? Were they concerned the audience would get confused, that we actually think Joan was trained by Val Kilmer? PNR is already funny, I don't need Ben there to confirm every funny line or situation for me for it to register. However, the suits or the creator probably think otherwise.

IMO, PNR is beyond straightmen. And when they do need them, it can come from guest or bit parts (Louis CK was great for this, as his awkward energy was way funnier than Ben's awkward shifting). They don't need a dedicated straightman, as the cast can easily shift between manic and straight from scene to scene, that's the fun of the show. It's playing off of those manic elements we all have.

And to bring it back to Ben, again, his "crazy" is the Repressed Geek thing, which IMO doesn't add much to the character. Worse yet, it's not funny. They tried out the Boy Mayor thing, that didn't stick. Now he's The Batman. Whatever dudes. You're forcing it.[/QUOTE]

My understanding is that, in the Joan/Ben conversation, if Joan’s line was said and he didn’t comment on it, then there would be no joke. The audience doesn’t know her life, so there’s no way we can say that that didn’t happen to her (it’s not like getting a compliment from Val Kilmer is that outlandish a claim). Her statement becomes nothing more than a statement. He’s not there to tell you that Joan’s line was funny because, alone, it isn’t. He’s the one making the joke.

I also don’t understand what part of the Boy Mayor part didn’t stick. It’s his backstory. It explains why he does the job he does. The writers have mined jokes from it already, but I don’t think it’s necessary to make it Ben’s only facet. As for his geeky side, considering he outwardly makes geeky comments (and has been since early in season 3), it’s hardly repressed. And that’s where Ben gets his aforementioned butt monkey status, since people like Tom ridicule him for it.

I don’t get the Ben hate. As far as my viewing experience goes, his character certainly doesn’t take anything away from the show.
 
Okay, Sparkles. If not for Ben, the audience would have thought that Joan Calamezzo, host of a cable access show in small town Indiana, was discovered by Val Kilmer in a mall. Here come the gotcha dancers...

I'll lighten up on the Ben Hate. To me he's a product of a tendency in sitcoms that I don't like, that I avoid specifically, and the absence of that in early PNR was the reason I enjoyed the show so much. He's not as bad as other sitcoms, though, so I'll put up and shut up.
 
[quote name='dothog']Okay, Sparkles. If not for Ben, the audience would have thought that Joan Calamezzo, host of a cable access show in small town Indiana, was discovered by Val Kilmer in a mall. Here come the gotcha dancers...

I'll lighten up on the Ben Hate. To me he's a product of a tendency in sitcoms that I don't like, that I avoid specifically, and the absence of that in early PNR was the reason I enjoyed the show so much. He's not as bad as other sitcoms, though, so I'll put up and shut up.[/QUOTE]

I could be wrong, but since I'm sensing sarcasm in your first few sentences, here's her line again:

Joan: When I was 18, Val Kilmer saw me at a mall and told me I should model.

That's it. Nothing about Val Kilmer discovering her. Nothing about Val Kilmer training her (as your previous post mentioned). All it is is a line about an actor complementing her looks when she was a younger woman. As I said before, it's not an outlandish claim and, as such, isn't funny alone.

But hey, I'm not here to argue or anything. Just trying to comprehend our differing opinions.
 
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[quote name='Strell']It's weird, because another forum I go to has a bunch of people gushing over Ben constantly. I did like watching his huge head stuffed into that tiny cowl. And sometimes the nerd stuff works, but generally only when Tom is insulting Ben for it. He's like some weird hybrid of Jim and Toby; you sort of want him there, but he has no reason to be there, but it's difficult to shove him away for long? I dunno.[/QUOTE]

Everyone loves Adam Scott. Go watch Party Down for a great reason why.
 
[quote name='Bezerker']Everyone loves Adam Scott. Go watch Party Down for a great reason why.[/QUOTE]

Arreee WE having FUN yet?!
 
Is Season 3 really only 16 episodes? If so, I'm disappointed. I just watched the "Jerry's Painting" episode and it might have been the funniest 1/2 hour of television ever recorded. God I love this show.
 
[quote name='Javery']Is Season 3 really only 16 episodes? If so, I'm disappointed. I just watched the "Jerry's Painting" episode and it might have been the funniest 1/2 hour of television ever recorded. God I love this show.[/QUOTE]

Yeah. The show got midseason'd last year, which was a travesty. Which is why when it began showing new episodes in spring of this year, they were all from the previous fall. It was spring and we were just then getting episodes about the harvest festival they put on, which was a really odd sensation at the time.
 
I thought that was a great episode for Chris, actively applying his boundless energy into trying to weed out government corruption.

Gary Gergich. Poor guy.
 
That episode was good, but if we're talking perfection, make mine the second act of snork juice in da club....

Ann and Leslie's awesome "no offense" fight. Tom at his most desperate and elephant-like. *Literally* the greatest "your mother's butt" joke of all time. K-razzy Ron in the building. Chris and the Mayor of Whoreville. Jean Ralphio at his most de-LOY-shus.

All it was missing was Joe from Sewage and his van out back.
 
Sort of, 9:30 is it's new regular time. Up All Night had it's season finale last week and P & R gets the slot for the rest of the season.
 
They got the "live ammo" line in there. It didn't add as much as the napkin, IMO.

I think the best part of the episode was Andy in the background of a shot, playing with and being bewildered by a stuffed animal that he took to be a live dog/cat.
 
I think they wrapped everything up nicely just in case. I'm pretty sure it'll get renewed (for a short order at the very least), but if it doesn't, I'll be satisfied with the way it ended.
 
I'm on a TV rampage today.

It sucks that they get rid of Ben NOW. Right before the show's about to duck out.

My dislike of the Ben character, or rather the idea that the show ever needed a Ben-type character (solid Leslie love interest), is well documented in this thread. (Sorry for ramblin posts, y'all.) The show would have been better served by staying in early Season 2 mode, let Leslie chase a few more crazy projects. Let us have more time to understand Pawnee. Give me more Greg Pikitis and Joe from Sewage.

This is the one show that could have stayed "original" by iterating on that idea of "Headstrong Leslie making Pawnee a better place one Pit-like project at a time." Instead, I guess they didn't want to repeat themselves, so they decided they needed to give Leslie a full-time love interest -- just like every other sitcom -- and needed to focus on one "project" (campaign) and one project only? WTF.

It's odd how sitcoms do that, there's something about success that makes sitcom writers want to add love interests and create this dramatic shift where the direction/identity of the sitcom revolves around a relationship. You would think the comedy comes first, but love's got to be in there somewhere. That's one of the things I liked about the Office US, even though they forced a romance on Michael, because they already had Jim/Pam, they could play around with Michael, and the Jan romance was perfect. Then they got all fuckin gooey with the Holly thing. I guess they felt like the Pam/Jim shippers needed more fodder?

Anyhow, back to PNR. Let me put it this way and then I'll shut up....

When I look back on PNR, the essence of PNR isn't Ben and Leslie working together in the campaign or Andy and April's road trip to the Grand Canyon. It's Pikitis's peach pit. It's Leslie trying to get all the PNR directors together for a picnic. It's Ron running off from Leslie in half-tears just before that picnic, because he was hungry and he already ate all the bacon out of her purse in the car. It's Andy wailing "I fell into the Pit" Stone-Temple-Pilots style. It's snorkjuice. It's a pretty decent breakfast foods buffet at a strip club. It's Jerry bringing an engagement gift to Ron's Tammy intervention.

That's the essence of PNR, that's its heart. It's not a bunch of BS romance, it's genuine characters in these unconventional-for-a-sitcom situations. By forcing the romance and the campaign, no matter how hard they tried, they took us further (IMO) from the heart and soul of what made the show so enjoyable.
 
P&R has received a 13 episode order, beginning in the Fall, which leaves a good chance for NBC to pick up the back nine.

/e: aaaand NBC has picked up the back 9 already. Full order for Parks and Rec. Happy day.
 
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Yeah, somehow I never feel that "spoiled" when it comes to weddings and TV/movies. They're everywhere.

Typically when I feel a wedding coming on, I make like Ron finding out Tammy 1's in town and head for the hills.
 
A few years ago I thought she was in her late forties, and then I learned she's not. It's pretty cool that she played the role at a relatively young age, though I swear she was at least 30 when I was a kid.
 
Haha I had no idea this thread existed.

Great show, one of my favs still currently airing but I really think they need to split up Tom and Ann for good. Tom seems like such a pussy now, whereas his delusions of grandeur were way funnier. Also, not every single person in the show needs to couple-up with someone else.

And ya, Xena is still pretty hot. I thought she looked real good in Flight of the Conchords.
 
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