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

Tonight is Leslie's and Ben's wedding!
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Thankfully she didn't invite Tammy 2, right?
 
Interesting fact about the first episode from last night.

It was originally written to be the series finale. I'm guessing it's more likely to get picked up for another season so they changed it.
 
[quote name='Trakan']Interesting fact about the first episode from last night.

It was originally written to be the series finale. I'm guessing it's more likely to get picked up for another season so they changed it.
[/QUOTE]

I honestly thought it was the finale. I thought everything was wrapped up nicely.
 
Reminds me of King of the Hill's "finale." They wanted to end with Luanne's wedding, but then Fox commissioned one more season at the last second. Chronologically, the second finale is the one where Bobby goes onto the meat grading team, but I think that wasn't the last episode that was made/aired (at least, Adult Swim aired episodes after the meat grading episode).

Luanne's wedding feels like a finale because tons of secondary characters show up - Hank's Japanese brother Junichiro, Chuck Mangionne, etc. They also end the series the way it began, with all four of the guys drinking beers next to the fence, which is an allusion to the opening scene in the first episode (or so I think is the case). Cotton repeats what he said to Khan when he first met him - "Mr. Khan, I'll have a mai tai." Basically it wraps up a lot of loose ends for various characters while also reinforcing their personalities.

The second finale ends with Bobby grilling next to Hank, as a sort of passing-of-rites kind of thing. Instead of the overload of secondary characters, only/all the neighbors show up for a barbeque (arguably the "main cast"). You learn some final things - Boomhauer is a Texas State Trooper (they never really talked about his profession throughout the show), Dale is shown fixing Nancy's headache, Khan tells Connie she can stop studying, etc. The idea is that all the characters are sort of...maturing/growing/finding themselves, so it ends on this very uplifting note.

/it's my favorite show, so I nerded out for a second while I waited for this client to get their shit together

Anyway, I thought both episodes were great. They've really got a knack for absolutely nailing "emotional" episodes (like the Christmas one from 2011) without being overly sappy like The Office had.
 
DO NOT FEED THE FISH IN THE RAMSETT PARK AQUARIUM - This is not a public aquarium, somebody put it there, and we are doing our best to figure out what to do with it. But in the meantime, please keep your distance, because it does kind of seem like a weird trap.
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I also want to organize my own Traeger-thon.
 
Episode was alright. I knew where the joke was going and Jason was wasted on the role. Not the best, but still enjoyable.
 
[quote name='Strell']Episode was alright. I knew where the joke was going and Jason was wasted on the role. Not the best, but still enjoyable.[/QUOTE]

Agree, it just felt like they crammed way too much into this episode, like it was meant to be an hour long or something. And yes, they totally wasted Jason's role.

The Perd joke was great though, 1.5/5 stars for E.T. because it wasn't believable.
 
[quote name='detectiveconan16']But it's NOT a trading card GAME?[/QUOTE]

Nope...just a set with base cards, autographs and costume cards of stuff worn in the show.
 
Chris Pratt is going to be around less this season too since he's filming a movie.

God, I hope they end it this season and don't drag it on like The Office.

 
I honestly feel the same way that Parks & Rec needs to end after this upcoming season. The problem is that NBC is banking on Parks & Rec gaining popularity the way Big Bang Theory did when that hits syndication so if that were to happen then NBC is going to want the show to continue past season 6. Also with the way many of the story arcs have been going I can't see much left on Parks & Rec past season 6. But who knows what is in store so we'll see.

I will miss Rob Lowe on the show. His character was constantly funny and enjoyable. Rashida Jones on the other hand... nice eye candy but I won't miss so much. Honestly her character was the figurative Pit on this show so much like the pit on Sullivan Street it's finally time to move on from it.

 
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I'm late to the party, and I've only seen a few of this season's episodes, but I think PNR is headed in the right direction with the storyline about incorporating Eagleton.  They should've done that shit a long time ago and scrapped the Ben/Leslie shipping, which is and has always been fucking tedious.  It nearly derailed the show.

I guess the need for sitcom romance is entirely lost on me.  If it's funny, it's a different story, but if it's just cute and otherwise dumb, I don't get it.  Staying clear of that bullshit is what differentiates sitcoms worth watching (which is a rare bird) from sitcoms in general.  Strell raised KOTH a ways back, and I think it did a lot better job of staying focused and using romance, if it came up, for laughs first and cute bullshit, if it's there, second. 

So to come back to PNR, the whole Ron/Xena thing is lost on me, I know they want to "grow" Ron as a character, but it's not working because the core of what makes Ron good and true is not typical to your run-of-the-mill sitcom.  Then why force that original character into run-of-the-mill conceits?  In one of the recent episodes I saw, Ron wants to get off the grid, and Xena's giving him the biz for "not being there."  I'm abusing the fuck out of these airquotes because this is one of those bullshit character growth conventions you see in every sitcom that's come down the pike. 

What's it going to take to convince sitcom folks that one-dimensional isn't bad if it's done well?  If you don't want it to get old, then pare your episode order down, go all HBO on things and limit your seasons.  Just stop doing these rote, trite character arcs and defend the practice by saying, "Well, we had to, it's so hard to come up with content."  FIDDLESTICKS! 

If you're smart enough to cast Sam Elliott against type as Ron's doppelganger, you're smart enough to get by without leaning on bullshit sitcom conceits.  Try harder.

 
Last night's episode confronted how Leslie's idealism, perseverance, and stubbornness all lead to the fact that she can be annoying as a #bitchboss. Irked even more by by reappearance of Councilmen Jamm and Dexhart, and using a plotline ripped from headlines from the past two years. At least we didn't see a picture of Ben's junk, or at least his butt.

I was surprised that Ben and Leslie's lawyer is the same guy that Henry Winkler hired to attack Tom during the end of last season, though what the hell is up with his hair?  Then again, despite it seeming Pawnee being that big like Twin Peaks, it's pretty small like Dual Spires.

 
No new episodes until November 14th due to NBC having to reshuffle the Thursday night lineup after axing Welcome To The Family. But then we'll get one hour for two weeks in a row so that kinda makes up for three weeks of no new Leslie, Ron, and gang.

 
I think NBC IS being run by the Pawnee City Council.

You'd think not being run by Zucker would improve the outlook of the company, especially when CNN fell deeper into the sh-, but apparently it can be worse.

 
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The new newsletter is out in email, and according to Chris Traeger, don't eat the turkeys with a strange blue coloring under the wing. It's because of a Sweetums explosion in '11, and eating the turkey will definitely make you sick.

 
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