"Parks and Recreation," much improved

I think this is the perfect place to show off my new avatar. It's like a cashmere velvet candy cane!

 

http://tomhaverfoods.com/

 

After what happened to Community, I just gasped when I saw this on the front page.

 

I do think they've kind of copped out in resetting everything back to the defaults. Although I suppose that Leslie is going to stay in the city council race, so it's not quite to the level of, "Pam quits her art dream because the show is going to last longer than the creators imagined it would."

I don't think the writers showed much patience in hurrying the Leslie-and-Ben-get-back-together arc along. Must have been getting some negative feedback from the hopeless romantics out there.

 

Well, they haven't married them off yet. I think they should have left it as is and had them play the "they're together, but Rob Lowe can't know" for another season or two.

 

"Friends" was a clinic on how to pace that storyline with the Monica-Chandler pairing.

 

So were "Cheers" and "Wings".

 

I was surprised that the Model U.N. episode was so critically well-received, as well as beloved by commenters. I thought it was one of the worst episodes in a while, a rare clunker. The show is madcap, but I thought that was a little too madcap even for P&R. They also have to be careful not to use Jean-Ralphio too much. He works best in small doses, played against straight men (comedic straight me, not sexual orientation). He's this show's Todd Packer to Tommy's Michael Scott. Everyone knows he's an idiot except one oblivious person.

 

"I'll be Germany. They've *never* been the bad guys." is the single best line the show has ever produced.

 

Cheers had Sam with two different women, though. Easier when you think about it (even if Sam and Diane were the "real pair" while Sam and Rebecca was poised to never work out).

And I LOVED the ending scene with the credits rolling last week, when Jean Ralphio admits to not knowing anything about accounting and then walks straight out the door.

 

Andy is my favorite character, and that was a good line, but it truly would have been genius if he'd stopped after "I'll be Germany," and left it for the audience to figure out the joke.

I'd gotten a little tired of the Leslie-Ben stuff over the last several weeks, but last week's episode was fantastic.

 

They had no idea that Shelley Long was going to leave until Season 5, so this makes no sense to me.

Parks and Recreation is the most consistent show on television. I think it's terrific that the first post in this thread suggests that "It's still not at 'Office' level." File that under thoughts that made some sense in 2009. The beauty of bringing back/keeping going an old thread.