Parks & Recreation: Season One

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This was a greatly anticipated show for our household and we felt a little let down by this first season. The second season, however, proved to be a triumph of hilarity so we bought the first to have the set.

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First off, this "season" contains ONLY 6 EPISODES so if you want it, wait for it to come on sale at Target or something.

Now for the show. Season one of Parks and Recreation was a little lacking for audiences. Of course everyone was comparing it to The Office (both are from the same makers), which diminished the appeal. I personally almost gave up on Parks and Rec until the second season started. Now I am hooked and have to see every episode. After season one, they seemed to expand the storyline to involve more of the minor characters which made for a funnier and overall better show. Now, compared to where The Office is going (down as of April 2010), this show is shining bright and is a must have for any comedy/sitcom fan. Multiple comediens give this show a broad spectrum of comedy styles that will entice anyone to keep coming back for more...at least starting with season two. RECOMMEND

Rating:

Only 6 episodes on this single disk but all are fun. Amy Poehler is likable and has some funny insights. I do enjoy when they parody government workers. Chris Pratt's role as the consummate slacker is somewhat overdone but his acting of it is priceless.
I do recommend this show--for the most part it is quite enjoyable.It doesn't get painful and uncomfortable like "The Office" and dystonic like "30 Rock," but I do like the latter also.

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"Parks and Recreation" debuted in April, 2009, with a limited 6-episode first season run. The show was created by Greg Daniels and Michael Schur, who helped adapt the American version of "The Office" (Schur also plays Dwight's cousin, Mose). Filmed in the same mockumentary style as "The Office," the show is bound to draw comparisons. I'm a huge fan of "The Office," so that's what drew me to this show, and I was more or less satisfied. Both shows also feature rather mundane work settings populated with less than stellar workers. With "Parks and Recreation," we get Leslie Knope (Amy Poehler), who is the naive second-in-charge at the parks and recreation office in fictional Pawnee, Indiana. Leslie believes that she can make a difference, and she aspires to be like some of her favorite female politicians (her office walls are lines with photos of the likes of Hilary Clinton and Nancy Pelosi).

Leslie regularly holds town forums for parks and rec, and at one of these meetings a young nurse, Ann Perkins (Rashida Jones), relates that her boyfriend fell into a pit on a vacant lot and broke both his legs. Leslie is horrified and agrees to look into the problem; when the crowd responds favorably, Leslie begins to (as is her m.o.) overpromise and tells Ann that she will build a park on the lot. Ann is skeptical, but this promise sets into motion the main plot line for the series - Leslie's futile efforts to build the park.

Amy Poehler makes a likeable protagonist, and the supporting players in the series are uniformly terrific. Rashida's Ann character is mostly the straight man, but the other supporting characters are often hilarious. In particular, Tom Haverford (Aziz Ansari) is a great comic creation - equal parts horny flirt, sarcastic troublemaker, and suck-up. During this first season, though, the show struggles a bit to find its voice. Having all the plots revolve around Leslie's efforts to get the park built makes these episodes somewhat constricted, and the way that Rashida Jones' character is involved is sometimes not very believable (she seems to spend more time at the parks and rec office than she does at work). For every funny joke or set piece, there's at least one bomb. However, the series seems headed in the right direction, and I've seen a few episodes from season 2 which are very good. I'm not totally hooked, but "Parks and Recreation" is funny enough to merit being added to my tv watching schedule.

The DVD set includes deleted scenes for most episodes; these scenes are extremely funny. In addition, each episode has commentary from the show producers, writers, and cast. Amy Poehler appears on one of the six commentaries ("The Banquet").

Rating:

I watched the Pilot of PARKS AND RECREATION and was not impressed, so I didn't keep watching. I inadvertently watched a couple of episodes of Season Two and realized that the show had gotten better. I decided to go back and watch Season One before watching the parts of Season Two that I hadn't yet seen. Doing so largely confirmed what I had already thought: Season One simply wasn't very good. It was not without interest and some good moments, but for the mot part the season was, frankly, pretty dull. But having seen parts of Season Two, I know it gets better so I waited the show out.

If anyone enjoys Season One, then they will enjoy Season Two considerably more. If you don't like Season Two, neither did I. Wait it out and it will get better. One of the problems in Season One is that there is no real chemistry among the cast. It doesn't mesh very well and frankly most of them are not especially interesting. And sometimes the humor gets a bit harsh. I don't like it when the humor progresses by humiliating the key characters, like CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM always does and THE OFFICE sometimes does. The second episode of the show features a public meeting in which Leslie gets pummeled by local residents over the proposal to fill in a neighborhood pit and put a park in its place. This did not make me laugh or smile. It just made me cringe and feel a tad uncomfortable.

So, not a strong start to the series, but luckily it got better.