Parks and Rec

[owlmoose]

For awhile, I had been slowly watching Parks and Recreation. Then, maybe about halfway through the third season, I suddenly got really invested and marathoned the rest of it over a couple of weeks. I'm glad I did -- it's a lot of fun, has a lot of laugh-out-loud moments, and is filled with really wonderful characters played by great actors, and I'm looking forward to it returning from a brief hiatus in a couple of weeks. One of my favorite things about the show is that, even though everyone gets into and out of romantic relationships (and I've shipped Leslie and Ben almost from the moment he appeared on the scene), the real focus is on friendship and how it defines these characters' lives. Leslie and Ann, especially, although I love Leslie and Ron's relationship as well. (I like Ron much better than I ever thought I would. April, too, has grown on me a lot. A lot. The only character I'm not consistently crazy about is Tom, and even he has his moments.)

I'm actually really concerned about this thing where Ann is talking about leaving Pawnee to live in a nicer city and be closer to her family. It actually does make sense in terms of character development, but I feel like the Leslie/Ann relationship is the heart of the show in so many ways, and I'm not sure how well the show would carry on without it as a centerpiece. I don't know if there's some real-world stuff going on, if Rashida Jones and/or Rob Lowe are leaving the show, so maybe they don't have any choice -- or maybe they're building up to some moment where Ann and Chris realize that their friends in Pawnee are their family, and they don't want to leave. Now that would make me happy.

Comments

[owlmoose]

I hope so too. One of the great things about this show is that the central relationship is a female friendship, and how often do you get to see that? Leslie has interesting relationships with April and Donna too (more so in later seasons), but it's just not the same.