Friday, April 17, 2009

Parks and Recreation


I really wanted to believe in this show. I thought the cast was great, the premise was funny, and the people behind it knew what they were doing. Instead, we've ended up with an Office clone without the funny.

On last night's episode, Leslie Knope took to the streets to gain support for her pit-to-park project. Along the way her teams encounter a confused old man, a registered sex offended too interested in the park, and a woman opposed to the park who gets the full Michael Scott school of arguing thrown at her. When Leslie holds a town meeting, the audience is extremely anti-park. Leslie ends up filibustering her own meeting to avoid a vote so her project can live to fight another day. It's very awkward.

1. Their college intern is under-used. Rather than pay an actress to stand in the scene every episode and have minimal things to do or say, why not take advantage of the character? Last night she got to be a plant at the town hall meeting, but the annoyed man living with his grandmother had more lines than the series regular.

2. I can understand that it takes a few episodes sometimes for the writers and staff to find their groove and get going. The pilot episode of The Office was really awkward and not that funny also. I did see a lot of improvement in last night's show vs. the premiere. However, I don't know how long NBC plans on giving this show before pulling the plug. With Jay Leno destroying the network next fall, a lot of shows have to go and this will probably be one of them.

No comments:

Post a Comment