It's weird that, over the past few years, I have gotten used to not watching some series over a long period of time. As a fan of such serialized dramas as Lost and 24, it became old hat for me to watch new episodes between the months of January and May, and then wait for the rest of the calendar year to pass before another season began. For some reason, though, I don't accept it as a given when it comes to comedies. Comedies air between September and May. That's just a fact, if they air on broadcast television. I'm fine with cable comedies, like Archer or Bored to Death only showing up for one-fourth of a year, but broadcast comedies don't leave the air for 9 months at a time.
That Parks and Recreation became a weird casualty of the 2010 fall TV season is par for the course at the cosmic joke of a network known as NBC. The esteemed and insightful critic Alan Sepinwall pointed out last week on his blog, What's Alan Watching, at HitFix, that while NBC may be such a laughingstock, some of the shows it's airing wouldn't be able to survive on any other network with the ratings they get. I love Community, but its ratings are awful on any other network (though we could certainly debate the idea that most of the shows NBC airs would do better on any other network, simply by no longer being on NBC). The same goes for shows like Chuck, 30 Rock, and even The Office, which may be NBC's highest-rated scripted show, but even at its ratings peak, it wasn't as highly rated as comedies on CBS or ABC.
But it really stings that Parks and Recreation was held until midseason. It's not even that the cast and crew worked overtime back in the spring to make six of its eventual 16 episodes in the third season, because the show's ostensible lead, Amy Poehler, was pregnant. What annoys me most is that the show had been so consistently brilliant, so giddy in its inventive spirit, and someone at NBC must have known it. Right? I have to assume that somebody working for the network is aware enough of the quality they have on their hands. This is not an issue of the show getting bad ratings (and since the new season, which begins tomorrow night, is airing directly after The Office, the executives are giving it a great chance). It's an issue of looking at the newly developed comedies you have, like Outsourced, and then looking at what you've already got. Why did NBC have to mess with what they had?
Yeah, yeah, I know. Why should I complain? Leslie Knope and the rest of the crew at the Pawnee Parks and Recreation Department are coming back! Let's throw a parade! My fear is that the experiment NBC is concocting also begins tomorrow night, and it could fall flat. A three-hour comedy block hasn't been done in years, and NBC renewed 30 Rock, the show now airing at 10:00, pretty much to make sure its fans knew they weren't sending it to die. I can only hope the other shows on Thursday night aren't facing the same fate. But let's move onto a quick appreciation of this brilliant show, the absolute best comedy of 2010 if it aired more episodes. I ended up thinking higher of Community, but only because they aired classic episodes in the fall as well as in the spring. In watching a handful of episodes this evening, pumping myself up for the show's return, I was curious to see if I'd think as highly of them as I did when they originally aired.
If you've read anything about the show, you know that it was easily the most improved network television program in the 2009-2010 season. Its first six episodes were OK, but they didn't gel as much as they should have, especially with the hype NBC built up that they were making another Office. But almost as soon as the new season began, the writers of the show wasted no time in creating such a believable world of characters who you always wanted to spend time with. But as I watched the episodes, I wondered if my initial appreciation was just at being so happy for the show for no longer sucking, or if it was genuinely great. The answer is clear: it's genuinely great. Poehler and the writers had tightened Leslie Knope into a person, not a caricature. She was even more well-balanced than Michael Scott could ever dream of being. But the other characters made things work: Ron F'ing Swanson, April, Tom, Jerry, Ann, Andy. Especially the last few episodes, where the Pawnee government is effectively shut down for major monetary renovations thanks to visiting auditors played by incoming regulars Rob Lowe and Adam Scott, became as much fun to watch as they must have been to make.
Lowe and Scott, in particular, are an exciting addition to the show. With their appearances at the end of the second season and the departure of Paul Schneider (who's a fine actor, but just never truly fit in), it seems like Parks and Recreation is not only poised for its best season yet, even if it's a shortened one (thanks again, NBC), but for its breakout year. The show hit a wall in its six-episode first season with many viewers who wanted to embrace another Office and were disappointed to find a show that was still finding itself, not something that was already off and running creatively. If you think that Parks and Recreation is still not worth watching, I almost don't know what to tell you. The first two seasons are available on Netflix Instant, and there is no stronger endorsement for the service than rediscovering this sitcom. The cast (who I've neglected to talk too much about, but suffice to say, introducing the world to Nick Offerman, Aubrey Plaza, Chris Pratt, and Aziz Ansari is nothing short of a miraculously good deed) has awesome comedic and romantic chemistry, the writing is tight, unpredictable, and hilarious, and the stories are surprisingly compelling. Perhaps the best part of Parks and Recreation is that the characters show genuine interest and excitement in dull governmental work. Writing about local government sounds boring; making it interesting is a mountainous challenge. The effort put into making Parks and Recreation seem so effortless is awe-inspiring. This is such a great show, and I'm so happy it's coming back tomorrow.
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