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Parks & Recreation (For B00)
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Was just searching for Parks & Recreation threads and found yours… and I am now a huge fan.
Funnily enough, the original TV trailers for it left me a bit cold, but my daughter is a fan and I bought her a box set of the first 5 series on Saturday. That evening and most of Sunday turned into a P&R binge!
It is so, so funny. There was a comment on your 2013 post saying it was an Office rip-off, but I have to disagree. Actually it’s to the credit of the main writer – who was responsible for the US version of The Office – that he’s turned that fly-on-the-wall / to-camera format into something far better.
Just looking back to the UK original of The Office, it’s hard to deny that it was brilliant (or brilliantly original – maybe that was the difference) but it had very few characters I cared about. Everybody rooted for Tim to end up with Dawn, and while David Brent was deluded about his abilities he was at heart a good man so we kind of empathised with him. But there wasn’t really anybody else.
P&R is full of flawed characters who you can’t help but like and the numerous on-off relationships make you care about them. And all of that is backed up with a superb breadth of humour, from dry observation to bathos to downright silly; when Andy is describing to a colleague the things his ex Ann is looking for in a partner, she observes “That doesn’t sound like Ann”, so he replies “I know – I can’t do her voice”.
I’ve never been much of a fan of US sitcoms, even those regarded as ‘classics’, eg Friends, Simpsons etc. Don’t know why – somehow the humour always feels too obvious to me, or maybe it’s that awful canned laughter. P&R feels amazingly fresh, unexpected and at times deliciously dark.
Whatever the reason, the fact that my daughter and I got roughly half-way through the boxed set before the weekend was up and she took them home has left me feeling rather bereft!
Funnily enough, the original TV trailers for it left me a bit cold, but my daughter is a fan and I bought her a box set of the first 5 series on Saturday. That evening and most of Sunday turned into a P&R binge!
It is so, so funny. There was a comment on your 2013 post saying it was an Office rip-off, but I have to disagree. Actually it’s to the credit of the main writer – who was responsible for the US version of The Office – that he’s turned that fly-on-the-wall / to-camera format into something far better.
Just looking back to the UK original of The Office, it’s hard to deny that it was brilliant (or brilliantly original – maybe that was the difference) but it had very few characters I cared about. Everybody rooted for Tim to end up with Dawn, and while David Brent was deluded about his abilities he was at heart a good man so we kind of empathised with him. But there wasn’t really anybody else.
P&R is full of flawed characters who you can’t help but like and the numerous on-off relationships make you care about them. And all of that is backed up with a superb breadth of humour, from dry observation to bathos to downright silly; when Andy is describing to a colleague the things his ex Ann is looking for in a partner, she observes “That doesn’t sound like Ann”, so he replies “I know – I can’t do her voice”.
I’ve never been much of a fan of US sitcoms, even those regarded as ‘classics’, eg Friends, Simpsons etc. Don’t know why – somehow the humour always feels too obvious to me, or maybe it’s that awful canned laughter. P&R feels amazingly fresh, unexpected and at times deliciously dark.
Whatever the reason, the fact that my daughter and I got roughly half-way through the boxed set before the weekend was up and she took them home has left me feeling rather bereft!
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On your recommendation I’ll have to give Modern Family another chance. Somehow the few clips I watched on YouTube felt a bit… I don’t know… hysterical at times? Maybe I just watched the wrong ones and I might have an aversion to cutesy, smart alec kids! Given the number of Emmys and critical acclaim it’s received it must be good.
Yes, you’re right about Nick Offerman as Ron – he was also brilliant in We’re The Millers.
Yes, you’re right about Nick Offerman as Ron – he was also brilliant in We’re The Millers.
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