Knope Knows

From IGN:

Wow! What a difference a summer makes. What was a semi-amusing, mostly bereft six-episode first season of Parks and Recreation, from last spring, blossomed and evolved into a wonderfully layered comedic smorgasbord during Season 2. Out were the one-note, dry characters that felt irrelevant and immaterial. In were actual functioning people with hearts and feelings who we could readily invest ourselves in. But there were no cast changes. That was the greatest trick of all. They were the same characters. They just needed time to ferment. Time to breathe. And time for the writers to figure out just what made them tick and what made them funny.

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From Kaboom:

“But tell me, where do the children play?” Cat Stevens asked in his famous song. It’s a good question. A recent report from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention found that only one in five homes has a park within a half-mile. Half of the children surveyed said that it’s difficult to get to a playground or park from their house.

Apparently, we have a long way to go toward realizing our vision of a playground within walking distance of every child. The CDC asserts, “Youth without access to opportunities for physical activity during nonschool hours are less likely to be as physically active as their peers.” It goes on to say, “Preliminary evidence also suggests that access to parks, playgrounds, and recreation centers may lead to other healthy lifestyle choices, such as using modes of active transportation—like biking or walking to a park location.”

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From AV Club’s review of Parks and Recreation’s season finale, “Freddy Spaghetti“:

While Community has reached dizzying heights of greatness in only one season, P&R has transformed itself in its second year from a shaky enterprise to a remarkably consistent and reliably funny situation comedy with a great deal of heart and probably the best cast on television. For those who haven’t heard, it’s been yanked out of the Thursday night lineup thanks to its undeniably crappy ratings and shuttled off to become a midseason replacement series next year. How this is going to help its ratings recover is hard to figure out, but in the A.V. Club spirit, we remain cautiously optimistic; since a third season has already been ordered, it’s unlikely the network will bail out entirely. But this may be the last episode we see for a long time, so savor every moment.

[...]

This episode had a lot of plates to keep spinning, an affliction that used to slow Parks And Recreation down, but it’s learned to juggle pretty adeptly, and this one whirled around with gusto, keeping all the subplots running at an enjoyable pace. It gave us lots of lovely character moments and plot development without losing sight of its central premise, and the way it’s anchored by Leslie Knope and how she loves a job that doesn’t love her back. It even comes to a touching full circle, as Mark and Leslie share a moment on the edge of the lot. It’s this ability to hold down the ’situation’ part of situation comedy, while never scrimping on the comedy, that makes it the class of the NBC lineup — the purest, if not the best, sitcom on the air. It’s just too bad nobody’s paying attention.

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NPR recapped all four comedies that aired their season finales on NBC Thursday night. Of them, Parks and Recreation was the only show to receive an A from NPR. Community received an A-, 30 Rock a B+ and The Office a C+

From NPR:

The best decision they’ve made on Parks And Recreation, I think, is to make Leslie socially awkward and somewhat strange, but ultimately very dedicated and reasonably effective at her job. When the show started, the issue was partly whether she was just a blonde Michael Scott, and she isn’t that. Leslie is a good public servant. Leslie isn’t stupid. (She’s naive.) She would never, ever do the more dishonest 50 percent of the things Michael Scott does (blaming others, lying to the staff to avoid confrontation, and so forth).

So this episode focused on saluting Leslie’s effectiveness and the way it has won over Ron Swanson, much of her staff, and even The New Guy played by Adam Scott. Throw in how good Rob Lowe is as a smarmy nitwit, and you have a show that fired on all cylinders right up to the end.

Oh, and while we’re handing out praise: How great is Chris Pratt as Andy, a role that could have been absolutely pointless? He gives that guy such a giant heart and such a total lack of malice that the fact that he’s dumb doesn’t make it entirely unbelievable that April would fall for him. The little facial expressions that flicker on his face are one of the show’s greatest delights.

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