Knope Knows

SPOILER ALERT! This post talks extensively about the season finale. Stop reading now if you haven’t already seen it!

Entertainment Weekly believes Parks and Recreation has been “really good” since “The Banquet.” Even so, staffer Jeremy Medina offers three suggestions to Greg Daniels and Michael Schur to make the show even better.

Do you agree?

1. Always remember and never forget who the star is: Amy Poehler. Poehler really, truly is one of the most gifted comedians out there. But why do I get the nagging feeling Parks isn’t the best vehicle to take advantage of her talent? She seemed particularly subdued in last night’s episode. She occasionally had some great facial reactions, but Leslie wasn’t really the star of the episode. She was more on the periphery, until the episode’s final moments when she and Mark (Paul Schneider) made out by the pit. When Leslie rejected Mark because he was too drunk, and because she’s too in love with him, the subtlety of Poehler’s performance really shone through. Subtlety is fine and all, but this is Amy Poehler for crying out loud! I wish the show would give her more to do. Perhaps give her a rival that’ll amp up her competitiveness?
2. Make Rashida Jones, Aziz Ansari, and Aubrey Plaza’s characters more dynamic. Jones’ character, Ann, spent most of the finale pissed off. Andy never told her he could have removed his cast far earlier, and once she found out the truth she was a terror. And not in a funny way. When Mark kind-of, sort-of hit on her, she rejected him so fast (and cruelly) it was frightening. Jones was the straight woman on The Office, and here she is almost exactly the same. They should let her wave her freak flag, or something.
3. Utilize the confessionals better, or delete them altogether. I really can’t decide if the documentary-style format does Parks any favors. Besides the occasional guffaw (like Andy’s list of band names), the verite feel doesn’t really deliver laughs or advance the plot in any way. Confessionals on The Office make sense within that world, but I don’t think that holds true for Parks. No one would care if they were deleted. It’d at least make people less apt to compare the show to The Office over and over again.

Link: ‘Parks and Recreation’ season finale: Three helpful suggestions for next season

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