Sitcoms Online - Main Page / Message Boards - Main Page / News Blog / Photo Galleries / DVD Reviews / Buy TV Shows on DVD and Blu-ray

View Today's Active Threads (No Chit Chat/Chit Chat Only) / View New Posts (No Chit Chat/Chit Chat Only) / Mark All Boards Read / Chit Chat Board

Parks and Recreation links at Sitcoms Online / Parks and Recreation Photo Gallery


Parks and Recreation - Season One

Buy Parks and Recreation - Season One on DVD
Parks and Recreation - Season Two

Buy Parks and Recreation - Season Two on DVD
Parks and Recreation - Season Three

Buy Parks and Recreation - Season Three on DVD
Parks and Recreation - Season Four

Buy Parks and Recreation - Season Four on DVD
Parks and Recreation - Season Five

Buy Parks and Recreation - Season Five on DVD
Parks and Recreation - Season Six

Buy Parks and Recreation - Season Six on DVD
Parks and Recreation - Season Seven - The Farewell Season

Buy Parks and Recreation - Season Seven - The Farewell Season on DVD
Parks and Recreation - The Complete Series

Buy Parks and Recreation - The Complete Series on DVD

Sitcoms Online Message Boards - Forums  

Go Back   Sitcoms Online Message Boards - Forums > 2010s and 2020s Sitcoms > Parks and Recreation
Register Community View Today's Active Threads (No CC/CC Only) Search Photo Galleries Calendar FAQ

Notices

SitcomsOnline.com News Blog Headlines Facebook X/Twitter Bluesky Threads Instagram YouTube RSS

Apple TV Trailer for Trying; Camp Snoopy Details
Ride or Die Trailer for Prime Video; Scooby-Doo Image Released for Netflix Live-Action Series
Tubi Announces More Comedies; Rivals Returns for More Season 2 Episodes in November
Sitcom Stars on Talk Shows; This Week in Sitcoms (Week of June 8, 2026)
SitcomsOnline Digest: Hulu Orders Cable Guy Comedy Pilot; Netflix Orders Big Box Store Adult Animated Comedy
Prime Video's Batman: Caped Crusader Season 2; Netflix's Devil May Cry Renewed for Final Season
HBO Max Celebrates 25th Anniversary of Six Feet Under; Netflix Orders Dealies


New on DVD and Blu-ray

Happy's Place - Season One (Blu-ray) Two and a Half Men - The Complete Series (Blu-ray) Abbott Elementary - The Complete Fourth Season (DVD) I Love Lucy - The Complete Series - 75th Anniversary Edition (DVD) The Office - The Complete Series - Superfan Extended Episodes (Blu-ray)

11/04/25 - Happy's Place - Season One (Blu-ray) (DVD)
11/11/25 - Rick and Morty - Season 8 (Blu-ray) (DVD)
11/11/25 - SpongeBob SquarePants - The Complete Fifteenth Season (DVD)
11/11/25 - Two and a Half Men - The Complete Series (Blu-ray)
12/02/25 - Tom and Jerry - The Golden Era Anthology (1940-1958) (Blu-ray) (DVD)
12/16/25 - Lippy the Lion and Hardy Har Har - The Complete Series (Blu-ray)
12/16/25 - Wally Gator - The Complete Series (Blu-ray)
01/20/26 - The Woody Woodpecker and Friends Golden Age Collection (Blu-ray)
01/27/26 - The New Fred and Barney Show - The Complete Series (Blu-ray)
02/11/26 - Tom and Jerry - The Complete CinemaScope Collection (Blu-ray)
03/24/26 - Looney Tunes Collector's Vault - Volume 2 (Blu-ray)
04/11/26 - Abbott Elementary - The Complete Fourth Season (DVD)
04/21/26 - Famous Studios Champion Collection (Blu-ray) (DVD)
05/19/26 - I Love Lucy - The Complete Series - 75th Anniversary Edition (DVD)
05/19/26 - Looney Tunes Cartoons - The Complete Series (Blu-ray) (DVD)
07/14/26 - The Office - The Complete Series - Superfan Extended Episodes (Blu-ray)
07/28/26 - I Love Lucy - The Complete Series - 75th Anniversary Edition (Blu-ray)

More Recent and Upcoming TV DVD and Blu-ray Releases / TV Shows on DVD, Blu-ray and Prime Video / DVD Reviews Archive


Search Sitcoms Online:



Donate

Please make a donation if you can help with Sitcoms Online's web hosting costs. Thanks for your support!

We receive a small commission on all DVDs, Blu-rays, CDs, Books, and any other items ordered through our Amazon.com links as an associate. Thanks for using our links for your online shopping!

Reply
 
Thread Tools Search this Thread
Old 05-29-2025, 02:28 AM   #1
TMC
Member
Forum Idol
 
Join Date: Jan 09, 2001
Posts: 124,792
Default The Two Best PARKS AND RECREATION Episodes of Season One

https://jacksonupperco.com/2025/05/2...of-season-one/

Quote:
Parks And Recreation is the premier example of the ensemble workplace comedy of the 2010s, descending from the same stock as The Office and 30 Rock, but veering away from their sexy mid-2000s idea-led metatheatrical conceptual gimmicks (like The Office’s mockumentary construct and 30 Rock’s showbiz-about-showbiz SNL tone) to establish a more casual and sustainable single-cam version of a familiar sitcom subgenre, with a feel-good sensibility that, even more than its comedy, indicates the ethos that this entire genre, overall, will reflect in the second decade of the 21st century. That is, as cable and streaming were steering the entire medium into more self-serious waters, all that was needed to be considered an alternative to “drama” wasn’t necessarily hilarity, just relative lightness. And indeed, Parks And Rec is always a light, feel-good show, with a traditionalism that gives it a classic sitcom trajectory – a few seasons are needed to refine itself, then there’s a pretty decent stretch of consistent excellence, followed by an obvious cool down that’s nevertheless not terrible. And the fact that it’s well-designed, and also very funny (yay!) in addition to warm and light, has allowed it to become a modern gem – the 2010s’ finest ambassador for the workplace sitcom. I was eager to cover it here, alongside both The Office and 30 Rock, because they’re all kin – not only were they neighbors within NBC’s Thursday night comedy block at the end of the 2000s and beginning of the 2010s, but they’re also all among the best ensemble work-centered comedies of the 21st century – which makes them particularly easy to compare. What’s more, they’re aesthetically related too, with notable Saturday Night Live ties that further suggest a trend we discussed recently with 30 Rock – the fuller adoption of idea-driven sketch comedy attitudes in 2000s sitcoms, especially via alums from the only remaining comedy-variety show of note, SNL. For Parks And Rec, these ties are strong – and familiar. For one, its star, Amy Poehler, was a big talent at SNL, even sharing the Weekend Update desk for several years with 30 Rock’s future star and fellow scribe, Tina Fey (who, like Poehler, had also studied at Second City in Chicago). So, right off the bat – there are clear SNL affiliations at the very top of Parks And Rec, just like on 30 Rock.

But these SNL roots run even deeper, for Parks And Rec was created by two Office guys who both had written for Saturday Night Live as well – Greg Daniels (he adapted The Office from its British predecessor and served as its showrunner) and Michael Schur, who shepherded Parks And Rec (and then would go on to helm Brooklyn Nine-Nine and The Good Place). That means, just like The Office (and 30 Rock), Parks And Rec was also being led by writers who had clear affiliations with SNL. And yet, of all three, Parks And Rec is the one that I think feels least like that comedy-variety show, for it’s not written in a style that intends to evoke SNL – as 30 Rock often was – and despite opening with a mockumentary look reminiscent of the comedic context applied foundationally to The Office (rendering it sketch-like as a matter of idea-driven focus), it quickly drops any pretense that the characters are conscious of being filmed. All that remains of the mockumentary conceit by late Season Two is the use of character confessionals and the basic visual grammar of reality TV-esque handheld fluidity – essentially, what Modern Family also utilized upon its debut later in 2009, benefiting from the contemporariness still suggested by this non-traditional setup but without any of the formal metatheatrics as they’re applied on The Office in how its characters behave and stories are told – with the cameras (and the “edit”) part of the situation. No, in Parks And Rec, the cameras stop being part of the situation early on – and that means, there’s less meta humor and no overarching high-concept. It’s just these leads in this premise… a more traditional and, as I said, casual understanding of how an ensemble workplace comedy should be, maintaining the general aesthetic of single-cams but moving beyond the deliberate rebellion of The Office (and tonally, 30 Rock), which needed to be bolder in their “newness” to sell themselves in a mid-2000s landscape tiring of formula.
TMC is online now   Reply With Quote
Old 01-06-2026, 05:17 PM   #2
TMC
Member
Forum Idol
 
Join Date: Jan 09, 2001
Posts: 124,792
Default

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJ3PfdC30nA

Quote:
It's common advice to skip the 1st season of Parks and Recreation - it took the show a while to really find itself. But I'm here to argue that powering through the first season gives you a much more full experience of the show and especially it's main character Leslie.
TMC is online now   Reply With Quote
Reply



Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -4. The time now is 03:46 AM.


Although the administrators and moderators of the Sitcoms Online Message Boards will attempt to keep all objectionable messages off this forum, it is impossible for us to review all messages. All messages express the views of the author, and neither the owners of the Sitcoms Online Message Boards, nor vBulletin Solutions Inc. (developers of vBulletin) will be held responsible for the content of any message. The owners of the Sitcoms Online Message Boards reserve the right to remove, edit, move or close any thread for any reason.

Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.11
Copyright ©2000 - 2026, vBulletin Solutions Inc.