Sunday, April 12, 2009

TBG TV: Parks and Recreation


One Sentence Premise: Mockumentary about small-town government and the quirky people who always seem to populate small towns…at least on TV.

Starring: Amy Poehler as goofball bureaucrat "Leslie Knope"; molten-hot mulatto ("mulatta"?) Rashida Jones as concerned citizen "Ann Perkins"; with Paul Schneider, Aziz Ansari, Aubrey Plaza, Nick Offerman and Chris Pratt as "the rest of the cast".

The Best Thang: Created by Greg Daniels (The Office) and the late Ken Tremendous, the show's behind-the-scenes pedigree earns it at least one viewing.

The Worst Thang: The casting is – to be kind – curious. Poehler is heaped with praise by the native New Yorkers and aspiring entertainment industry employees who make up 99% of Saturday Night Live's viewing audience, but I don't see it. There's a fine line between "goofy" and "grating". And, save for Ansari's "Tom Haverford", the rest of the characters come across as awfully unlikeable.

Verdict: I laughed exactly once during last Thursday's premiere (Haverford laying down an awesome stream-of-consciousness attempt to pick-up Ann). On the other hand, Mrs. Bootleg practically peed her panties at the sight of Leslie falling down into the ditch. My wife immediately created a "record series" for this show, so I guess we're both on board. For now.

2 comments:

SHough610 said...

Mulatto is allowed? That's okay phrasing?
The Office didn't find it's footing until season two. Of course, because NBC is so scared of losing Jay Leno they've sacrificed five of their fifteen primetime hours.

Anonymous said...

I thought it was pretty solid. The scene with post-fall Leslie recuperating with the lazy boyfriend was really good.