Parks and Rec is easily the most underrated show currently being shown. NBC, who you might remember from past fiascoes such as "Let's put Jay Leno on at 10!" and "We should keep airing Heroes!" bumped it for the first half of the season in favor of the horrid Outsourced, in a move that one commentator likened to the time when Thurgood Marshall was replaced by Clarence Thomas. I would go even farther and ask you to imagine a world where Harriet Miers replaced Earl Warren.
Simply put, Parks and Rec is brilliant. Perhaps the best thing you can say about an ensemble comedy is that you are unable to pick a favorite character. And this show has an embarrassment of wealth. From Andy Dwyer throwing himself into the pit, to Tom "I tell other people to take the high road so there will be more room for me on the low road" Haverford, to the magnificent Ron F%$&ing Swanson (whose Pyramid of Greatness should be in every dorm room in America), no other show has a "family" this consistently hilarious since the Bluths burned down the banana stand.
You know how The Office kind of started to hit the skids somewhere in Season 4? This just happened to coincide with the departure of Michael Schur -- otherwise known as Ken Tremendous, founding partner of the brilliant Fire Joe Morgan troupe -- who left to create Parks and Rec. And ever since then, you can make a line graph of laughter accrued while watching The Office and superimpose that on one of laughter accrued while watching Parks and Rec, and you'd get a perfectly formed X.
In short, if you haven't given Parks and Rec a try, do so at your earliest convenience. I am not exaggerating when I call it the funniest show on television, and that is over more conventional picks like Modern Family or 30 Rock or Community.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to listen to some MouseRat on my DJ Roomba while I carve a whiskey harp.
1 comment:
I gave up watching Parks and Rec and was thrilled with Outsourced - I think it's much funnier. Parks tries to be The Office but it's too over the top and just comes across as pathetic.
To each their own.
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