Parks and Recreation Review

Overall 3.00 of 5 view all 2 reviews

MikeMaroon
Chattanooga, TN

From the producers of "The Office"! But not funny!

an avid TV watcher, a comedy fan

Pros

Amy Poehler

Cons

Not funny

APR

2009

Parks and Recreation is produced by Greg Daniels (The Office and King of the Hill) and stars Amy Poehler, one of the funniest women on the planet.   What could go wrong? Turns out, plenty.

The fact it is a clone of The Office does not help. Amy Poehler is clueless bureaucrat Leslie Knope, tireless crusader for the Parks and Recreation Commission of Pawnee, Indiana. If you've seen The Office, you will be familiar with it's mockumentary style and hand-held camera-work.

Knope is an ambitious city official, but, unfortunately she is either very naive about the inner workings of local government of just stupid. First of all I've never met a city official so enthusiastic and idealistic as Poehler's character.   Leslie just blithely believes she can accomplish anything she wants and seems to not understand there will always be mountains of red tape involved. I mean, how long has she been at this, anyway?

The pilot begins with Knope and her colleague, Tom Haverford (Aziz Ansari) having a "town hall" meeting because she so enthusiastically wants to improve the city's parks. Of course few show up and the school auditorium they try to use has to be abandoned because someone turns all the lights out while they are meeting. Are you rolling in the aisles, yet?

It's soon apparent Tom is mostly interested in using his position for personal gain, as they move to a lighted class room and finish the meeting.   Local nurse Ann Logan (Rashida Jones) voices her concern over an abandoned construction pit next to her house. Seems her boyfriend was injured when he fell into the pit in the dark and now Logan wants something done about it. Tom suggests they discuss it in private over dinner. Side-splitting.

Well, Leslie naively informs Ms Logan not only will she come out there in the morning but she will get the pit filled and put an brand new kiddie park on the site! Hijinks ensue as she is stonewalled by her boss, then his boss, a man who doesn't even believe in government. He thinks all parks should be privatized and for profit.

Parks and Recreation tries to take the same tack as The Office, looking at life in a city Parks and Recreation office with an eye for the absurdly mundane. Its absured, alright.

THE BOTTOM LINE

Parks and Recreation is a massive disappointment. I expected to at least get a few chuckles from Poehler, but, nope. Nada. The only laugh occurred when a man stood up in the town hall meeting and spewed expletives in every direction. I'm telling you there's not much hope for a show when you only get laughs out of bleeped F-bombs.

They try and get laughs the same way The Office does, by focusing on the awkward and cringe-worthy. Unfortunately, those moments turn out to be merely awkward and cringe-worthy. It's hard to believe a group of people this talented came up with this and thought it was good. Its possible this show could get better over time, as say, American Dad, did, but, they, to quote that wise philosopher, the late Jerry Reed, "have a long way to go and a short time to get there." GRADE: D-