Like a lot of regular viewers of The Office, we’re excited about the new series from Greg Daniels and Michael Schur (a.k.a. Cousin Mose), Parks and Recreation. It’s got a great pedigree and an awesome cast led by Amy Poehler, Aziz Ansari (Human Giant, Scrubs) and Rashida Jones (Karen Filippelli on The Office), and the ad campaign to support the series launch did nothing to dampen our enthusiasm. While our first impression after watching the pilot is that style and format of the show resemble The Office a little too much, we’ve decided to commit to watching and recapping at least the first few episodes. So here we go …
Synopsis: Deputy Director of the Parks and Recreation Department Leslie Knope (Poehler) and her colleague Tom Haverford (Ansari) attend the City of Pawnee Public Forum to take questions from concerned members of the community. It’s “where the rubber of government meets the road of actual human beings.” (Well said, Leslie.) After an aborted attempt to start the meeting and a move to a much smaller venue, things get underway, and people start yelling — which Leslie takes to mean that they care — very loudly … at her. One of them, Ann Perkins (Jones), brings up an abandoned lot on Sullivan St. where a developer dug out a basement that was never built on. Her musician boyfriend fell into the pit, breaking both of his legs, and now she wants the situation fixed. While Tom just wants her phone number — despite the fact that he’s married — Leslie “pinky promises” to fill in the pit and put a park on the land.
Leslie’s grand plan centers around the formation of an exploratory subcommittee that would include Mark Brendanawicz, whom Leslie seems to think wields some power — and whom she slept with about five years ago. Mark’s initial thoughts on the project are that is it both unlikely and impossible, but that doesn’t deter Leslie in the least. Unfortunately, her boss, Ron Swanson (Nick Offerman), does not want to build any new parks because he despises government. He also keeps a sawed-off shotgun and a giant poster of Bobby Knight in his office and would rather work at Chuck E. Cheese than in his current position.
Leslie won’t take no for an answer, though, and after she falls into the pit herself — producing an upskirt photo that Tom forwards to Mark (and likely another 100 or so of his closest friends) — Mark decides to call in a favor with Ron and get the committee approved. Leslie, Ann and Tom all celebrate with champagne, a fairly regular practice that in the past has caused Leslie to try to fax a fruit roll-up, make out with the water delivery guy and try to fight an actual crime while dressed in a Batman Halloween costume. This time, she only butchers the words to “Lady Marmalade,” making it sound more like “Lady Mama Lard.” So there’s that.
Overall, it was a so-so debut for Parks & Rec. There were a few funny jokes and we really like the cast, but we’d like to see it become its own entity. There’s plenty of time for that, though. We seem to remember having similar feelings when the pilot for the American version of The Office debuted, using the same script as its British predecessor. Hopefully the results will be similar in this case.
We’ll be back next week with another recap. Until then, if you have thoughts on the series premiere, please leave them in the comments section below.