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Posts tagged as pawnee

Recaps

Looking at 'Parks and Rec's' Season Finale and Looking Forward at Season 5

by | May 11th, 2012

Last night’s season finale of Parks and Rec is the most pivotal and important episode in the show's history. Showrunner Michael Schur and his writers have always kept their characters moving forward into new and exciting territory, but last night’s show brought about more change than ever before, as pretty much all of the main characters faced life-changing decisions in one way or another. Leslie has a line during her speech, “Let’s embark on a new journey together and see where it goes,” which could easily double for Parks and Recreation’s motto.

The action for the past four seasons of the show has centered on the titular Parks and [...]

Recaps

Parks and Rec Recap: "Campaign Shake-Up"

by | March 2nd, 2012

It’s been a rollercoaster of a city council campaign so far for Leslie Knope, and this week, the ups and downs continue. While her incompetent opponent Bobby Newport has made things easy for Leslie by going into hiding, his costly new campaign manager Jennifer Barkley (played by guest star Kathryn Hahn) is making things hard for her. Newport fleeing the country also made things easy on busy movie star Paul Rudd, who plays the character, allowing him to sit this episode out. He’ll be back later on this season, relax.

Leslie and campaign manager Ben have made great strides to recover from the mini-scandal the two were involved in, [...]

Recaps

Parks and Rec Recap: "The Trial of Leslie Knope"

by | December 2nd, 2011

Leslie and Ben spent the better part of the last two seasons worrying about the ramifications of making their relationship public, so it only makes sense that, when they do disclose their secret romance, it’s taken seriously. In this case, they’re at the mercy of Chris Traeger and his thorough investigation and ethics trial, with Leslie fears will ruin her career.

“The Trial of Leslie Knope,” written by Parks co-creator and showrunner Michael Schur and producer Dan Goor, is a rare Parks and Rec episode in that it only features one main storyline and is completely free of subplots. A typical episode of the show has three plots (an [...]

Recaps

Parks and Rec Recap: "End of the World"

by | November 4th, 2011

Parks and Recreation has been pulling storylines from real-life events since Season 2, but this week’s “ripped from the headlines” story fell outside of the political realm for a change. The writers took Christian broadcaster Harold Camping’s false rapture prediction from this past summer, stripping it of Christian ideology and spinning it into an end times forecast from a freaky Pawnee cult called the Reasonablists. The Reaonablists worship the alien Zorp the Surveyor, whom they believe will close out human existence by burning everyone’s flesh off with his “volcano mouth.” The conceit makes for an entertaining episode, with the hypothetical end of the world affecting the various Parks Department [...]

Recaps

'Parks and Rec' Recap: "Bus Tour"

by | May 4th, 2012

Things are looking good for Leslie Knope as she enters the home stretch of her City Council run – until she accidentally insults her opponent’s recently deceased father, that is. This week, Leslie and her staff find themselves reeling from an unfortunate remark she makes during a campaign stop that could cost her the election.

While Leslie spent the episode trying to recover from the faux pas she makes about Bobby Newport’s father, the rest of the staff spend the day before the election in a variety of hilarious subplots. Tom, Ron, and Donna try to claim the vans they’ve rented from “a guy who’s only asset is 22 [...]

Recaps

Parks and Rec Recap: "Dave Returns"

by | February 17th, 2012

Is there any combination more appealing to comedy fans right now than Louis C.K. and Parks and Recreation? The preeminent stand-up of our time returned to the preeminent sitcom* of our time, marking C.K.’s first appearance on the show since a five-episode arc in 2009 and his first acting role outside of his FX show Louie since it began. I loved Louis C.K. on Parks in Season Two, but in this episode, it felt like they tweaked his character significantly in order to generate some conflict.

C.K.’s character Dave is back in town from San Diego to attend Police Chief Trumple’s retirement party, and Leslie is gunning for an [...]

Recaps

Parks and Rec Recap: "Smallest Park"

by | November 18th, 2011

Well, I wasn’t expecting that. With all of the time Parks and Rec has spent this season justifying why Leslie and Ben need to be apart, I was assuming they’d wait to get them back together until at least after her campaign. There’s only so much will they/won’t they action I can handle from Leslie and Ben. Most of the suspense to them getting back together has been gone since they broke up since it's pretty much a given that they would restart their relationship eventually and we already know what they're like as a couple. At first, I’d thought Leslie not being able to date Ben was just [...]

Books

Here's the Cover of Pawnee: The Book, by Leslie Knope

by | June 14th, 2011

Coming this Fall is Pawnee: The Greatest Town in America, a new book by "Leslie Knope." If you have a certain personality type, you can preorder it now in order to get it delivered on October 11th, the day of its release. Alternatively, you can wait til a bit closer to October like a normal person. But hey, no judgements! [via]

Recaps

Parks and Rec Recap: "The Debate"

by | April 27th, 2012

As Parks and Recreation barrels towards the Election Day finish line of its fourth season, the show’s approaching a potential plot shift that would be the biggest change it has ever faced. Parks showrunner and co-creator Michael Schur told the press last month that they shot three different endings to cover all the possible outcomes for Leslie’s City Council bid, but an election win for Ms. Knope could see the show take a whole new direction as she leaves the titular Parks and Recreation Department behind in favor of climbing the bureaucratic ladder. In the ramp-up to the finale, the folks behind the show are pulling out all the stops [...]

Recaps

Parks and Rec Recap: "Campaign Ad"

by | January 20th, 2012

Parks and Recreation has always found strength in its characters, boasting a nine-person-deep bench of specific and well-drawn characters who manage to be both broad and grounded at the same time. I don’t want to get too hyperbolic, but the Parks cast is one of the best TV comedy ensembles in history, and that’s just as much a reflection of the sharp, characters that are perfectly-matched to their respective actors as it is of the talented and wide-ranging performers that make up the central cast. One of the most effective ways the writers have found to use this great cast is to pair up the performers in different combinations [...]

Politics

Will the Parks & Rec Writers Occupy Pawnee?

by | November 15th, 2011

According to Amy Poehler, the writers of Parks and Recreation have talked about doing a story about the Occupy movement in Pawnee. Sounds like this could be a great issue for Leslie to tackle as she continues her campaign for city council. And considering the host of hilarious reporters in the show's universe, it would be amazing to see how they'd all report on this real-world story. What would Perd Hapley, Joan Callamezzo, Shauna Malwae-Tweep, and Crazy Ira & The Douche have to say if tents suddenly sprung up in Ramsett Park? Here's hoping we find out.

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