[Seabs]

Quite happy calling PARKS my favourite show ever. It's amazing. I guess it's hard to get some people to watch it when you describe it to them. Same for The Thick Of It. Took my ages to get my brother to watch it and he struggled through Season 1 but once he got to Season 2 he came around to the GOAT talk too. The character relationships really tip it over a show like Community because it gives you the best of that along with the killer script.

[WOOLCOCK]

Yeah the more I think about it Parks really does a great job at making you care about Pawnee as a place. In many ways it feels like classic Simpsons and how Springfield seemed eerily authentic despite being a cartoon town. The way they constantly make subtle references to Pawnee's history, its character, the rivalry with Eagleton, the way they showcase the quirkier characters that make up the town from Lil' Sebastien, to any town hall meeting, to the activists constantly at war with Leslie to Pert and the chat show host woman (name always escapes me). Even when some of these background characters only appear a few times in the space of 5 episodes, you still care about them everytime they're on screen.

Another thing that has to be praised is the writing and depth to all the characters. They don't just get reset after each episode and alternate depending on a situation, like Community they make you care about each character and give them principles/morals that you'll see always dominate how they act. This makes it so much better when someone like Ron is forced to act outside his comfort zone in occasionally helping out a co-worker. If he was poorly written a lot of his talks with Leslie, Tom and especially April could feel forced and just done to have a 'cute' ending, but there's never been a time where Ron's had to grow as a character where I've felt the writers have handled it poorly. In fact this relationship in April in particular is one of my favourites on the show. Despite both being quite closed off as people and on paper completely different to one another they have this father/daughter relationship that is actually quite touching for a comedy.

The cast is brilliant as well and of course the mockumentary format on top of the great writing means you get a multitude of comedy, from Adam Scott's great facial reactions to anything someone says, to the absurdity in almost every Chris speech, to Ann's awkward attempts at humour to Ron's deadpan delivery and great one liners to Andy's naive but endearing stupidity.

Think I saw once someone say its not the sort of comedy that beats you over the head with joke after joke, but rather the humor comes from how these wonderful characters interact in realistic situations with just a bit of Pawnee quirkiness to separate it from the real world. That's something I'd definitely agree with and its definitely up there with my favourite shows of all time. Even if you don't get an episode with jokes and comedy coming at you every minute like say Community, you still have the characters, their relationships and the super writing to make it a good/great episode.

[Ever Wolf]

can i skip series 1 of Parks and still get all the story?

because the first few episodes bar a few chuckles are terrible.

[WOOLCOCK]

Well getting to Season 2 and beyond is where you'll hopefully fall in love with the show. I'd recommend sticking with the last few episodes of Season 1, just to properly come to grips with the characters and how they're written. Once you familiarise yourself with that you'll see more and more of Pawnee and its weird citizens and hopefully fall in love with this picturesque little community.

Also without spoiling it, Parks also delivers one of my favourite slow-burn relationships in comedy history. Hopefully the longtime Parks fans know who I'm on about, but just in case:

Spoiler for PARKS' BEST LOVE STORY:

April and feckin Andy

[Seabs]

Originally Posted by Segunda Caida

Think I saw once someone say its not the sort of comedy that beats you over the head with joke after joke, but rather the humor comes from how these wonderful characters interact in realistic situations with just a bit of Pawnee quirkiness to separate it from the real world. That's something I'd definitely agree with and its definitely up there with my favourite shows of all time.

Perfect description. Same with the cameo characters part. It's so superbly written and works everytime because of it. Duke Silver. That is all.

Not like Community where if the jokes or the sillyness aren't on then the show kinda sucks. If that HOF thread got one more person to watch Parks then it served it's purpose.

Originally Posted by Xmas Wolf

can i skip series 1 of Parks and still get all the story?

because the first few episodes bar a few chuckles are terrible.

It's only 6x22ish minute episodes so even if you don't like them you've only wasted just over 2 hours of your life. I don't get the Season 1 hate personally. I thought it was still really good. Not on the level of the preceding seasons but they were still finding the show and what they wanted it to be at that point. There's only 6 episodes so you may as well watch them, if nothing else for the ground base of the characters like Ann, Andy and Leslie.

[Ever Wolf]

Gotta give it to episode 2, when they are walking round handing out flyers.

the scenes just flow nicely, the relationship between Ann & Leslie is blossoming already and is enjoyable

[Desecrated]

I enjoyed season one also. Its only main purpose is Andy/Ann though. Almost forgot the bit of Ron in a suit. Its a weird jump that was never explained, from suit to casual.

[WOOLCOCK]

The only guess I can make is that as you begin to learn more about Ron and his views on government and bureaucracy you can see why maybe his attitude and 'dress sense' becomes a bit more casual. Or maybe its just something minor they agreed on without feeling the need to explain, hard to tell.

[McQueen]

I loved the episode the little girl visited Ron to learn about Government.

[Striker]

I'm really starting to like Arrow, but the actress who plays Helena is pretty bad tbh. I feel like everything she says is awkward.