Parks and Rec is one of my favourite pieces of television and for the better part of its run on television, I was genuinely awestruck by its superb ensemble cast and characters and its emphatic sense of worldbuilding that gave way to so many memorable side characters on the show. The utterly unassuming first season therefore stands out in stark contrast relative to the show it would go onto become and its central saving grace is that the first season is as short as it is at just the six episodes.
In my opinion, the show manages to get right some aspects of Leslie's character such as her infectious joy and optimism in government work but it seems to get wrong her overall tone, opting more for bumbling and incompetent and less for confident and assured. In the early parts of the season in particular, she plays out like another version of Michael Scott, obnoxious and overbearing and it only spells out more clearly how Parks and Rec initially operated under the shadows of NBC's The Office.
Ann is perhaps the only character in my opinion that they manage to get right from the start but that might also have to do with her being one of the more easily defined characters on the show. She's effectively the "straight man" of the series and Rashida Jones plays that part without any difficulty whatsoever. Going back and seeing Ann and Chris being a couple on the show is so strange and difficult to re-adjust to seeing where these characters would go onto.
The problem with Mark's character is a) there is already a "straight man" in Ann on the show and b) Paul Schneider just isn't very charismatic onscreen and he just doesn't quite translate the more nuanced aspects of his character whereby he can be both sleazy and empathetic and what not.
A big problem with this first season is how April is almost blatantly pushed to the side. She gets so little screentime and only a handful of completely unsubstantial lines of dialogue in this season that she's not even a caricature of the apathetic adolescent. Through April's complete lack of character, the season loses one of its pivotal voices that makes the show so goddamn endearing. Speaking of personalities, Ron Swanson is also a weak voice in the first season even if he gets a handful of moments that work well in retrospect. To extend that idea another step further, Jerry and Donna are also pushed aside for the most part here or maybe, they weren't initially conceived to be part of the show's ensemble.
Season 1 barely hobbles its way to the finish line but it's not absolutely reprehensible or anything. It just isn't very convincing and at all and there isn't much humour or even fun to be found here. That all changes with the second season and by the end of that second season, the show would completely find its voice when two of the greatest personalities on the show make their entrance.
My god (pun not intended) that got shoehorned in so badly. If I wanted bad fanfic about Christianity, I'd get on AO3. They took a relatively good concept, but it seems to me that they wrote themselves into a corner they couldn't escape via other means than a perpetual deus ex machina.
Unfortunately the worsened writing is not being redeemed by good acting, pleasant soundtrack or captivating sub plot arcs. If you want to watch it, don't continue reading.
The characters have gotten hit on the head way too many times during the past few seasons and their IQ loss is noticeable and painful to watch. Their intelligence is not the only thing that has been impacted though, they have increasingly terrible emotional and exocrine system. The main characters are constantly stupid, overly emotional and wet (I wish I were kidding about the last part).
All that is followed by reoccuring characters (who weren't passengers) repeatedly witnessing miracles and still not believing what's going on, thus becoming hindrances at the most ridiculous and idiotic moments. Exacerbated by the absolute inability to communicate properly, my F*****G god. The overuse of certain tropes makes them intolerable, especially when accompanied by the noticeably repetitive and b***h-a*s plot-spoiling soundtrack. All that unfortunately makes most sub-plot much more worse than what you can find in amateur-written fiction.
If you want a sci-fi about some bigger coordinated plan then Travellers is much better, if you want time-travel there's an even bigger selection, if you want mystery Lost is there. This... is not worth it.
