Category: Parks and Recreation
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Test Pilot: File #53, Parks and Recreation
Test Pilot #53: Parks and Recreation Debut date: April 9, 2009 Series legacy: On the shortlist of great contemporary sitcoms First impressions mean a lot in television, and that’s why writers, producers, studios, networks, etc. put more time, effort and money into pilots than they do just about any other episode that could possibly be…
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Chitchat: Does Parks and Recreation have a Leslie Knope problem?
I talk television with a lot of people. Friends, family, other critics on Twitter, vagrants on the street. I just love talking about TV. Because I don’t have the time and resources to do a podcast like I used to in college, I’m going to sort of replicate that experience in textual form in a…
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Love to hate, hate to love: On contemporary comedy’s reliance on bickering
Yesterday during the ABC Wednesday comedy showrunners panel at the Television Critics Association gathering, Modern Family honcho Steve Levitan made a comment about how he would like to see the “far right” to not like his series’ two gay characters, Mitchell and Cameron. The implication from Levitan’s statement being that everyone has to love Mitchell…
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TV Surveillance Podcast Episode 24 — The Best Television (and Voice Impressions) of 2011
It is that time again folks! The end of the year is upon us and that means it is time to look back on the highs, lows and WTFs in television from the past 12 months. There is a lot to reflect on in regard to television 2011. Charlie Sheen went crazy. Well, crazier. Comedy…
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Review: Parks and Recreation, “Smallest Park”
I haven’t written about Parks and Recreation once this season. Various personal commitments typically keep me to two reviews on Thursday night/Friday morning, I’d frankly just prefer to discuss the likes of Community and The Vampire Diaries at those times. However, although I have enjoyed much of Parks and Rec’s fourth season, I’ve also…
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Parks and Recreation, “Harvest Festival”
I think “Harvest Festival” might be my favorite episode of Parks and Recreation ever. I’m not really confident in that opinion since I’m still basking in the afterglow of watching the episode twice in less than a few hours and I’m mostly confident that it isn’t the “best” episode ever, but good lord do I…
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Parks and Recreation, “Indianapolis”
Because of my schedule, I don’t get to write about Parks and Recreation every week and that just makes me sad. I think I’ve settled in on a schedule where I write about every other episode, which is better than nothing, I guess. Although it’s moderately disappointing that I didn’t have time to write about…
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Parks and Recreation, “Ron & Tammy: Part Two”
Bringing back successful supporting characters is always a bit of a crapshoot. If their initial introduction to the series and its world is so tremendous, it’s always going to be hard to top or create a story that lives up to the fans’ expectations. And one of the easiest ways to try to avoid any…
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Parks and Recreation, “Flu Season”
There’s been a lot of hype about Parks and Recreation‘s “Flu Season.” Showrunner Michael Schur has consistently said that it is the series’ best effort to-date, the critics were all buzzing about it once they received screeners near the end of 2010 and in general, this is supposed to be the episode for the series.…
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No more questions: Parks and Recreation is already better than The Office has ever been
Note: I have not seen any of season three like many real critics. This argument is based mostly on season two and just a bit on my own assumptions/critical acclaim for season three. Even with my small profile as an “online television critic,” or my time at my undergraduate university newspaper, the question I’ve probably…
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2009-10 season wrap: Parks and Recreation
Over the next few weeks, I’ll be summarizing my thoughts on many of the series that ended just as the “official” television season came to a close recently. Overview: After a short first season that felt too much like an Office spin-off that didn’t quite know how to make its characters act like real people,…
CB, PhD 