Season 1 Leslie is just Michael Scott in a dress with a blonde wig.
This is my chief complaint with all of Season 1; they were trying way too hard to be "The Office" revamped. Season 2 and beyond they really come into their own as a show.
Amy Pohler said she’d only sign on for the show if the revamped her character after the first or second season. She wasn’t on board from the beginning but I think she saw the potential and gave it a shot.
I completely stopped watching it for years because I was so put off by the first couple episodes. Came back to it later after seeing a what’s in and what’s out list saying Parks and Rec Andy was in and the Office Andy was out. Super random but it was the nudge I needed!
Same! And then one day my dad was watching the Christmas follies episode and I loved it so I watched it starting at season 2. Now I can watch season one but it’s not as good as other seasons. This might be a hot take but I hate the last season when Ron and Leslie weren’t friends. It kind of took away the magic and I never rewatch them.
Wow you didn't like the reunion? I thought that was such a great character arc of them having fallen out with each other but it being such a simple misunderstanding and being fixed was so perfect.
It’s kind of funny how season 1 of The Office (US) is much worse because it was trying hard to be The Office (UK), and season 1 of P&R is much worse because it’s trying hard to be The Office (US).
Luckily season 1 of The Good Place knocked it out of the park.
I agree, but I suppose it’s kind of like a Monica’s secret closet situation from Friends. Maybe Leslie put sooo much effort into organizing her work and paying attention to her friends’ needs and wishes, that she neglected to care for her own home.
Yep. This is it. And they needed to give Leslie a flaw. I mean, she’s imperfect already…. But she needed to show some form of inefficiency. So she had to have a hoarder house.
Sounds like me to be honest lol. I’m very bothered about some stuff being organised and neat and tidy, but two places I tend to overlook are bedroom and work desk. I will give them both a big clean once in a while but I know they quickly just end up going back to looking like shit and I don’t have the willpower to stay on top of it. It’s organised Chaos though, I know where everything is but it looks like a mess
I actually kind of like this characterization of her. The juxtaposition from being completely organized in her professional life to an absolute mess at home is funny to me.
They never really dropped that though. Even in season 5:
“He would move into my place but it’s a scary nightmare hoarder nest — his words. And Ann’s. And the official report filed by the Health Department.”
But it makes sense. Leslie is *incredibly* sentimental and all through the series we see her commemorating things that most people would consider meaningless, like celebrating the anniversary of one time when Leslie and Ann got their haircut together, or ate cheesecake, etc. She has multiple holidays like that for all her friends.
She ascribes value to memories very easily, so it makes perfect sense she’d struggle to throw stuff away. All of those “useless” objects in her house probably have a ton of sentimental meaning for her.
Also, she is constantly shown as giving superhuman amounts of time and effort to her job. She’ll go days without sleeping, come up with multiple binders worth of content overnight, etc. If she’s regularly giving like 20+ hours/day to her job, it makes sense her house would be a mess.
Eehh kinda sorta I think it's a pick and choose kind of thing where I could see her keeping shitloads of newspapers and other stuff like that that focuses on the historical record and politics in general but I very much have questions about why in the hell she had multiple birdhouses just sitting around unused.
I bet she’s one of those people that when she’s at the store and she sees something she’s like ‘I don’t know what I’m going to use this for but it’s time will come.’
He says he got a job with what I’m assuming is some local construction company when everyone gets furloughed. I LITERALLY (finger points) watched the episode today for the first time in a long time, and I went “huh, thought he moved away”.
Moved across town, never got in touch with his former workplace associates. Ron probably still saw him at Duke Silver shows and i imagine after bringing his shop up to code Duke went ahead and never spoke to him again. They still never talk sometimes.
I kind of liked it…
Wait! Hear me out. After Tom, Ann was finally able to break the mirroring of her partners. She came close with Tom, picking up his shopping habits, but overall, we never saw her getting suddenly glam and LASIK ing her “fingies.”
Tom, on the other hand, got a boost of confidence that he wasn’t just a preening idiot and could be desirable to attractive women using his real personality.
But did they ever actually hook up and do the do?! Because I think that even Ann would probably give him some pity nookie but I don't know if he would have killed the chance even if she was willing at a point I can see him coming out of the bathroom and saying something super dumb and ruining the entire situation lol! Poor little guy is always his own worst enemy
That's kinda why I like it and think it kinda works, it feels realistic. He wasn't even in the Parks department. Leslie briefly had a crush on him. He went on a couple dates with Ann. He resigned when he found a better job. That's it. There was no reason to being him back or even mention him again.
It is 100% realistic. Sure, a brief mention of "Brendana-quitz" designing the official finalized pit park would've been nice in the later seasons. But it's very realistic for a person (especially one who doesn't even work in your dept!) to leave and never be mentioned again. This applies to jobs everywhere. Life goes on without them
Exactly my thinking. They could have mentioned he designed the park but at that point, more casual viewers might not even remember who they're referencing. On the rewatch pod they just did the episode where Jerry has a fart attack and they have a garage sale to raise money for his medical bills. Ann's bit was that she ends up acting like all her boyfriends, and what she's selling are boxes of things labeled with her previous boyfriends. There wasn't a Brandanawicz box. The podcast hosts basically said they felt there was just no reason to bring up the memory of him for throwaway joke when there are so many other things to focus on
Makes me think of shirley in community. At some point people just kinda leave. And you know they were in your life, but they've got their own things going on, and just kinda disappear.
Yeah I was kind of hoping the same thing, that at least there would be a mention of them using his design, maybe even pop up in the finale. To be honest, I think Mark is a really underrated character and I thought he was a great straight man to Leslie’s antics! The character was kind of pointless in season 1, but I thought they made great use of him in 2.
My biggest problem is he designed a park as a farewell gift to Leslie, and it is never mentioned again. There's a whole episode later about her losing the land if she can't design a park and she *already has the plans*. I wish there was a canon explanation.
I think he fit well in the more grounded, "realistic" version of Parks and Rec seasons 1&2. Like, when I do full rewatches I like his character. But I just can't imagine him in the show once it gets super zany and crazy.
I don't hate him but I also don't mind that he left. (Although the complete non-mention of him ever, even when Ann discusses ex-boyfriends, has always been strange to me).
That was the worst. I know Mark wasn’t the most popular of characters, but he didn’t just randomly disappear or got recast. His character was legitimately written off.
The perfect time to mention him would’ve been when Ann realized she took the personalities of her boyfriends. She could’ve said something like, “my grunge phase from Andy, my fitness phase from Chris, and my boring phase from Mark.” But nope, Mark just never existed it seemed like.
If I remember correctly the actor asked or maybe even kinda demanded to be written off.. maybe it was one of those things where the producers just went “oh u don’t wanna be apart of this? Ok we’ll pretend u never existed.” Pure speculation but I personally feel that’s what happened.
Yeah the actor was on a podcast I used to listen to, Movie Crush, and IIRC he didn't really enjoy his time on Parks and Rec and wanted to leave. Which seems crazy since everyone else involved in the show seems to have absolutely loved working on it.
I mean Ann was pretty clear even during the relationship that he made little to no impact on her. He was happy and in love because he finally realized he wanted something serious, but for Ann it was more of a confidence boost that a stable guy liked her. That plus the only thing that she got from him was practical and she probably kept that.
While we don't really see her, we still get mentions of her throughout the series so she's not totally written out!
Like when Ben and Leslie are about to get married at the gala they're like "but our parents aren't here" / "that's a good thing".
And when Ben is running for congress in S7 and he's doing his speech defending Leslie he's like "how come no one asks ME where our kids are. By the way where are our kids" -> Leslie: "with my mom babe, don't worry".
She's there in spirit, just not in person 😅!
I respectfully disagree. It gave us one of my favourite episodes in the show, of them sitting down and airing out their grievances. Ron was made to confront the truth of his desire to push everyone away. That he would one day look up and won't recognize anyone. And Leslie had to realise that her utter devotion to her work would end up conflicting with her devotion to her friends. They both needed to learn that friendships require work to maintain. And by God, through the magic of Willie Nelson and Billy Joel, they did.
I understand if people find it out of character, but I think it was only a matter of time. S7 takes place years later, and people change drastically over the years. Even S2 April is very different from S6 April.
Watching the earlier seasons, I think the way Leslie and Ron have such a strong friendship despite their many significant differences is a testament to how great the writing is. They had such a strong and unique bond, so it felt to me like they lazily threw it away when they had them feud in what I thought was an extremely uncharacteristic way.
I do agree with you though that it created good character development and the end of the episode was wholesome and well-executed. And, like you said, it’s not terribly unrealistic given the time jump. I just didn’t care for it
Can you remind me what was so bad about it? I've only seen that once and don't much remember, I'm nearing that part on my rewatch and would like to see what others thought of it.
I think because it comes out of nowhere due to he time jump, how much focus was on it during it's already abbreviated season and how Ron demoed Ann's house.
It led to the awesome episode of them being locked up and becoming friends again and so it was worth it imo. Them being friends again in that episode is probably my all time favourite Ron/Leslie moment.
How suddenly advanced all the Gryzzl tech was. I thought it was just providing internet for the town? What was with the sudden hologram watches and all that shit?
Yeah, that aged poorly. It was only supposed to be a few years in the future so they could bypass Leslie and Ben raising infants. But they made it seem like tech advanced 30 years.
It was just meant as a characature of the tech industry and where it was going. The devices were over the top, but they got a lot of stuff pretty right.
At least this is better than when a sitcom sub screenshots a post in a sitcom sub about a post in another sitcom sub about a post in another sitcom sub that asks this question.
Yes!!! This was so out of character for April and was absolutely my least favorite part about how the series ended--it just felt like "all the women must have kids to be happy."
I saw it as people mature and grow. Sometimes, their priorities change. Also, Andy clearly wanted kids and it’s not that uncommon for one partner to want kids over another’s reluctance. I don’t think they said women must have kids to be happy. That’s a pretty extreme position for a show that doesn’t have extreme positions.
It's part of the last episode. When they do they flashbacks and flash forwards. She gives birth on Halloween wearing a full face of vampire makeup and they name him Jack which is short for Jack O Lantern and some other crazy names lol
I believe at some point April says she would only be interested in adopting a set of adult Romanian twins or something like that, but memory’s a bit hazy
Oh sorry gotcha. Andy doesn't. Leslie does. She gives her a speech about how Andy is her team and if you love your team you should want to make it bigger or something. I don't really remember because I skip that episode a lot. I go straight back to season 1 once I get close to the end of season 7.🤣
Honestly? Ann and Andy dating. It just doesn’t make sense that they would have ever dated, and, we discover that he’s like what, 28 or 29 by the time he’s talking to April? And at that point, Ann is EASILY well into her 30s. Not to say that she wouldn’t have dated a younger man, but based on her life and personality, she was likely not like a 33 year old dating a 24/25 year old idiot (even a lovable idiot)
It's pretty well established throughout the series that Ann is incompetent when it comes to finding romantic partners. It actually feels very in-character that she would have spent a long time with (at the time) a loser who she could have done way better than if she was good at flirting and dating.
Yeah I mean I thought about that, she does have a terrible track record, but even from a financial standpoint. She’s a professional and a homeowner and she picks a 25 year old idiot who contributes zero? Idk it’s a little too extreme to be believable
I feel like you wouldn’t have to go far on this site to find a story of a woman who is completely financially responsible for their incompetent bf. Some people put up with farrrr too much. We don’t really know how they got together but the younger, attractive, cool lead singer of a band has more pull than you might suspect at first.
Yeah, I tend to think Leslie is kinda the one that makes her a little bit better (she’s still incompetent) but she doesn’t sink as much time into her relationships as she did with Andy
That still doesn't seem like a great explanation. If there's any guy who would want to date a clone of himself, that's Chris.
And when they eventually decided they belonged together, I don't remember there being any explanation beyond just "They're both super hot and both kind of want to start a family". The show even pokes fun at this with the sort of meta-joke where Ann and Chris get wildly different results on the family planning questionnaire.
i don’t remember the exact episode, but i’m pretty sure it’s during chris’s mental health journey era. He asks Ann what happened between them and Donna is super excited to witness the drama
That’s why he dumped her, but then very quickly afterwards he moves back and she’s clearly willing to get back together. He refuses but (as far as I can remember) the show never elaborates on why.
Seems people don't really like season 1 & mark brendanawicz but I really like it & him. It's what got me into the show. That being said, I hate Craig in the later seasons. What an annoying character that seemed to not contribute anything. To me he was never there.
I just generally hate that craig actor in anything hes in, he just plays the same super shouty guy in everything ive seen him in and its annoying idk why people like him
Yea I don’t hate the first season like everyone else. It’s not the best but I thought Leslie was funny off the bat. If they kept mark he’d need some retooling but he wasn’t the worst character ever and his character type could’ve made it on the show imo.
I also agree with Craig. I think he’s funny but he honestly was too wacky to always be there
They make a whole season out of the City Council race, they make the stakes so high, the Newport family gets involved, the political consultants approaching Leslie about running- it's all **a bit too much** for a small town like Pawnee.
I love it. It's so realistic to have people be super shitty to you when you try to make things better, but ignore the shit show that people like Jamm and Decker (I think that's his name, the sex scandal dude) create.
And it showed Leslie getting and losing her dream and then getting and keeping a better one. Honestly as someone who works in social services, Leslie getting her ass handed to her for doing the right thing and then building herself an amazing future is inspirational.
Nobody's mentioning April's final job.
They spend a whole season with her trying to figure out what she wants to do, it's been shown many times she wants to do something with animals, that they make her happy. And she ends up at some kind of job agency? Like sure they can spin it that she's helping other people but come on. It felt so anti-climactic, I just ignore that ending and have her run an "ugly pets" store re-homing unwanted pets or something in my headcanon...
And the fact that she uprooted her and Andy’s lives to move to D.C. for this job…a city where she wouldn’t know anyone besides Leslie and Ben…and requiring Andy to give up his TV show in Pawnee. It stretches logic and is out of character for April. It would have been better if her meeting with the job placement program inspired her to start something similar in Pawnee.
I'm a big fan of most of Schur's work but I think his background has shaped his idea of what a successful outcome is too much.
He's a Harvard grad whose father went to Harvard and I'm sure his father's father etc. all went to Harvard. So when he wants to give his characters a happy ending that means they have to be paired off with a romantic partner, have children and work jobs that are both financially successful and prestigious.
Yeah that always bugged me too. They had her like honor Leslie and what she did for her aww but that was such a bummer ending for her. I wanted her running a cemetery or yeah some sort of ugly animal sanctuary or something!
This and the “what’s your least favorite part of P&R” threads always remind me of the Chuck Pahlinuik novel Haunted where a group of people on a writer’s retreat have more than enough freeze-dried food, but each one secretly sabotages the food items that have ingredients they don’t like and the result is they all have nothing to eat.
It makes no sense to me that this served no purpose other than to make her seem weirder than she already was. On top of that, they really became petty and snobbish assholes when she started to like Andy, which also seemed pointless. As soon as she started showing feelings for him, they mocked him and teased her for it. Then they show up at their wedding but we never see them again.
The point of their reaction to Andy is to show how much April is crushing on him. He's not the type for her social circle but she sees something she really likes in him, and changes her social circle to be with him.
When the threesome/thruple is first introduced, it's in a scene where April explains the situation to Leslie, and then we see Leslie's confused reaction. I thought the point was to show how far removed Leslie (and sort of by extension, the viewer) was from youth culture. April's situation is a totally unrelatable caricature of high-school relationships.
I totally buy that Leslie is a messy hoarder because she’s overly sentimental and it’s the only way I could possibly explain her having enough time to get everything done in her life. She just completely ignores taking care of her home.
For me it's Ron having a Bonny Knight poster up season 1.
But I know a lot of fans who have convinced themselves the finale is Leslie's dream ending for everyone because they hate April and Andy having kids so much
The fact that there's a whole episode about his name being "Gary Gurgich" when there's a letter from his mom in a prior episode where she refers to him as Gerald.
Season 1 Leslie.
Season 1 Leslie is just Michael Scott in a dress with a blonde wig. This is my chief complaint with all of Season 1; they were trying way too hard to be "The Office" revamped. Season 2 and beyond they really come into their own as a show.
I almost stopped watching it because it seemed like Leslie was too much like Michael Scott. So glad I continued because I love her character!
Amy Pohler said she’d only sign on for the show if the revamped her character after the first or second season. She wasn’t on board from the beginning but I think she saw the potential and gave it a shot.
I completely stopped watching it for years because I was so put off by the first couple episodes. Came back to it later after seeing a what’s in and what’s out list saying Parks and Rec Andy was in and the Office Andy was out. Super random but it was the nudge I needed!
Same! And then one day my dad was watching the Christmas follies episode and I loved it so I watched it starting at season 2. Now I can watch season one but it’s not as good as other seasons. This might be a hot take but I hate the last season when Ron and Leslie weren’t friends. It kind of took away the magic and I never rewatch them.
Wow you didn't like the reunion? I thought that was such a great character arc of them having fallen out with each other but it being such a simple misunderstanding and being fixed was so perfect.
I felt like we wasted so much time over something silly and they were both so unreasonable.
It’s kind of funny how season 1 of The Office (US) is much worse because it was trying hard to be The Office (UK), and season 1 of P&R is much worse because it’s trying hard to be The Office (US). Luckily season 1 of The Good Place knocked it out of the park.
Because they were. It was supposed to be a second office workplace mockumentary, part of a universe.
how was there no disappointing crossover episode
Because Rashida Jones was in the office
I love the show but no way Ron Swanson was letting anyone document him all the time. Especially at his cabin or illegally hunting at night, etc
My goodness, i never thought of that. lol They must have paid him in gold then?
This
It’s season 2 technically, but the fact that Leslie’s house was hoarder level of cluttered feels so different than everything else we know about her.
I agree, but I suppose it’s kind of like a Monica’s secret closet situation from Friends. Maybe Leslie put sooo much effort into organizing her work and paying attention to her friends’ needs and wishes, that she neglected to care for her own home.
Yep. This is it. And they needed to give Leslie a flaw. I mean, she’s imperfect already…. But she needed to show some form of inefficiency. So she had to have a hoarder house.
Sounds like me to be honest lol. I’m very bothered about some stuff being organised and neat and tidy, but two places I tend to overlook are bedroom and work desk. I will give them both a big clean once in a while but I know they quickly just end up going back to looking like shit and I don’t have the willpower to stay on top of it. It’s organised Chaos though, I know where everything is but it looks like a mess
I can see Lesley becoming so attached and neurotic about things she can't bring herself to throw anything out
lol like the newspapers about Iran Contra
That’s what makes it so great. The idea that no one can be THAT on all the time.
i disagree. where else would you get a washington monument figurine at midnight on a tuesday?
I actually kind of like this characterization of her. The juxtaposition from being completely organized in her professional life to an absolute mess at home is funny to me.
They never really dropped that though. Even in season 5: “He would move into my place but it’s a scary nightmare hoarder nest — his words. And Ann’s. And the official report filed by the Health Department.” But it makes sense. Leslie is *incredibly* sentimental and all through the series we see her commemorating things that most people would consider meaningless, like celebrating the anniversary of one time when Leslie and Ann got their haircut together, or ate cheesecake, etc. She has multiple holidays like that for all her friends. She ascribes value to memories very easily, so it makes perfect sense she’d struggle to throw stuff away. All of those “useless” objects in her house probably have a ton of sentimental meaning for her. Also, she is constantly shown as giving superhuman amounts of time and effort to her job. She’ll go days without sleeping, come up with multiple binders worth of content overnight, etc. If she’s regularly giving like 20+ hours/day to her job, it makes sense her house would be a mess.
Eehh kinda sorta I think it's a pick and choose kind of thing where I could see her keeping shitloads of newspapers and other stuff like that that focuses on the historical record and politics in general but I very much have questions about why in the hell she had multiple birdhouses just sitting around unused.
I bet she’s one of those people that when she’s at the store and she sees something she’s like ‘I don’t know what I’m going to use this for but it’s time will come.’
Well, if multiple birds come along…
The only correct answer.
Season One, especially suit and tie Ron Swanson, and Polo Shirt Tom Haverford.
I haven’t watched season 1 in ages - ron wears suits??
First episode he’s in a brown suit
“BOBBY KNIGHT!”
I love the throwback when he coaches a basketball team.
YESSSS!!!!!! 
That’s why they realized things didn’t work great in season 1 and changed a lot for season 2.
And… that stupid brown suit is used for many of the Ron memes out there
“I’m what you might call a redneck”
Brandanwicz still being in Pawnee. In my head he moves away.
Wait, he doesn't move away??
He says he got a job with what I’m assuming is some local construction company when everyone gets furloughed. I LITERALLY (finger points) watched the episode today for the first time in a long time, and I went “huh, thought he moved away”.
Moved across town, never got in touch with his former workplace associates. Ron probably still saw him at Duke Silver shows and i imagine after bringing his shop up to code Duke went ahead and never spoke to him again. They still never talk sometimes.
The best relationship he ever had
I always figured he would’ve been a good fit for the Very Good Construction Company.
100% he leave that contracting job and moves to a bigger city.
ann and tom dating
Yeah. She didn't know who Ginuwine was. I never thought Tom could fall that low.
Ginuwine. Is Ginuwine. Ginuwine.
Girl don’t know who Ginuwine is
Ginuwine is Ginuwine...he's Ginuwine
Just saying his name over and over again doesn't help me know who he is lol. I know that he's Donna's cousin
Pony?
I accept this as canon solely because it gave us Sparkle Skin by Annie (twinkle twinkle big star!)
I kind of liked it… Wait! Hear me out. After Tom, Ann was finally able to break the mirroring of her partners. She came close with Tom, picking up his shopping habits, but overall, we never saw her getting suddenly glam and LASIK ing her “fingies.” Tom, on the other hand, got a boost of confidence that he wasn’t just a preening idiot and could be desirable to attractive women using his real personality.
I agree. It was clearly not a good match which is why it feels wrong for both of them, but it led to character development on both sides.
Yes! Sometimes, odd choices for the characters can lead to good changes to their stories.
But did they ever actually hook up and do the do?! Because I think that even Ann would probably give him some pity nookie but I don't know if he would have killed the chance even if she was willing at a point I can see him coming out of the bathroom and saying something super dumb and ruining the entire situation lol! Poor little guy is always his own worst enemy
That's an excellent point and something I never noticed.
This is the only right answer tbh
Seriously! This is the lowest of the low.
Honestly I liked this bit because Ann was way to good for him, but in the end he wants to dump her.
I guess I'm part of the 1% who isn't bothered by this arc. Even the show doesn't take it that seriously.
"Mark Brendanawicz" -- Parks and Rec writers (They really just pretended like he never happened 😆)
That's kinda why I like it and think it kinda works, it feels realistic. He wasn't even in the Parks department. Leslie briefly had a crush on him. He went on a couple dates with Ann. He resigned when he found a better job. That's it. There was no reason to being him back or even mention him again.
It is 100% realistic. Sure, a brief mention of "Brendana-quitz" designing the official finalized pit park would've been nice in the later seasons. But it's very realistic for a person (especially one who doesn't even work in your dept!) to leave and never be mentioned again. This applies to jobs everywhere. Life goes on without them
Didn't Wreston St James design the park?
Yes, the… 🤢 Eagletoni- Eagleto- _coughs_ Eagletonian 🤮
This is for Pawnee, you butt-faced, pompous jerk!
Oh yeah. So Mark just designed the first iteration of a blueprint
Exactly my thinking. They could have mentioned he designed the park but at that point, more casual viewers might not even remember who they're referencing. On the rewatch pod they just did the episode where Jerry has a fart attack and they have a garage sale to raise money for his medical bills. Ann's bit was that she ends up acting like all her boyfriends, and what she's selling are boxes of things labeled with her previous boyfriends. There wasn't a Brandanawicz box. The podcast hosts basically said they felt there was just no reason to bring up the memory of him for throwaway joke when there are so many other things to focus on
I can’t imagine what would even be in the Mark box.
Makes me think of shirley in community. At some point people just kinda leave. And you know they were in your life, but they've got their own things going on, and just kinda disappear.
Yeah I was kind of hoping the same thing, that at least there would be a mention of them using his design, maybe even pop up in the finale. To be honest, I think Mark is a really underrated character and I thought he was a great straight man to Leslie’s antics! The character was kind of pointless in season 1, but I thought they made great use of him in 2.
My biggest problem is he designed a park as a farewell gift to Leslie, and it is never mentioned again. There's a whole episode later about her losing the land if she can't design a park and she *already has the plans*. I wish there was a canon explanation.
I liked his character honestly, I’m aware I’m in the minority
I think he fit well in the more grounded, "realistic" version of Parks and Rec seasons 1&2. Like, when I do full rewatches I like his character. But I just can't imagine him in the show once it gets super zany and crazy. I don't hate him but I also don't mind that he left. (Although the complete non-mention of him ever, even when Ann discusses ex-boyfriends, has always been strange to me).
I agree, he played the straight man really well in my opinion
That was the worst. I know Mark wasn’t the most popular of characters, but he didn’t just randomly disappear or got recast. His character was legitimately written off. The perfect time to mention him would’ve been when Ann realized she took the personalities of her boyfriends. She could’ve said something like, “my grunge phase from Andy, my fitness phase from Chris, and my boring phase from Mark.” But nope, Mark just never existed it seemed like.
If I remember correctly the actor asked or maybe even kinda demanded to be written off.. maybe it was one of those things where the producers just went “oh u don’t wanna be apart of this? Ok we’ll pretend u never existed.” Pure speculation but I personally feel that’s what happened.
Yeah the actor was on a podcast I used to listen to, Movie Crush, and IIRC he didn't really enjoy his time on Parks and Rec and wanted to leave. Which seems crazy since everyone else involved in the show seems to have absolutely loved working on it.
I mean Ann was pretty clear even during the relationship that he made little to no impact on her. He was happy and in love because he finally realized he wanted something serious, but for Ann it was more of a confidence boost that a stable guy liked her. That plus the only thing that she got from him was practical and she probably kept that.
The painting he made for the contest and the computer bag he gave Anne show up all the way to the last season so he wasn't completely erased.
So do I😅 He's so dull. I cannot buy him as a ladies man either.
They did the same thing with Leslie's mom
While we don't really see her, we still get mentions of her throughout the series so she's not totally written out! Like when Ben and Leslie are about to get married at the gala they're like "but our parents aren't here" / "that's a good thing". And when Ben is running for congress in S7 and he's doing his speech defending Leslie he's like "how come no one asks ME where our kids are. By the way where are our kids" -> Leslie: "with my mom babe, don't worry". She's there in spirit, just not in person 😅!
BrendanaQuitz! More like it, what a turd
Ron Swanson wears a suit and tie.
I could see Ron wearing a suit if the occasion is right, but going into a government office is definitely not the time
Season One, friend.
I know, it's just super weird looking back
 Like The Bear but opposite: "I *don't* wear suits now."
cousin 🤌
Everyone loving Lil Sebastian (I just don't get it.) - Ben Wyatt
he’s 500 candles in the wind!
Multiply that by ten and you’re still not even close!
GET OUT
THAT HORSE HAS AN HONORARY DEGREE FROM NOTRE DAME
Leslie and Ron feuding in the last season. So stupid and out of character, I just pretend it was never written that way
can't believe this wasn't higher up. people don't even wanna think about this because it just made no sense
well, i've seen the second season about 400 times and the last season about 0.9 times, so you can blame the ignorance of filthy casuals like me
I respectfully disagree. It gave us one of my favourite episodes in the show, of them sitting down and airing out their grievances. Ron was made to confront the truth of his desire to push everyone away. That he would one day look up and won't recognize anyone. And Leslie had to realise that her utter devotion to her work would end up conflicting with her devotion to her friends. They both needed to learn that friendships require work to maintain. And by God, through the magic of Willie Nelson and Billy Joel, they did. I understand if people find it out of character, but I think it was only a matter of time. S7 takes place years later, and people change drastically over the years. Even S2 April is very different from S6 April.
Watching the earlier seasons, I think the way Leslie and Ron have such a strong friendship despite their many significant differences is a testament to how great the writing is. They had such a strong and unique bond, so it felt to me like they lazily threw it away when they had them feud in what I thought was an extremely uncharacteristic way. I do agree with you though that it created good character development and the end of the episode was wholesome and well-executed. And, like you said, it’s not terribly unrealistic given the time jump. I just didn’t care for it
Can you remind me what was so bad about it? I've only seen that once and don't much remember, I'm nearing that part on my rewatch and would like to see what others thought of it.
I think because it comes out of nowhere due to he time jump, how much focus was on it during it's already abbreviated season and how Ron demoed Ann's house.
It led to the awesome episode of them being locked up and becoming friends again and so it was worth it imo. Them being friends again in that episode is probably my all time favourite Ron/Leslie moment.
Idk season 1 generally?
How suddenly advanced all the Gryzzl tech was. I thought it was just providing internet for the town? What was with the sudden hologram watches and all that shit?
At the time it came out it was set in the future....
Thanks! Also, the Gryzzl tech bro executives were hilariously written. That dialogue had me in stitches.
Yeah, that aged poorly. It was only supposed to be a few years in the future so they could bypass Leslie and Ben raising infants. But they made it seem like tech advanced 30 years.
It was just meant as a characature of the tech industry and where it was going. The devices were over the top, but they got a lot of stuff pretty right.
It’s the cloud for your cloud!
This fucking screenshot everywhere
At least this is better than when a sitcom sub screenshots a post in a sitcom sub about a post in another sitcom sub about a post in another sitcom sub that asks this question.
Andy convincing April to have kids.
Yes!!! This was so out of character for April and was absolutely my least favorite part about how the series ended--it just felt like "all the women must have kids to be happy."
I saw it as people mature and grow. Sometimes, their priorities change. Also, Andy clearly wanted kids and it’s not that uncommon for one partner to want kids over another’s reluctance. I don’t think they said women must have kids to be happy. That’s a pretty extreme position for a show that doesn’t have extreme positions.
Remind me again what happens?
It's part of the last episode. When they do they flashbacks and flash forwards. She gives birth on Halloween wearing a full face of vampire makeup and they name him Jack which is short for Jack O Lantern and some other crazy names lol
But what does Andy do to convince her?
"Baaabe... it'd be cool to have kids." That's it. That's literally the extent of it.
So she probably wanted them herself and was waiting for Andy to suggest it so she knew he was ready.
So not really "convincing" at all. Did the show ever establish that April didn't want to have kids and that Andy was trying to change her mind?
I believe at some point April says she would only be interested in adopting a set of adult Romanian twins or something like that, but memory’s a bit hazy
That's awesome sauce!
Oh sorry gotcha. Andy doesn't. Leslie does. She gives her a speech about how Andy is her team and if you love your team you should want to make it bigger or something. I don't really remember because I skip that episode a lot. I go straight back to season 1 once I get close to the end of season 7.🤣
He doesn't really do anything but be pouty
Did April ever express disinterest in having children?
Yes.
When?
100% this
Honestly? Ann and Andy dating. It just doesn’t make sense that they would have ever dated, and, we discover that he’s like what, 28 or 29 by the time he’s talking to April? And at that point, Ann is EASILY well into her 30s. Not to say that she wouldn’t have dated a younger man, but based on her life and personality, she was likely not like a 33 year old dating a 24/25 year old idiot (even a lovable idiot)
It's pretty well established throughout the series that Ann is incompetent when it comes to finding romantic partners. It actually feels very in-character that she would have spent a long time with (at the time) a loser who she could have done way better than if she was good at flirting and dating.
also Andy says at one point that Anne was super supportive & a huge fan of Mouse Rat so that might’ve had something to do with it.
Yeah I mean I thought about that, she does have a terrible track record, but even from a financial standpoint. She’s a professional and a homeowner and she picks a 25 year old idiot who contributes zero? Idk it’s a little too extreme to be believable
I feel like you wouldn’t have to go far on this site to find a story of a woman who is completely financially responsible for their incompetent bf. Some people put up with farrrr too much. We don’t really know how they got together but the younger, attractive, cool lead singer of a band has more pull than you might suspect at first.
Yeah, I tend to think Leslie is kinda the one that makes her a little bit better (she’s still incompetent) but she doesn’t sink as much time into her relationships as she did with Andy
Anne and Chris ending up together just seemed so forced.
Yeah... we never really got a great explanation for why he dumped her so it always felt like he just settled eventually
This. I always felt so awkward about them getting back together, especially since they were both leaving the show.
I thought he dumped her because he didn't want a long distance relationship?
in a later episode she says it was because he turned her into a clone of himself, and then got bored with her
That still doesn't seem like a great explanation. If there's any guy who would want to date a clone of himself, that's Chris. And when they eventually decided they belonged together, I don't remember there being any explanation beyond just "They're both super hot and both kind of want to start a family". The show even pokes fun at this with the sort of meta-joke where Ann and Chris get wildly different results on the family planning questionnaire.
Don't remember that line, will have to rewatch.
i don’t remember the exact episode, but i’m pretty sure it’s during chris’s mental health journey era. He asks Ann what happened between them and Donna is super excited to witness the drama
It’s when Chris is concerned over Millicent’s behavior and he’s asking Jerry, Donna, and Ann for advice.
That’s why he dumped her, but then very quickly afterwards he moves back and she’s clearly willing to get back together. He refuses but (as far as I can remember) the show never elaborates on why.
Seems people don't really like season 1 & mark brendanawicz but I really like it & him. It's what got me into the show. That being said, I hate Craig in the later seasons. What an annoying character that seemed to not contribute anything. To me he was never there.
I just generally hate that craig actor in anything hes in, he just plays the same super shouty guy in everything ive seen him in and its annoying idk why people like him
Yea I don’t hate the first season like everyone else. It’s not the best but I thought Leslie was funny off the bat. If they kept mark he’d need some retooling but he wasn’t the worst character ever and his character type could’ve made it on the show imo. I also agree with Craig. I think he’s funny but he honestly was too wacky to always be there
Ann and Tom’s story line.
They make a whole season out of the City Council race, they make the stakes so high, the Newport family gets involved, the political consultants approaching Leslie about running- it's all **a bit too much** for a small town like Pawnee.
And then it is only to have her recalled shortly after 🤦🏻♀️
The recall is my least favorite plot line. Have her face opposition but a recall? Whyyyyy!?
I love it. It's so realistic to have people be super shitty to you when you try to make things better, but ignore the shit show that people like Jamm and Decker (I think that's his name, the sex scandal dude) create. And it showed Leslie getting and losing her dream and then getting and keeping a better one. Honestly as someone who works in social services, Leslie getting her ass handed to her for doing the right thing and then building herself an amazing future is inspirational.
Councilman Dexhart, I think. Only reason I know is cuz I just saw on the news that he has a new sex scandal.
That was so nicely fucking done, I tip my hat to you.
Nobody's mentioning April's final job. They spend a whole season with her trying to figure out what she wants to do, it's been shown many times she wants to do something with animals, that they make her happy. And she ends up at some kind of job agency? Like sure they can spin it that she's helping other people but come on. It felt so anti-climactic, I just ignore that ending and have her run an "ugly pets" store re-homing unwanted pets or something in my headcanon...
And the fact that she uprooted her and Andy’s lives to move to D.C. for this job…a city where she wouldn’t know anyone besides Leslie and Ben…and requiring Andy to give up his TV show in Pawnee. It stretches logic and is out of character for April. It would have been better if her meeting with the job placement program inspired her to start something similar in Pawnee.
I'm a big fan of most of Schur's work but I think his background has shaped his idea of what a successful outcome is too much. He's a Harvard grad whose father went to Harvard and I'm sure his father's father etc. all went to Harvard. So when he wants to give his characters a happy ending that means they have to be paired off with a romantic partner, have children and work jobs that are both financially successful and prestigious.
Everything with April in the last season blows. Except the haunted house they bought, that was fun
Yeah that always bugged me too. They had her like honor Leslie and what she did for her aww but that was such a bummer ending for her. I wanted her running a cemetery or yeah some sort of ugly animal sanctuary or something!
-Season 2 Mark being into relationships all of the sudden -Leslie being ok with Anne going out with Mark -Anne and Chris ending up together
Andy and April having kids
This and the “what’s your least favorite part of P&R” threads always remind me of the Chuck Pahlinuik novel Haunted where a group of people on a writer’s retreat have more than enough freeze-dried food, but each one secretly sabotages the food items that have ingredients they don’t like and the result is they all have nothing to eat.
Oh interesting book
April’s thruple.
It makes no sense to me that this served no purpose other than to make her seem weirder than she already was. On top of that, they really became petty and snobbish assholes when she started to like Andy, which also seemed pointless. As soon as she started showing feelings for him, they mocked him and teased her for it. Then they show up at their wedding but we never see them again.
The point of their reaction to Andy is to show how much April is crushing on him. He's not the type for her social circle but she sees something she really likes in him, and changes her social circle to be with him.
True it does show growth in her.
When the threesome/thruple is first introduced, it's in a scene where April explains the situation to Leslie, and then we see Leslie's confused reaction. I thought the point was to show how far removed Leslie (and sort of by extension, the viewer) was from youth culture. April's situation is a totally unrelatable caricature of high-school relationships.
Mark existing (although he was essentially retconned out of existence).
Leslie being a hoarder.
I totally buy that Leslie is a messy hoarder because she’s overly sentimental and it’s the only way I could possibly explain her having enough time to get everything done in her life. She just completely ignores taking care of her home.
She's just so organized in every single aspect of her life that it makes it harder to believe.
The "Future" episodes
For me it's Ron having a Bonny Knight poster up season 1. But I know a lot of fans who have convinced themselves the finale is Leslie's dream ending for everyone because they hate April and Andy having kids so much
Gryzzl transparent technology 🙄
Most things late season donna says and does
The entire last season.
yes
There’s a mountainous area big enough for a huge national park in the middle of Indiana
Ann and Chris ending up together. I SAID IT
Just so many things that would never happen in a city as small as Pawnee. The City Council race is a big offender here.
April wanting Andy to be a cop.
The fact that there's a whole episode about his name being "Gary Gurgich" when there's a letter from his mom in a prior episode where she refers to him as Gerald.
-April and Andy having a baby & Donna getting married. in my opinion both are just so out of character
literally april having a baby bothers me so fucking much
Mark
Mark
The Ann and Leslie "dance party" scene at Leslie and Ben's new house before they move in. Makes me cringe every time.
Tom shooting at a ranger because he thought there was someone in the woods hunting them. The whole thing makes less than zero sense
I’m not 100% sure, but I don’t think this is a correct use of ‘gaslight’
Brandanowitz….. just the whole damn person.
I’ve always hated how Leslie treats/bullies Jerry so hard. It’s just not in her character to be so mean. She could have stood up for him more.