Parks & Recreation Season 2 (1 Viewer)

[Kevin Hewell]

It sucks that we have to wait until mid-season to see any new eps.

 

[EricW]

i think it's great that both Parks and Community started off so-so and have grown into their own. they're totally different shows but equally enjoyable.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

I spent the first season despising this show, and now it's far and away the one I enjoy most on Thursdays. What changed? They toned Leslie down enough for her to serve as the straight man function, despite her own quirks, and they started laughing with the characters rather than at the characters. It's a more earnest show, and it's better for it.

 

[joshEH]

I pretty much lost my shit at Ron's ringtone. My wife and I were debating how many hours it'd be until we were arrested if we were to put that ringtone on our phones.
Surprisingly sad final scene, with Mark saying goodbye, and Leslie looking utterly lost. The show is doing the comedy/dramatic balance far more effectively than The Office, these days. So glad Mark's off the show, though. Guy was a vacuum of fun. And they totally abandoned him as a character this year.
I'm totally going to start doing Rob Lowe's "point-at-the-person's-face-while-loudly-repeating-their-name"-thing. It will no doubt irritate the hell out of people.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Forgot about the gunshot ringtone; definitely another laugh-my-ass-off moment.


Ironically, the only time I ever laughed at Mark's character in the entire two seasons was his final interview cutaway where he explained why he took the buy out: "Recently I had been thinking about maybe leaving this job, but I felt like I needed a sign. And then Ann broke up with me the same week I was going to propose, the government got shut down, and yesterday [points outside] one of those pigeons took a shit on me. And I was indoors, so..."

 

[joshEH]

Yeah, I think the producers totally thought they needed a "Jim Halpert" for this show, and that's why he was cast.


Schneider tried hard, but he just didn't fit in. I never really believed his relationship with Ann.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Definitely. Once they figured out how well April and Andy played off each other, Schneider's didn't have any reason to be on the show any more. Part of why April and Andy work so well in the Jim/Pam role (the relationship the audience roots for) is because the characters are nothing like Jim and Pam. The added advantage is that it's taken two one-note characters and unearthed a good deal of depth.


Ann plays better off Lowe than she did off Schneider, but I'm still not sure what the point of her character is. She's the one piece of the puzzle left that doesn't fit.

 

[joshEH]

Paul Schneider's character epitomized a lot of what was wrong with the show in the first season, in that Daniels and Schur started out making his character into basically kind of a nice guy, but someone who was also a man-slut/douche with the ladies, and yet was simultaneously the object of Leslie's affections.

Once the writers saw he had little chemistry with Poehler, and that they needed to make Leslie a more confident and self-aware character, he was left with nothing to do. The shot at pairing him up with Ann was clearly one of desperation, as they didn't know what else to do with him.


That said, I actually think Schneider is a very good comedic actor. Far more worrying is the possibility that they're going to make Rashida Jones the villain in a love-triangle, just to give her something to do.

 

[Brent M]

Just got around to watching the final two episodes on my DVR(I know, I'm a little slow) and I echo most of the sentiments here about Scheider and Lowe. I never really thought the Mark character brought much to the show in terms of comedy so if anyone in the cast had to go I'm glad it was him. As for Lowe, I was never a big fan of his work, but I've got to say I thought he was hilarious in these two episodes. It just shows how good writing can transform how you feel about certain actors.