Salon.com > Parks and Recreation

Leslie Knope vs. the 1 percent

Fri, 27 Apr 2012 18:06:00 +0000

NBC's hit comedy "Parks and Recreation," set in the dingy city hall of a small Indiana town, has always concerned itself with the details of local management -- parks, budget cuts, council elections and the like. Until Thursday night's episode, however, it has largely avoided addressing politics on a larger, ideological plane; the ebullient and driven protagonist, Leslie Knope (played by Amy Poehler) has a photo of Condoleezza Rice hanging next to one of Madeleine Albright in her office -- when it comes to the two-party horse race, neither Leslie nor the show holds a clear line. In the most recent episode, however, the show made a stand against one issue: corporate hegemony.

The episode features a televised debate between candidates for the city of Pawnee's council, among them, Leslie Knope and Bobby Newport, the dimwitted son of a local candy tycoon, hilariously portrayed by Paul Rudd. Newport's character riffs lightly on George W. Bush, the incompetent son of privilege given easy entry into the political arena. He is also Mr. 1 Percent, symbolizing the influence of corporate money in (even local) politics -- most notably during Thursday's episode, he aims to gain leverage over voters with the threat of moving his job-providing candy factory overseas if he loses the election. So the Pawnee council debate reflects the state of national politics, where corporate interests determine policymaking and policymakers. Luckily for Pawnee, there's Leslie Knope -- the too-kind-to-be true politician, who takes a stand against her opponent's threats.

Aziz Ansari vs. Geraldo

Wed, 28 Mar 2012 20:00:00 +0000

Aziz Ansari is in a rage. The taco place he went to for lunch is out of carne asada. “NOOOOOOO,” he tweets. He claims the actual “NOOOOO” started in real life, and you can almost hear his instantly recognizable (at least to most people under 30) anguish. With almost 2 million Twitter followers, Aziz Ansari is one of the most popular comedians on social media.

On it he disses Geraldo, thinks about which NBA players he looks like, and freaks out about hanging with President Obama. He’s also one of the most visible and successful comedians working today, splitting his time between playing the Ginuwine-loving office assistant Tom Haverford on NBC "Parks and Recreation" (which returns with new episodes April 19), roles in high-profile films like "30 Seconds or Less" and "Funny People," and writing and performing original stand-up across the country.

In his most recent comedy special, "Dangerously Delicious," he riffs on racial slurs and stupid people's children. But he's also trying out a radically new distribution model. By releasing the special through his personal website for $5 and forgoing the marketing offered by its airing on a network and subsequent release on DVD, he hopes to capitalize on his popularity on the Internet and help pioneer a new model for comedians to support themselves.

Five pop culture items we missed

Fri, 08 Jul 2011 22:01:00 +0000

1. Reviews of the day: A random "grab bag" of ridiculous Amazon reviews from Publishers Weekly. Can someone make a Tumblr of these?

2. Foodie of the day: Ron Swanson from "Parks and Recreation," who can be seen here eating every kind of meat known to man.

3. Big Brother moment of the day: Who knew the Secret Service read Tumblr? Kyle McDonald created People Staring at Computers just three days ago, to document individuals taking pictures of themselves in Apple stores. Now he's being investigated by the government for violating the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.

NBC comedy stars keep themselves relevant after finales

Tue, 07 Jun 2011 20:08:00 +0000

What do the stars of NBC's Thursday night comedy lineup do during their summer vacation? Keep themselves fresh, of course. Sometimes it's a little hard to tell if these guys can separate themselves from their characters, but who's complaining if there's a real Ron Swanson or Jack Donaghy walking around?

"30 Rock's" Alec Baldwin and "The Office's" John Krasinski have figured out what they're doing with their off-season, and that's punching each other in the face about baseball. No, seriously. In this series for New Era Caps, Baldwin goes head to head with Jim Halpert over their Red Sox/Yankees rivalry. So far there have been three spots, and if you play them in succession it's kind of like watching a crossover episode between the two shows.

Is this show bad, or am I fickle?

Fri, 20 May 2011 13:21:00 +0000

"The best part of any relationship is the beginning," said Leslie Knope (Amy Poehler) in last night's excellent season finale of "Parks and Recreation."

The line referred to Leslie's office romance with co-worker Ben Wyatt (Adam Scott). But it also cast light on my feelings about this show and its Thursday night stablemate, "The Office," which has sort of been limping along this year, building toward the April 28 departure of office boss Michael Scott (Steve Carell), and then struggling to figure out what to do with itself in his absence. I've been hard on "The Office" as it closes out its seventh season, and kind toward "Parks and Rec," which is two seasons old. And I recently contributed an item to the Washington Post's annual "Spring Cleaning" feature saying that I thought it was time to put the 22-year old "The Simpsons" out of its misery.

Here's the thing: Last night, out of curiosity, I looked back on my TV reviews for Salon and other publications, and realized that I tend to be tougher on shows that have been around awhile than ones that are just starting out.

“Parks and Recreation’s” entrancing return

Wed, 19 Jan 2011 15:20:00 +0000

The fictional town of Pawnee, Indiana has had many slogans over the decades, and in a future episode of "Parks and Recreation," parks department bureaucrat Leslie Knope (Amy Poehler) rattles off a sample. My favorites are, "Pawnee: First in Friendship, Fourth in Obesity" and "Pawnee: It’s Safe to Be Here Now." There's a whole category of slogan revealing the town's secretly defeatist attitude during wartime ("Welcome, German soldiers") and another commemorating a brief period in the 1970s when Pawnee was taken over by a religious cult. As is so often the case on this great NBC comedy (which premieres its third season this Thursday at 9:30/8:30 PM central), the lines are amusing on their own. But what puts them over the top is what they tell us about the mentality and history of Pawnee, and the speaker’s complex feelings about the town.

“Parks and Recreation’s” John Mayer joke

Fri, 12 Feb 2010 11:13:00 +0000

In what must be the most serendipitously timed joke of the week, "Parks and Recreation" last night celebrated Valentine's Day (and its little-known spinoff, "Galentine's Day") with a straight-up bit of romantic advice. Attempting to orchestrate a reunion between her mother and mom's long-lost first love, the frequently misguided Leslie Knope (Amy Poehler) looks into the camera and speaks a little truth to power.

Check out the following clip, where Leslie gushes, "How often do you get to reunite soul mates? What if I told you that you could reunite Romeo and Juliet? Or Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston?" Then she turns deadly serious, adding, "Oh, Jen, I really want you to be happy. Stay away from John Mayer."

When did “Parks and Recreation” get so funny?

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 01:04:00 +0000

Unlike the big-city cops, doctors and lawyers who crowd their TV screens, most Americans are surrounded by provincial folks who tend to speak about their small-beans pursuits in the most grandiose terms imaginable. NBC's "Parks and Recreation" (8:30 p.m. Thursdays on NBC) captures this hokey flavor of small-town life with renewed vigor in its sophomore season, pairing the low-stakes challenges and low-key love triangles of its Pawnee, Ind., city government officials with a steady flow of smart parody of everything from the second-rung beauty pageant culture to moronic business-speak to Mark Sanford-style sex scandals.

Thanks to some unbeatable episodes from the mockumentary this fall, suddenly it's clear that calling NBC's "Parks and Recreation" a civic-government version of "The Office" is like calling the Eiffel Tower a French version of the Seattle space needle. While the government setting seemed limiting at first, the show's writers have fleshed out the main characters and leaned into the endless possibilities here, from the devolving mental health of Ann's (Rashida Jones) ex Andy (Chris Pratt) to Leslie's (Amy Poehler) budding romance with a local cop (Louis CK) prone to speaking primarily in formal, cop-at-a-press-conference terms ("Miss Knope was attractive to me, as a man. I was attracted to her in her demeanor, I was attracted to her in a sexual manner that was appropriate. I don't want to talk about this anymore").