Parks & Rec Unpopular Opinions

[amensisterfriend]

So since most seemed to love every second of the finale, my very, very UO is that Leslie or Ben becoming POTUS made me cringe. Seriously, there's a way to be sweet and hopeful and optimistic without going as wildly, insanely over the top with the 'everybody ends up with the absolute best life anyone has ever lived!' stuff as Parks and Rec did this season. I would have actually found the show a lot more poignant and effective if the characters had found happiness with smaller, more relatable wins. Despite not thinking the show is funny, I liked it because it was heartwarming and happy---but, for me, it became way too treacly. (And the humor got even dopier and harder to find) And this is just a personal preference thing, but I'm not wild about how every single character's happy ending had to involve being paired off a la Noah's Arc, either---even Donna, who had always been so happily single and independent. 

 

I feel like I need an extra insulin shot after this season, but I do think the show's been too saccharine (often at the expense of even attempting to be clever and witty) for a very long time. 

[godonlyknows]

 

So since most seemed to love every second of the finale, my very, very UO is that Leslie or Ben becoming POTUS made me cringe.

 

That's one reason I'm very glad they left it vague and never say it outright so I can pretend it's not true. It just seems too unrealistic no matter how much it would make Leslie happy. I think that's why I liked Tom's flash-forward showing him doing everything right and still not succeeding (at least for two minutes until everything turns out great for him too).

[ruby24]

So since most seemed to love every second of the finale, my very, very UO is that Leslie or Ben becoming POTUS made me cringe. Seriously, there's a way to be sweet and hopeful and optimistic without going as wildly, insanely over the top with the 'everybody ends up with the absolute best life anyone has ever lived!' stuff as Parks and Rec did this season. I would have actually found the show a lot more poignant and effective if the characters had found happiness with smaller, more relatable wins. Despite not thinking the show is funny, I liked it because it was heartwarming and happy---but, for me, it became way too treacly. (And the humor got even dopier and harder to find) And this is just a personal preference thing, but I'm not wild about how every single character's happy ending had to involve being paired off a la Noah's Arc, either---even Donna, who had always been so happily single and independent. 

 

I feel like I need an extra insulin shot after this season, but I do think the show's been too saccharine (often at the expense of even attempting to be clever and witty) for a very long time. 

I agree with this. It totally implies that you can't be truly happy unless you're married and "end up with someone." Even when Chris and Ann left, I thought they had decided not to marry even though they were having a kid, but nope- they show up again and of course they're married too.

[VCRTracking]

 

If it makes all of you feel better, realize one of the happy couples will eventually die first leaving the other all alone like poor Gayle in the finale(although she looks great!)

[JayInChicago]

I'm rewatching season 1 again and I actually like it a lot.

[Azaelia]

I'm rewatching season 1 again and I actually like it a lot.

I still don't think S1 was as bad as it was... different. I like it too, it's just a different kind of show. And that I'm glad of, honestly - I think while S1 was good, the show itself wouldn't have been nearly as excellent if they'd continued down that route. 

 

I also think Leslie's apparent lack of competence in S1 can be explained by the fact that the pit gave her a clear focus. Beforehand she was just as qualified, but stuck in a box where no one else was interested in doing much. Then she found an actual cause and was able to get everyone on board, if reluctantly at first, and they also started respecting her more as they realized she wasn't just babbling, she was onto some pretty important things. 

 

Also, she implies that her mother got her the job, which sounds like a contradiction - until you learn in season seven that she never knew why she got the job, because her interview with Ron went so horribly. It's possible that she assumed her mother pulled a few strings and got Leslie hired anyway.  (Because Marlene does seem the type to parent like that, maintain a sort of  distance while also occasionally providing little favors. Which is actually a little sad, but luckily Leslie seems well-adjusted enough.)

Edited May 9, 2015 by Azaelia

[JayInChicago]

I wish Tammy Zero aka Ron's mom was on more...

[EC Amber]

So, I've gone through the series twice and have come to these conclusions:

I could go the whole series without Tom Haverford (Aziz Ansari). His self-absorption to the point of having a serious negative impact on his friends was galling. Virtually every scene he was in I wanted to smack him. 

I never found making fun of Jerry/Gary/Larry/Terry amusing or funny. Not once. It had the stink of Seinfeld - "we're so mean it's funny." No, it's not. It's mean spirited. Especially with a guy who was so genial and pleasant and genuinely good hearted. 

 

That's it :-) I think I love every part of it. Especially April who I wanted to adopt and keep in a giant bird cage in my living room. 

[amensisterfriend]

This one is bizarrely irrational in addition to unpopular, but somehow despite disliking April intensely in most of her scenes with other characters, I absolutely LOVE Andy/April as a couple. I warned you this was irrational, right?! :) Everything about them just works for me: they have complementary differences yet a surprising about of commonality and compatibility; they're one of the sadly few TV couples who still genuinely has fun and enjoys each other's company even after getting married; and, as pitifully cliched as this sounds, I really feel like each brings out the other's 'best' and happier self. Unpopularly enough, I think I love them more even than Ben/Leslie, who became a tad cloying to me at times despite my adoration of Ben. 

 

I wish so much I liked Ann as an individual character rather than just as one half of a refreshingly strong female friendship, but she's just such a complete blank for me, and I hate how she seemingly always needs a guy in her life to define and fulfill her. Ann and Mark were such a prolonged yawn that I think I hold the UO of preferring the understandably unpopular Tom/Ann. 

 

I hate that everyone's 'happy ending' had to involve being paired off in a monogamous relationship and found myself wishing that Tom and/or Donna had ended the series contentedly single. 

 

Ron Swanson isn't among my favorite P & R characters. And, yes, I get it---he likes meat!!! 

 

I should find this show so much funnier than I do, but it's mood-lifting and engaging for me anyway. And I go through stages where Andy, Ben and (most unpopularly!) Chris are all LITERALLY among my favorite male TV characters ever. 

 

And speaking of how odd my sense of humor is...I find the scenes with Jean-Raphael and his sister together among the funniest parts of the series. And I really like Sister City, which I've seen cited as the worst post-S1 episode of the series! And somehow I don't mind that Andy was 'dumbed down'---though my Andy love is no doubt helped by my love for the actor who plays him :) 

[Brandi Maxxxx]

No new UOs to add, just wondering if we could add a quote from the show to the thread title. Examples I can think of:

"I like Larry."

"I don't get it... at all. It's kind of a small horse. Am I missing something?"

"You know what I like? Calzones."

 

Basically a lot of Ben quotes.

[amensisterfriend]

Those are all brilliant suggestions, though as someone who joins Ben in harboring a shameful love for calzones, I'm kind of partial to that one :) 

 

It's unpopular to love the episode Eagleton, right? I absolutely LOVE that episode :) 

[Funzlerks]

I quit watching the show after Ron gave April the cabin. It wasn't that I hated April or thought that she wasn't what Ron wanted in a buyer. It was that it was like the thirtieth time in the show's history that April for ten minutes did something with a modicum of interest and was rewarded with something that most people who work hard their whole lives don't get. Like April who never set foot in an organic chemistry or calculus class gets into veterinary school without applying because she likes her own pet dog and for some reason Ann, a woman April has treated like human garbage, wants to help her because why?

It wasn't the idea of April on the show - the show needed someone like that in the main cast. It wasn't that Ron having an awful, incompetent, hostile receptionist made total sense. It was that the show used April as a way to absolve Ron of his people-hating tendencies. It was that other characters who were nice and well meaning had to bow at the alter of April if she behaved tolerably for a minute. It was that she ended up with everything she could ever want (and she couldn't even want anything because if he did for thirty seconds another character would give it to her). Maybe she should have just earned something one time. Maybe she should have tried something, worked for it, and actually failed at it like all the other characters did. Ron Swanson who is Mr. Capitalism and hard work, I built this with my own hands gives an entitled princess his log cabin because she liked it for an afternoon. I have tried watching after that but I accidentally saw that episode and it brought back all the raises, promotions, trips to DC, etc... Why was someone so mean and lazy destined for bigger things?

Edited May 31, 2015 by Funzlerks

[amensisterfriend]

I think Ann was every bit as bland and undefined a character as the far more disliked Mark---the only difference is that her presence allowed for a strong central female friendship, but they could have given Leslie a best friend who had a personality beyond 'needs to be with a guy every second to feel fulfilled and utters a mildly condescending "duuude, man, calm down" every few episodes. I get the argument that the show needed a 'straight man'---though I'm not positive it did---but straightmen can have their own personality traits, interests, etc. rather than being "just there." For me Ben is a great example of that. 

 

The Jerry stuff was awful not just because it was such a mean-spirited facet of an otherwise incredibly sweet, goodhearted show, but because it was just so relentlessly repetitive and unfunny for me. I get that part of the 'joke' of his being picked on so mercilessly even by the show's otherwise kindest characters is that we can see Jerry is in many ways actually the happiest and sanest of all of them, but it was still just dopey and mean and pretty much just the same thing done over and over and over again for the series' entire run.

I'd like to think the writers were making a sly commentary about life's fundamental unfairness---sweet, well-meaning Jerry gets constantly shunned and mocked no matter how hard he tries or how helpfully he contributes while nasty, lazy, ungrateful April is adored and showered with myriad opportunities she neither deserves nor tries for, but that may be giving them too much credit :) 

Edited June 4, 2015 by amensisterfriend

[amensisterfriend]

---I'm actually really liking S6 a lot this time around...it's like I don't know myself anymore! I'm even occasionally finding Craig more funny than annoying :) And, even as someone who holds the UO of loving Chris to the point where I often would rank him right up there with Andy and Ben as my all-time favorite characters, I'm surprised by how little I feel the show suffers in his and Ann's absence. 

[JayInChicago]

I hate the JerryGarryLarryTerry Gengurch Gergich name thing.  I think as a one-off it was funny. 

[amensisterfriend]

Absolutely...though this show's treatment of Jerry was pretty much never funny to me (not to mention uncharacteristically mean-spirited and annoyingly repetitive!), so the S6 Larry stuff doesn't really annoy me any more than the rest of the series' use of Jerry does! 

[amensisterfriend]

...I know that Mona Lisa is the wooorrrssst, but in terms of her ability to amuse and entertain me, she was the best. I get why they annoy people, but I seriously love the Sappersteins. 

[JayInChicago]

I love in the episode that introduces Mona Lisa, Jean Ralphio keeps popping up from the ground, to the dismay of Ben Wyatt!  

Also damn, Ben Schwartz and Jenny Slate really do look related. Best casting ever.

[Petunia13]

They sure do. They look a lot alike and have similar vocal cadences. The casting on this show actually was A plus.

I don't think I mentioned as an unpopular opinion Aubrey Plaza is a kinda weak as an actress IMHO. Especially in moments which require more than a dead pan delivery but nuances or emotion. It would be funny actually to imagine if she played Ann's part and RJ played April.

I think Jamm was effective as a truly hateful villain. I think he could have stayed simply that the perviness and sleeze weren't necessary.

Christie Brinkley was pretty good as Gail with what she was given to do.

[amensisterfriend]

I absolutely love Leslie/Ben, but their beloved "I love you and I like you" line feels kind of cheesy and forced to me. I get the point, but it just doesn't work me. 

 

Even though I'm among those who complain that the show turned into such an 'all super-duper wins for everyone all the time!" fest that said wins lost their power to charm and enchant a bit, especially when we saw some of the characters achieving wild dreams that we never knew they had in the first place, one goal that I wish HAD been attained was one of the very few that wasn't: Andy becoming a cop. I think it could have led to some absolutely fantastic scenes and storylines. 

 

I don't think I mentioned as an unpopular opinion Aubrey Plaza is a kinda weak as an actress IMHO. Especially in moments which require more than a dead pan delivery but nuances or emotion. It would be funny actually to imagine if she played Ann's part and RJ played April.

 

ITA re Aubrey Plaza being limited, and her role playing/accents sometimes made me cringe even though I love the idea of April and Andy entertaining each other by becoming different people at the drop of a hat. Maybe I'd be less irked by her ingratitude, meanness, etc. if I'd found her more genuinely funny.  (I tend to be far more tolerant of the characters who amuse me!) 

 

I enjoy Chris Traeger a lot (is that still a UO?!), but I don't really care about his relationship with Ann and actually think it would have been a cool twist if Ann, the one who nearly always needed a guy and even admitted that she let guys define her personality, had ended the series happily and contentedly single. 

 

I can't remember if this is unpopular, but that beginning half or so of S4 is probably the very best stretch of the entire series for me. 

[biakbiak]

I absolutely love Leslie/Ben, but their beloved "I love you and I like you" line feels kind of cheesy and forced to me. I get the point, but it just doesn't work me.

Apparently, it's what Quincy Jones tells his family.

[JayInChicago]

It's not the funniest episode by any means, but the laugh out loudest, pee-pants funniest scene for me is when Ann has to break it to Leslie that she's moving away, and she distracts her with a plate of waffles.  let's see if i can find it...

 

http://nbcparksandrec.tumblr.com/post/63686808367/textbook-waffle-distraction

 

basically, Rashida moves the waffles into Amy's face basically until it bumps into her mouth and she starts eating them. Amy plays it like a confused cat or something--I don't even know. Her physical comedy is just that good. 

[amensisterfriend]

This one is just plain weird as well as potentially unpopular, but while I have a lot of well-documented issues with April as an individual character, somehow I adore the April/Andy pairing every bit as much as Lelsie/Ben, if not even more so.

 

This show is actually one of the best I've ever come across at depicting couples...in fact, my UO is that I think Parks more consistently excelled at romance/sweetness in general than comedy, which was more hit and miss for me! 

[JustaPerson]

Totally agree about April. My theory has always been that Andy balances her out in their scenes. Though I still enjoy Andy by himself as well.

[amensisterfriend]

Though I still enjoy Andy by himself as well.

 

I absolutely LOVE Andy, like to the point here he's arguably my favorite character on the entire show. I'm not usually a fan of the 'dopey jock', but Andy is so much more than that---post-S1 Andy is sweet, warm, creative, has this infectious joy side and genuinely wants everyone to be as happy as he is, and is even surprisingly smart and insightful about certain things that matter most. He just brings this energy to his scenes, and I love watching him play across pretty much any other character (though, again, huge bonus points for managing to make April so much more likable to me and having a relationship with her that, unlike the vast majority of what we see on TB, is happy and stable but still nowhere near boring)  

 

A really UO: I'm joining the poster here who rewatched S1 for the first time since it aired and actually liked it about a million times more than I expected to. Maybe my expectations were just really low given the almost universal dislike that season gets. Plus, it consists of just a handful of episodes and in my experience most shows take at least that long to find themselves :)  I totally get the complaint that it's too derivative of The Office, but The Office's humor always worked for me incredibly well---better than most of Parks' humor, unpopularly enough. (Though there are aspects of Parks I definitely prefer over The Office, and I even find it a lot more rewatchable than The Office overall.) So I actually find a surprising amount of those S1 episodes amusing, or at least more than I expected. Ann is possibly at her sweetest, and there's something about S1 Leslie that's actually kind of poignant and effective to me. Maybe it's because I've had a "Mark"---a guy you just can't get over who's a womanizing jerk in many ways yet somehow JUST nice and sincere enough to make yourself think that he/the two of you together has potential. I'm obviously not claiming S1 represents the show at its peak, but I do think it's much better than most do :) 

Edited July 21, 2015 by amensisterfriend

[amensisterfriend]

---And just to add to the unpopularity of the above: I actually think Mark Brandanowitz had much more of a purpose in S1 than in S2. The Mark/Leslie unrequited infatuation and one person not being able to move on while the other is casually different is cringe-inducing at times, but very relatable, sometimes darkly amusing and in many ways a lot more realistic than the 'everyone gets everyone and everything they want all the time!' vibe of later seasons :)

 

And during those S1 episodes you can at least tell yourself that Mark might eventually emerge as an interesting character, you know?! He's walking that line between complete jerk and..well, less of a complete jerk, and sometimes I'm even mildly interested in which way he'll go. But then S2 rolls around, and they seem to have decided to make him a 'better person' and worthy of our Ann and all that, only very little about the actual writing and acting shows us anything that growth process at all. He's just...there, drifting his way through  an innocuous, impossibly dull and chemistry-free (and unfunny!) relationship with Ann, muttering lines that pretty much any other character could deliver. He had no real storylines/character arcs of his own and didn't add to either Ann or Leslie's storylines/character arcs either. After viewing S1 for only the second time ever, I was very pleasantly surprised to find that I could at least understand why he was there in that first season, especially when we see Leslie decline to make the same poor choice by drunkenly hooking up with him again in the last episode. But after she had that epiphany, there was really no reason for him to stick around in S2...at least not IMO :) 

 

All that said, I'm really agreeing with the idea that the pre-Ben/Chris years had a very different feel, energy and sometimes even type of humor. I used to strongly prefer the Ben/Chris years, but now there's a lot less of a gap than there used to be, and (UO alert!) lately I'm often finding myself more and more in the mood to rewatch the pre-Ben/Chris episodes instead. 

[amensisterfriend]

Based on other boards I've seen, this seems really unpopular: I'm utterly indifferent to Ann/Chris. And while Ann has grown on me and I've even come to see what a lot of what I once perceived as blandness and egregious underwriting as deliberate attempts to make her relatable and sometimes even endearingly awkward, I really hate how they wrote the character in relation to guys. Not only did she always have to be dating throughout the first 4.5 or so seasons, but she was simultaneously depicted as 'too good' for her current and former boyfriends, and kept lamenting out loud that she ever dated Andy, Tom, Chris, etc. like they were such embarrassments and she was just so out of their league. If they had deliberately had her always dating people for comedic effect and/or as a manifestation of her insecurities, I'd be totally on board, but having her and everyone else think she's just too cool and awesome for the guys in question is really irksome for me. One of several reasons I hold the UO of loving S5 is that I really adored Ann deciding to date herself and pursuing her dream of having a child irrespective of whether she had found a life mate. I get that we were supposed to be psyched when she and Chris got back together, but my UO is that I honestly didn't care at all either way! 

 

I also couldn't care less about Tom/Lucy, Tom/Ann, Tom/Wendy...Tom/anyone. Or Donna/Joe. And it still irks me that not one of these characters ended the series happily single :) 

[Mister Pibb]

I quit watching the show after Ron gave April the cabin. It wasn't that I hated April or thought that she wasn't what Ron wanted in a buyer. It was that it was like the thirtieth time in the show's history that April for ten minutes did something with a modicum of interest and was rewarded with something that most people who work hard their whole lives don't get. Like April who never set foot in an organic chemistry or calculus class gets into veterinary school without applying because she likes her own pet dog and for some reason Ann, a woman April has treated like human garbage, wants to help her because why?

 

I watched a rerun of this episode ("The Cones of Dunshire") this week and recalled it was somewhat of a turning point for me, too.  I noticed in the scene right after Ron gave the cabin to April, she was being a total b*tch to Gerry in the worst way.  Once again, a few minutes of interest garners her the undeserved prize (veterinary school, the cabin, whatever)...then she goes back to who she really is almost immediately with no consequences.

 

Things continued on the wrong path in the next episode ("Second Chunce"), where the writers began to transition Leslie from merely a well-meaning, hard-working government employee to some sort of “Superwoman” where nothing in her life would ever really go wrong again.  Ben pays for one hour of Jen Barkley’s services ($1200!), where she advises her not to run for city council again, but to aim for higher offices beyond Pawnee.  But, of course, she wouldn’t have to move to Chicago for her next job a few episodes later, but instead the job and department would come to her just because she asked!  Right upstairs from where she used to work!  And with all the same people from the Parks Department working with her!!

 

To me, “Second Chunce” was the beginning of an unrealistic turn and propelled the show into some sort of Candyland fantasy world where everything worked out for everyone all the time.  As for Leslie – the Special Chosen One – notice how in the final episode before we would see the characters’ futures, she would lay hands on them (a hand on Tom’s shoulder, for example)...like she was Mother Teresa or Gandhi or something.  Loved nearly the entire series, but the last two dozen episodes or so really ventured off in an annoying different direction in terms of elevating all the characters (especially Leslie) to such lofty heights.

Edited August 8, 2015 by Mister Pibb

[biakbiak]

Reading another shows threads: Leslie it was never a battle between Saracen and Riggins they loved one another and the Riggins brother are not trash. All day and forever I will agree with Ann Perkins, Tim Riggins is sex on a plate.

[amensisterfriend]

My opinions changed so much with rewatch and the passage of time! The most major UO: 

 

Initially S2 just didn't feel like Parks to me, and there are still things I dislike about it (Mark, a generally somewhat clunky and awkward feel at times, the unfathomably dull and chemistry-free Ann/Mark pairing, etc.), but I actually think I may now be among the tiny minority who thinks it's the funniest season. As I said somewhere else, as much as I love both Ben and Chris individually, I don't always love their overall effect on the show. Parks and Rec slowly but surely became such an 'everybody wins all the time---even things you didn't even have any idea they wanted!" gooey lovefest that was super focused on the romances, and even though I really liked the romances in question (Ben/Leslie and especially, much to my own surprise, Andy/April), it feels like the show started to forget it was even supposed to be a comedy. Granted, the type of silly/goofy humor on this show tends not to work for me that well anyway, but earlier on they did seem to focus more on at least TRYING to be funny rather than just super sweet. And as the series progressed it became increasingly harder to root for characters who always had everything to begin with---something about Lesie et al as underdogs making smaller but more relatable and somehow meaningful differences worked a lot better for me.

Plus, as someone who always had major issues with April, I actually find her most likable in S2. Maybe it's because she doesn't already have amazing job offers flying her way despite being so proudly lazy and apathetic, the best relationship ever, everybody constantly going out of their way for her no matter how awful she is, etc. so I therefore can't fault her for being such an ingrate  :) She actually seems a little less pointlessly mean and surly in S2---by her standards!---and it was nice watching her believably soften and warm up a bit due to her feelings for Andy. 

 

And while Leslie/Ben are soulmates and one of the most functional and compatible TV couples I've ever seen, Dave/Leslie arguably had more comedic potential :) 

 

My ultimate S2 UO that I've already confessed here...I love Sister City and think it's one of the funniest episodes of the series. I know...I have no taste :) 

Edited October 7, 2015 by amensisterfriend

[Inquisitionist]

April Ludgate: My mom's Puerto Rican. That's why I'm so lively and colorful.

 

Raul: This kind of behavior is never tolerated in Baraqua. You shout like that they put you in jail. Right away. No trial, no nothing. Journalists, we have a special jail for journalists. You are stealing: right to jail. You are playing music too loud: right to jail, right away. Driving too fast: jail. Slow: jail. You are charging too high prices for sweaters, glasses: you right to jail. You undercook fish? Believe it or not, jail. You overcook chicken, also jail. Undercook, overcook. You make an appointment with the dentist and you don't show up, believe it or not, jail, right away. We have the best patients in the world because of jail.

 

Me: What's not to love?  :-)

[pawneerangers]

I just watched the whole series again and my main unpopular opinion is that this really is my favorite show of all time. My name on here probably gives that away lol. 

 

I'm very sentimental lately and think that probably affects the way I saw the show, and my really unpopular opinion is that the last season is my favorite to watch. I understand why some people wouldn't like it and I don't even like time leaps usually. But the final season just makes me so happy and inspires me. This is the only show I've ever seen where I love the later seasons even more than the earlier ones, but I love the earlier ones too. I even like season 1. I don't love it, but I like it. So I guess this is the right place to admit that!  

 

I see April as anxious and suffering from low grade depression. I think that helps me like her and sympathize with her more than a lot of viewers do. It doesn't excuse her behavior but it sometimes explains it. I know someone who had those issues and often lashed out like April but had a great heart underneath. 

 

Mona Lisa is hilarious to me. I would have loved to have her around more than she was. 

 

I love Ron's friendship with Leslie and think it's a really big part of why the show is successful but don't love him that much otherwise and don't care about his relationship with Diane.  Ben and Leslie and April and Andy are my favorite tv romances I've ever seen but other than them I don't really ship any of the other couples on the show.

 

Ann and Chris felt weird because Chris was a little like a cartoon character to me so I had trouble taking him seriously as a character who's really in love. And the way they broke up once or twice already and were both always dating someone made me feel like they just weren't that into each other and were both just desperate to end up with someone. Tom and Lucy and Ron and Diane are just eh and I agree with the person who said that Diane's kids are annoying. I like Joe a lot but Donna should have stayed single and the only thing I don't love about the last season is how they made it seem like everyone had to end up married to be happy. 

 

I understand that Leslie can be annoying to people but she is my role model and if you ask me one of the best female characters ever on television. 

 

I know this show gets compared to The Office and Brooklyn Nine Nine but I love it a lot more than either of those. I'm not saying those aren't good shows but just that they're not special to me like Parks & Recreation. 

[Spicymustard]

Parks and rec is my favorite show too. I never watch reruns of anything but this show I'm watching the whole thing again in order and have seen certain episodes multiple times. And I agree, I even like season 1.

[amensisterfriend]

I wasn't sure which other thread to put this in, but in my opinion writers of other shows should be strapped down and forced to watch how Parks writes happy, loving couples who are still interesting, entertaining, fun, dealing with a realistic amount of conflict and brimming over w/chemistry even after they're dating and married. The idea that couples are only fun to watch BEFORE they get together and if they're constantly breaking up and miserable ruins certain other shows for me, and it's something I feel like Parks does better than almost any show I've ever seen. 

I see April as anxious and suffering from low grade depression. I think that helps me like her and sympathize with her more than a lot of viewers do. It doesn't excuse her behavior but it sometimes explains it. I know someone who had those issues and often lashed out like April but had a great heart underneath.

 

Seriously, this fanwank is amazing and may honestly change the way I view the character! 

[TyranAmiros]

With the caveat that I've only just started watching and only seen seasons one and two, my UO is that I like April. And I really like her relationship with Ron. I love how she gets her job as secretary because it's so true to life. I don't even mind her as the office pet because it's a great subversion of the young, energetic ingenue naive to the cold hard realities of life.

So I guess it's similar to why I like Mark and the show in general--it plays with and subverts a lot of office politics tropes and plays with our expectations of government by presenting local government as just another office job. That's true to life, but not the kind of politics you normally see in media.

[dmendez001]

I feel like most TV series are like that, especially in the first and last season. Those are the toughest because you have to maintain interest and develop characters/ wrap a story line all within a matter of episodes and when you think about it, 20ish minutes is not that long.

 

Anyway, found this cool video on youtube with the Parks & Recreation theme done with Family Guy characters. Pretty neat, check it out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TtIwZG1kHCM

[TyranAmiros]

After marathoning the whole series, my UO is that I really prefer the pre-City Council seasons. Leslie is so OTT in Season 6, I barely recognize her.

April doesn't bother me at all. She absolutely nailed the attitude she was supposed to, and until she goes off the deep end like all the characters in Season 6 (I may just pretend it doesn't exist), I find her a refreshing burst of cynicism.

That's because for all his libertarianism, Ron isn't a cynic. And my UO is that while Ron is necessary, I don't really how he becomes Ron, Dispenser of Wisdom.

[amensisterfriend]

---Season 5 remains my favorite season of the whole show. It's just so warm, engaging, sweet, charming and fun IMO. 

 

---Leslie Knope is freaking amazing---inspiring, thoughtful, generous, determined, optimistic, energetic, bright, compassionate, etc., and I'd happily vote for her over our current presidential candidates if she existed in real life :) But my UO is that I'd sometimes find her really grating to actually be around. And I also hold the weird UO that Amy Poehler is more awesome with the show's sentimental/emotional material than the comedy. 

 

---I never enjoyed Jamm much, but the episode where he pops up in S7 as Tammy's latest boy toy/victim is actually among my two or three favorite episodes of that final season. 

 

---I think Parks does romantic relationships better than almost any show I've ever seen, and I really love Leslie/Ben, but my UO is that April/Andy is even more awesome---entertaining, sweet, amusing, unique despite initially seeming like a retread of the tired 'opposites attract' trope (in part because they actually have a lot in common underneath IMO) and so weirdly touching to me. And I say this even as someone who has major issues with April apart from her interactions with Andy :) 

 

---I kind of hate that a show as relatively progressive as Parks fell into the trap of thinking that every single character needed to be officially paired off by the end in order to be happy and fulfilled. 

 

---Ron is a key part of the show but isn't among my favorite characters, which is obviously a very unpopular opinion :) 

 

---I totally get why people think Andy was too 'dumbed down' in later seasons, but my UO is that I still loved him anyway...maybe even more than I did in earlier seasons. 

 

---I grew to genuinely like Craig! 

[EternallyCharmed]

I have so many!!! I'll try to stick with just a few so you don't get too bored. I haven't seen the show since it ended but am addicted to these unpopular opinion threads so will remember as much as I can. 

 

I agree with people who say the show is sweet and happy but not funny. I'm not saying a show CAN'T be both, but this show wasn't. The second season was the only really funny one because it was before the show was too focused on giving everyone perfect lives and tried to be smart and funny rather than just a lovefest. Even then the humor was hit and miss. 

 

Everyone says that April grew but I thought she got worse. I liked her much more in the second season than when she later had everything anyone could want and people who kept working every episode to make her happier but was such an insulting, whiny complainer anyway. Shut up, April. I agree with whoever said they wished Ann had told her to drop dead when she asked for a recommendation to vet school. Which April went to for maybe an hour. 

 

Ann and Mark remind me so much of each other that I'm surprised so many people love one and hate the other.

 

I actually like the April and Andy relationship more than Leslie and Ben. Like other people here I like April only when she's with Andy. Somehow she's a great wife even though I think she sucks overall. She and Andy are a good match for each other's shortcomings. Leslie and Ben are so perfect that it's boring and not even realistic. And the I love you AND I like you thing gives me diabetes. 

 

Leslie in general was a much better character when she encountered obstacles in trying to reach the kind of goals we could relate to. Then the show became about this amazing superwoman who everybody except villains love and works to help as she becomes this great politician and went on to even become...POTUS? LOL. I wish the show hadn't worked hard to convince us that she became too good for Pawnee. 

 

Someone said this elsewhere so I'm kind of stealing it but this show has a fixation with butts and stupid immature jokes that are like something a third grader would think is juvenile. It's like it doesn't know how to be funny so has characters say things like "it's in your mother's butt" and "buttface" instead. A small town political satire could have been so genius but they used such dumb attempts at jokes instead. So it's a lovely show with likable people but not even close to the funny and smart show that it should have been. 

[biakbiak]

It might be my dislike of Rob Lowe but Chris Treager is my least favorite character.

[Kip Hackman]

 

 

I agree with people who say the show is sweet and happy but not funny. I'm not saying a show CAN'T be both, but this show wasn't.

 

I've seen this a few times, and I'll never understand it. I can't count the number of times this show has made me laugh out loud. Different strokes, I guess.

[amensisterfriend]

I've been watching again and confirmed the UO that S7 is the best, or at least the season that's become my personal 'go to' favorite :) It's just pure happiness and actually has wittier dialogue and funnier moments than some other seasons to go along with the amazingly heartwarming optimim.  I actually like the Gryzzl stuff and the way that the time leap allowed them to make a few great references to what might happen in the (very near!) future. The Ron/Leslie feud actually doesn't bother me, though I certainly understand why many would hate it. But, unpopularly enough, Leslie and Ron, which most fans and critics seem to love, is actually my least favorite episode of the season. I love the idea of it, but it just didn't work for me very well at all. 

[roseha]

On 3/27/2016 at 8:00 PM, biakbiak said:

It might be my dislike of Rob Lowe but Chris Treager is my least favorite character.

I have just finished up to the end of Season 6 on Hulu (watching for the first time) and I think this is my biggest UO.  I have seen very little of Rob Lowe in other things, so I honestly don't know if it's him or the character of Chris.  But I think it's Chris. Many of the characters are self involved in one way or another - somehow that's typical of comedy I think -  but Chris tends to be so self involved and needy for so long that I find him really irritating.  Even when he's doing the right thing, trying to be supportive of his friends or becoming a good parent, he seems to view everything through some lens of wanting to be perfect, and fear of not being perfect.  Maybe that's what the writers intended, or maybe he just doesn't seem like a realistic person to me, but it makes him hard to watch for some reason.

I agree that the mean treatment of Jerry and the grade school humor really should have been eliminated.

I actually like Tom, but I don't think the writers did much with him in terms of relationships (though I haven't seen Season 7 yet).

I do like Andy and April separately and together.   April is morbid at times, but she seems to say things for effect and not seriously.  Andy is hilarious, and you do get the sense that he means well.

Ron is a good character, but I think Nick Offerman is actually funnier as himself.

[meep.meep]

I hate Season 7 with a white hot passion.  Maybe because I'm a federal employee and none of that is even remotely possible.  It bothers me that they decided to make a show about government, and then didn't bother to spend 30 seconds to find out how it works.  They didn't do that for small town city government either, but you can always just assume that Pawnee is looney tunes.  Season 7 is worse than Season 1 even.  And everyone getting a happy ending is bad writing.

You make the town name Pawnee but have to call the local Indian tribe the Wamapokes.  Sure.

Ron frequently was unfunny.  April would have been murdered by her co-workers in any other environment.  And I loved Chris Treager.  It is so rare to find a character on a sitcom who is constantly upbeat.

[amensisterfriend]

Awww, I love reading UOs about this show---probably because I have so many of my own, some of which change with time and repeated viewing :) 

Seasons 5 and 6 are my two favorites and the ones I enjoy rewatching the most. I realize that's a highly unpopular opinion and can't even begin to defend it :) 

I noticed this time around that Diane was actually a potentially really good character---I could have seen her as an Ann-like friend to Leslie once the real Ann departed, only the writing/acting/something-I-can't-identify made Diane seem a lot more potentially layered and interesting than Ann and even kind of intriguingly mysterious to me.  

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And I loved Chris Treager.

He's definitely one of my favorite characters! I don't like Chris/Ann as a couple, though, and never really bought that they loved each other---then again, I don't really like Ann/anyone. I wish she had raised her kid on her own and discovered that she doesn't need a guy to be happy. I agree with people that Ron and April are similar characters, but for me Ann and Mark Brandanowicz (sp?!) are as well---they're both incredibly boring, flat, personality-deficient characters with no clear interests, passions, idiosyncracies, etc., and both constantly need to be with someone of the opposite sex and then seem to feel they're way too cool for whoever they just deigned to date or hook up with. It's always interesting to me that Mark is so hated while Ann is so loved among fans, because IM(U)O they're actually a lot alike! 

I get why everyone thinks Donna is awesome and do like a few of her scenes, but I can't relate to her or Tom all that well. They're both really social and into what's 'cool' and luxurious and both love dating and...yeah, suffice it to say they're VERY unlike me :) More to the point, they didn't get great storylines IMO---especially Donna. 

Obviously I would dislike the Sapperstein siblings in real life, but my UO is that they're easily among the funniest characters on the show. I shudder to think of what that says about my taste :) Actually, I find many of the minor characters funnier than the major characters overall. For me, most of the major characters are often highly enjoyable to spend time with, fun in a random, goofy way and sometimes even inspiring, but rarely funny to me. (I think I just tend to like a more clever, sharp wit than the "that SUCKS BUTTS!" type of silliness the show often gives us, but obviously humor is really subjective!) 

Oh, and I love all things Eagleton---it's one of my favorite things about the show. I'm including the episode that's called Eagleton, which I see on many 'worsts' lists but is actually one of my favorites. 

As I said, I have very weird taste when it comes to this show :) 

[Brandi Maxxxx]

13 hours ago, meep.meep said:

You make the town name Pawnee but have to call the local Indian tribe the Wamapokes.  Sure.

That's because Pawnee was founded by people who couldn't tell the difference and didn't care.

[amensisterfriend]

It makes me so happy whenever I see your screen name, Brandi Maxxxx! Is it unpopular to absolutely adore Brandi Maxxxx?! I automatically love every scene she appears in :)

That's the thing about this show in general---despite my complaints about individual aspects of it, overall the show just boosts my spirits and makes me happy. 

Since this is the UO thread: what are so generally unpopular/generally overlooked episodes that you actually love?! A few of mine: Sister City (I know people dislike this one, but I actually find it one of the funnier episodes of the series!), Woman of the Year (I rarely see this one mentioned but just love it and find it so rewatchable for some reason), Eagleton (I love most of S3 less than most do, but love this episode a lot MORE than most do!), Ann's Decision, Bailout, The Pawnee Eagleton Tip Off Classic, Galentine's Day, One in 8000, William Henry Harrison (one of my favorite of S7 even though most people I know disliked it), Pie Mary. 

[whateverhappened]

I just started my third rewatch. Somehow I always manage to forget how much I love this show until I start rewatching again and realize how much I love these characters and that I'm suddenly feeling far better about life in general. 

A few of my opinions that I would guess are very unpopular - 

I love the final season so much. It might be my favorite. 

Ann leaving didn't affect the show at all for me. And as sweet as Leslie and Ann's friendship is, Leslie and April's dynamic is more interesting to me and resonates with me more. Ron and April's friendship is one of my favorites too. 

Leslie x Ben is close to a perfect romance but April x Andy means even more to me. 

I do think the show is funny, not just sweet.  It's true that it can be silly, but in such a fun, self-aware and good-natured way that I adore it. More to the point, I find a lot of the humor smart and clever too. 

Jenn Barkley is possibly the best minor character and I wish she had been in more episodes. 

 I understand why people dislike April and her snark does sometimes veer into unprovoked meanness, but I love her and can't even imagine Parks without her. I also think the writers did a great job of showing that she does have a good heart underneath the cynicism and self-protective apathy. 

Edited February 12, 2017 by whateverhappened

[lostandfound]

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 realize how much I love these characters and that I'm suddenly feeling far better about life in general. 

Seriously, there is almost nothing that makes me happier than this show. I don't just mean that almost no TV show makes me happier. I mean almost nothing in general can lift my mood as quickly and effectively as Parks! But I do have some UOs and am happy there's a safe place to share them :-)

1. I really like all the characters, but Leslie is one of my least favorites. There's something irritating about Amy Poehler's acting to me and the way they wrote Leslie didn't always work for me. Like others mentioned, she is inspiring, a feminist role model and obviously has a great heart, but she can be annoying to watch and I'd find her even more annoying to be around in real life. 
2. April is my favorite. I get where people who dislike her are coming from! I just really connect with her, preferring animals to people, being cynical and snarky partly as a defense and sometimes just out of habit, feeling scared to hope and try, caring a lot about the few people I trust, having trouble finding a job that makes me happy, always a little different from normal people, tendencies towards negativity and depression.
3. Andy/April may be my favorite TV relationship. I agree with the above poster that while Leslie/Ben was wonderful, there's something about Andy/April that entertains, interests and emotionally affects me more. I'm a lot older than they are and am not into a lot of the same things they are, but I connect with them anyway. I agree with those who have said here or in other threads that they're an example of how opposites attract couples should be written: making each other better and happier instead of in constant conflict, balancing each other out, accepting each other's differences but also helping each other change for the better, realizing that they have a few important things in common after all.
4. I love the later Parks seasons even more than the earlier ones as a whole, and the final season is my very favorite.  
5. Ann had such potential, and I really like her even though the writers usually didn't know what to do with her other than having her date.   

[theotherhalliwell]

My UO is that Season 2 is definitely my favorite season! Like a couple of others have said, I like the smaller scale stories and how each character had more relatable challenges and more modest, harder earned wins. I don't even hate Mark, who to me is kind of like Jim Halpert Lite, as much as most people do. I agree that his relationship with Ann was pointless and didn't miss him when he left, but there's so much else I love about that season. April and Leslie are both at their most lovable for me in season 2, the beginnings of April and Andy are perfect and they both grow so much this season from what they were in season 1 (and compared to how they both in some ways seem to regress later on, with Andy becoming dumber and April becoming more aggressively nasty and sullen with less reason to be anything other than content), and S2 is just the funniest for me.

I agree with the idea that in S2 it felt like they put their energy into being a comedy that as a bonus had some positive messages and a lot of heart while in subsequent seasons felt like their only priority was being an inspiring, borderline sugary sweet show with good role models and positive messages, and if a couple of the goofy things that are said and done end up being funny, that's a nice plus. Like a lot of people here, I like that it was such a feel good show, but I just preferred the tone of S2. I love Ben and like Chris but am not sure I love how they ended up impacting the show in general. Leslie/Ben is one of the most loving and healthy relationships TV has ever given us, but they were rarely funny to me, and they didn't really grow and change like April did as much as each just repeatedly confirm that the other is amazing.  

It's not as if I dislike later seasons, but S2 is one of my favorite seasons of any TV show, and the other seasons just didn't quite measure up. I know that everybody has different tastes when it comes to comedy, so these are just my opinions! I was initially coming here to say that I think everybody being mean to Jerry for no reason was one of the worst aspects of the series, but I discovered that isn't too unpopular, at least around here.   

Edited May 4, 2017 by theotherhalliwell