PARKS and RECREATION aka "Everything's coming up Amy"

cause i have a vested interest in the state of television as a medium and i enjoy analyzing and discussing what works and what doesn't work about the shows i watch

still, you gotta admit that criticizing P&R for being too cartoony - when the show's creators have quite openly admitted that it tries to be a live action Simpsons - seems a bit nitpicky, maybe?

or point-missing, if you prefer

xp this also seems to be an attitude exclusive to tv, especially on ilx, i rarely see ppl being accused of nitpicking when criticizing music or film or books. even if morbs for example gets annoying, that's never the nature of the gripe against him

well, come on... morbs is another class of troll

my argument itt was actually in favor of the cartoonishness (chris, andy, tom, etc) before this argument broke out. just against turning ron into more and more of a caricature of an internet meme, which is on a different level. people still complained (maybe rightfully so) when the writers kept upping the flanders-ness of flanders, when the character was working much better before. i think that's basically what everyone is worried about wrt ron. (isn't the process called flanderization or something on tv tropes?)

there was a point when Flanders was a good character?

ron was already a cartoonish libertarian/secret sax player, the problem is in pushing him more and more in that direction until his character loses the respectable qualities that made him central to the show, esp with his relationship to leslie

xp

i see, that's an understandable concern. i don't think playing up his meat-lovin'/wacky qualities hurts the show, necessarily, though. i loved that episode where he brainwashes the girl into being a libertarian, since they had someone react realistically to his craziness

Isn't the issue/point with this episode more that Ron's monomaniacal approach to a situation backfired and didn't work as opposed to winning everyone over to his viewpoint, allowing Chris the opening to lecture wrong and make him modify his behavior slightly? This has happened before in opposition to/tandem with Leslie (thinking of the Boy Scout/Girl Scout analogue episode) but most of the rest of the time the world of Pawnee warps around Ron's gravitational field, and this time no one was having it.

It's basically exactly what happened when they all went camping, and most everyone preferred Leslie's posh fun version to Ron's spartan version.

zachlyon hit the nail on the head as far as my point of view as well, but all I'll add is that I'd hate to see shows I like follow The Office into cartoony oblivion. Just sensitive to any evidence of that progression.

makes sense, but yeah, we don't need another thread like the Community one where people spent ssn 3 saying, "The quality has dipped slightly. I hope they cancel the show so I can remember it fondly."

from what i remember of the camping episode, ron's silliness was at least backed up by the fact that his boy scouts thing was a tradition and by the ending, which basically pointed to the idea that ron wasn't in the wrong, he was just matched with the wrong kids. this ep was more ron acting irrationally by every standard (does he usually eat his bbq without any sort of plate? that's just weird) and it just resulted in him having steam come out of his ears and then settle with a reluctantly learned lesson in the end. it didn't amount to much, but most importantly the whole thing didn't make me laugh. leslie in DC was funny though.

maybe next week's ron plotline will be better than this week's

don't be an idiot

my argument itt was actually in favor of the cartoonishness (chris, andy, tom, etc) before this argument broke out. just against turning ron into more and more of a caricature of an internet meme, which is on a different level. people still complained (maybe rightfully so) when the writers kept upping the flanders-ness of flanders, when the character was working much better before. i think that's basically what everyone is worried about wrt ron. (isn't the process called flanderization or something on tv tropes?)

― zachylon (zachlyon), Monday, September 24, 2012 6:29 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I prefer Fonzificiation

I'll admit that my angle on all of this is my increasing sympathy towards creative professionals who work hard to make something of quality and decreasing tolerance towards people on the internet who gripe about how good stuff could've ben better. I'm no innocent in that regard, but I'm starting to recognize how obnoxious an impulse it is.

yeah with you on that

Well I didn't mean to come off so picky about Ron's meat.

"Ron's" "meat" "nsfw"

Hats off to the P&R wardrobe department.

Lol that pic will never not be classic

I'll admit that my angle on all of this is my increasing sympathy towards creative professionals who work hard to make something of quality and decreasing tolerance towards people on the internet who gripe about how good stuff could've ben better. I'm no innocent in that regard, but I'm starting to recognize how obnoxious an impulse it is.

― Old Lunch, Tuesday, 25 September 2012 02:20 (Yesterday) Permalink

this.

OH GOD ... ITS ... REPRODUCING

ok i don't wtf i was on about last week, this was great. adam scott was fantastic.

loved the fonts.ts.

Loved the return of the remote control doors

Amazing parody of both bro-speak and desperate-poser-dad simultaneously!

that sequence made me cringe so hard

It was so awkward, Adam Scott was great.

http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mb2lyvdY341qgkqy9o1_500.gif

she was not scary at all in that scene. she was... something else.

Hot?

kind of?

This was terrific. I can't believe people ever thought Ben was just a replacement Brendanawicz straight man. I still want Ben and April to come home but their office setup is pretty funny.

Also every time they do a public forum it is hilarious.

Looking back I think the problems with last week's are kinda typical for that kind of episode rather than a drop-off in quality of the show. Trying to recap, reintroduce characters and hook in new viewers at once. You can see why they do it but it's kind of difficult to make it funny and not really broad-brush.

This episode was super good! Every time Chris has an existential crisis, it's HILARIOUS.
I've said it before, but Leslie is my hero and role model.

I can't believe people ever thought Ben was just a replacement Brendanawicz straight man.

did they? i was like 'alright, adam scott is here, show is instantly better'

haha i think my response was 'o no so party down is definitely over'

well that too but i think the writing was on the wall at that point

the dixiecrat poster

Oh shit, I just realized that was Lucy Lawless who's playing Ron's new female interest. I approve of this.

Not doing much for me lately.

even the perm?

"yay democracy, oh no my perm" had me in stitches

Heeeyyyyy, yeah, I wanna shoop, baby

I unabashedly love this show.

what was up with joan callamezzo's hair?

Benji's Cool Times Summer Jamz Mix now available in its entirety

Santeria? I'm judging him.