thecubsfan
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|  #1 Posted on 24.2.15 2222.37
Reposted on: 24.2.22 2224.23 | Originally posted by Justin Shapiro
The biggest challenge must be, what's left for them to do for the next series finale.
Apparently a lot!
I'm having trouble processing this all - between the wistfulness of this ending and the Derrick Rose Is Broken Again news coming out in the middle of this show, my mind's all over the place and it's tough to figure which emotions are from where. I'm still pretty sure P&R finished well.
The time jump was the best thing they could've done for the series, because it allowed the team to drift apart and reconnect. Playing that out to a larger degree is obvious in retrospect, though I think I'll need to read a recap to get a better timeline of everything. (Were the secret service people with Leslie and Ben at Gerry's funeral because she was still governor or was that some time later and they're implying one of them held a bigger role?)
I liked this season but was also kind of glad there was no eight season coming because everything felt like it was going too perfect for all the characters and any sign of conflict had disappeared. I didn't want bad things to happen, but when they were at Donna's wedding reception and they were going around the table talking about what great things had all happened to them, it was eye rolling. The funnier stuff for me was with the wacky Pawnee characters showing up again.
The whole season felt like the longest goodbye - and this episode was specifically the longest goodbye and it still worked because it still felt like a P&R story. The stories were sped up and moved around, but they had a problem, they usually talked to Leslie, they figured it out, and funny characters were met along the way. (Too bad about the casino.) It was very sentimental, but they also fixed a swing. It worked and it was funny and I'll miss it. | Promote this thread! |             | EddieBurkett
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| #2 Posted on 24.2.15 2236.02
Reposted on: 24.2.22 2237.12 | I blitzed the season this weekend on Hulu in preparation for the finale tonight. I'm amazed we went the whole two months without a prior thread. This was not the best finale, but it was solid, and as cubs indicated, the whole season was one long finale.
The weakest part was repeating Jon Hamm's firing, and they got that out of the way at the very start.
The entire first arc splitting the gang into Team Ron and Team Leslie, only for Ron and Leslie to come to terms in the best P&R episode ever was great. When Ron admitted that he needed to come to Leslie about a job, and Leslie seemed to busy, so he just left, my heart broke. RON F***ING SWANSON BROKE MY HEART.
I'm amazed that they ended the Grizzl storyline when they did, as that plot surely could have run out the season (and I suppose, if there were a season 8, they could have done that.) That said, Ron showing up after shooting the drone was the best Ron Swanson moment of the season.
I loved the conceit of jumping ahead to tell everyone's story. I'll admit that I believed that Jean Ralphio was dead. The joke about Garry's wife not aging was great, too.
Did we see Ann and Leslie building the broken swingset in one of the flashbacks at the end?
I remember how we used to have Thursday night threads on here about the Office and P&R and 30 Rock and later Community, and I think P&R just established it was the best out of them all. And I don't mean that to disparage the other shows - its just that P&R was the most solid, and wore its heart on its sleeve week in and week out, and as the finale showed, it was about a group of people who really cared about each other, and amazing things happened because of it.
I'm gonna miss this show.
ETA: AND HOW DID NOBODY MENTION JOHN CENA ON THE JOHNNY KARATE SUPER AWESOME MUSICAL EXPLOSION SHOW?!?!?!
(edited by EddieBurkett on 24.2.15 2338) | Leroy
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| #3 Posted on 25.2.15 0812.27
Reposted on: 25.2.22 0813.28 | So if you recall, way back in season two when Leslie is on the date with the MRI tech Chris (played by Will Arnett), Chris gives her an MRI and then comments on her 'industrial sized oven' and how she could go 'triplets right off the bat'. I just love that...
Originally posted by thecubsfan
(Were the secret service people with Leslie and Ben at Gerry's funeral because she was still governor or was that some time later and they're implying one of them held a bigger role
When she's giving the speech at the university, she states that she's completed two terms as governor and is now off on a new challenge (I forget the exact wording). I think it's directly implied by the funeral scene that came earlier that she's become President or Secretary of State.
Whomever decided that Gary/Larry/Jerry should be married to Christie Brinkley needs to be given an award (along with the person who put Ron in corn rows in season three).
Originally posted by EddieBurkett
The weakest part was repeating Jon Hamm's firing, and they got that out of the way at the very start.
'If anyone wants to *HANG*, I'll be at Subway.' - That line coming from Don Draper is pretty great, though...
Originally posted by EddieBurkett
I remember how we used to have Thursday night threads on here about the Office and P&R and 30 Rock and later Community, and I think P&R just established it was the best out of them all.
I think Community *could* have kept up with P&R if it weren't for the 'Dan Harmon being Dan Harmon to Chevy Chase being Chevy Chase' - but I agree that P&R was consistently good throughout its entire run and deserved better than it got in so many ways. Nick Offerman, Aubrey Plaza, Aziz Ansari, and Chris Pratt all became household names as a result being on a show that NBC seemingly couldn't wait to cancel.
I'm really, really going to miss this show.
| thecubsfan
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| #4 Posted on 25.2.15 0953.09
Reposted on: 25.2.22 0953.32 | It's weird that we're noting the end of NBC comedy block while Community is out there, in some weird Yahoo ether with not a lot of talk about. I had to go look at wikipedia to figure out if there's a debut date. There is, March 17th, the day we'll all try to figure out Yahoo! Screen, then give up and try to find out thru illegal means.
Did we see Ann and Leslie building the broken swingset in one of the flashbacks at the end?
I think so. Alan Sepinwall pointed out the suited guy asking for the broken swing to be fixed is the drunk Leslie chased out of a park in the first episode. Everything is going great even for the smallest characters!
Whomever decided that Gary/Larry/Jerry should be married to Christie Brinkley needs to be given an award (along with the person who put Ron in corn rows in season three).
It sounds like you have to credit her daughter...
Originally posted by HitFX
Amy came up with the idea: What if Jerry is so put-upon at work, that when he goes home, he's just this tyrant? He has this mousy little wife who's chain-smoking, because she's so afraid when he comes through the door, and the kids are afraid of him. Which would have been a funny bit one time, but Mike Schur's thing was Jerry can't survive everything he's put through at work if he goes home and it's terrible. They said to me, "We're going to try to get the Christie Brinkley-type." And then someone said, "I think we got Christie Brinkley." And I'm like, "Are you effing kidding me?" What happened to Christie is, her daughter Sailor asked what show was trying to hire her, and Christie said it was us, and they wanted her to play a wife, and Sailor asked "Is it Jerry's wife?" And when Christie said yes, Sailor was like, "You have to do it!" That's how Christie got on board. Are you kidding me? This is a woman who was on my wall!
| JustinShapiro
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| #5 Posted on 25.2.15 1618.57
Reposted on: 25.2.22 1621.21 | Originally posted by EddieBurkett
I remember how we used to have Thursday night threads on here about the Office and P&R and 30 Rock and later Community, and I think P&R just established it was the best out of them all.
I don't want to THREAD CRAP, so people are welcome to ignore this, mentally throw garbage at me, and go back to celebrating the show, but Parks would be last on my ranking of the four. That's praising with faint damn because it's still one of the best shows to ever be, but I was never that into it after Leslie started running for city council and was consumed by her oh-so-soulmatey relationship with Ben. My favorite episodes are almost all during Brendanawicz times before the neverending group hug got too tight for me.
I think The Office's decline was a lot worse, but I'd also rate its highs higher (both shows' identical six-ep test drives followed by two exceedingly great seasons). Community season 4 was maybe the worst of any, or at least as equally bleh as the Andy & Robert California years of The O, but to me the show's trajectory transcends that since the show/Dan's downfall(s) became the meta-narrative of its resurrection.
obviously Y
M
M
V
Originally posted by thecubsfan
Alan Sepinwall pointed out the suited guy asking for the broken swing to be fixed is the drunk Leslie chased out of a park in the first episode.
Hey that's Jon Daly. So I guess all four Kroll Show principles were on Parks. | KJames199
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|  #6 Posted on 25.2.15 1630.02
Reposted on: 25.2.22 1636.31 | Originally posted by JustinShapiro
I don't want to THREAD CRAP
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| #7 Posted on 25.2.15 1655.11
Reposted on: 25.2.22 1655.28 | | Parks & Rec was absolutely on fire through seasons 2-4, dipped only slightly in S5 and then took a more noticable dip to still-pretty-good in S6. It's rebounded in S7 nicely, so overall, that's an awfully strong track record. Neither 30 Rock nor Parks & Rec never had an outright bad season a la Community (S4) or the Office (S8, most of S6 and S9). | EddieBurkett
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| #8 Posted on 25.2.15 1719.47
Reposted on: 25.2.22 1720.50 | Ah, I've missed this. You all make me angry for being so wrong but I love this debate so much. 
To begin, comparing the NBC Thursday Night Comedy Block circa 2010 comedies is like comparing Brady v. Manning (pre-2015) or Rock v Austin. These are all great shows and the differences are minute.
That said, I look at the comedies like kids. I love them all, but in different ways.
The Office is the oldest, and it was great and smart and funny, so you let it live at home when it went to college, and then it never left. And it started to smell a little and hung out in the basement way too much, and you were a little glad when it finally moved out, because it was time.
Community is the kid who's so wild you aren't sure if they have a serious condition or not. They are amazing and talented and if they don't kill themselves (or the rest of us) in a crazy stunt before graduating, there's a good chance they go on to solve nuclear fusion or something else amazing.
Parks & Rec is the middle kid that got A's and B's and was always happy and well adjusted and you never worried about them. They're the kid you'll move in with when you're older and can't take care of yourself anymore.
30 Rock almost feels like an amalgamation of the other three. Critically beloved like the Office, crazy (but not as crazy) as Community, and relatively solid like PnR. I'd say it was the youngest pulling the best from each of its siblings, but it wasn't. I guess it breaks my metaphor.
Of note, PnR's 125 episodes is about the same as the first 5 seasons of the Office and the first 6 seasons of 30 Rock. We'd look back at the Office differently if it had ended then.
| StaggerLee
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| #9 Posted on 26.2.15 0922.34
Reposted on: 26.2.22 0923.12 | Andy and April still behaving like 12 year olds was off putting in a season where everybody else had progressed personally.
And over the course of the series, each character became more define and enjoyable, it made me realize just how much I disliked Leslie Knope.
The show was good and had some good points, but it was never MUST SEE the way the Office or 30 Rock was. (For me at least)
(edited by StaggerLee on 26.2.15 0923) | Mr Heel II
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| #10 Posted on 26.2.15 1438.45
Reposted on: 26.2.22 1441.18 | I've been an occasional-at-best P&R viewer. The finale was the first episode I've watched this season.
And I loved every minute of it.
Best finale ever? Not by a long shot. But it was one hell of a guilty pleasure. | | ALL ORIGINAL POSTS IN THIS THREAD ARE NOW AVAILABLE |
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