Parks and Recreation Review

The first season is a mistake, six episodes of Leslie as a fool standing in a pit, and the correction is one of the smartest in sitcom history: make her competent, make her intensity the joke, and let the town supply the obstacle. From season two the ensemble is superb. Nick Offerman plays Ron as sincerity rather than gruffness, which is why the character survives a thousand memes, while Aubrey Plaza and Chris Pratt turn two disposable parts into the show's best long runners and Amy Poehler carries earnestness without ever asking for credit.

What holds it a tier below its Schur siblings is that it sands off its own edges. Pawnee begins as a satire of local government, public comment and civic apathy and becomes a place where everyone is good and every problem yields to a friendship montage. The final seasons run on affection alone. Visually it is the cheap mockumentary default with no ideas of its own. Warm, quotable, infinitely rewatchable, and considerably softer than it needed to be.