Parks and Recreation is the new show from the talent behind the American version of The Office, Greg Daniels and Michael Shur, who also had a lot to do with The Simpsons back in the day. So their comedy chops are not somehting to be scoffed at.
Their new show mimics the pseudo-documentary style of The Office with “talking heads” and voyeur style through-the-window-blinds shots. The form does force comparisons to The Office, where it unfortunately falls short because the characters on that series have been heavily developed and grown over 5 years. Though that’s not to say the characters in P&R are not well set-up. For a first season there are a lot of ways pre-arranged for how the characters will end up interacting with each other. Which really is the main thing needed for characters in a comedy. We can’t argue for more “drama” or more ‘twists” when all of that is just a bonus to plots designed purely for punchlines to come as often as possible. Daniels and Shur have fallen to the popular fault of dumbing down their characters for the sake of a comical plot line in the past, and hopefully with P&R they will keep the players of their newest venture on a solid line. The A and B plot method works well with a comedy and is implimented here as it is in most American situational comedies.
So it is a normal and somewhat generic comedy show, but with well initialized characters and producers behind it who see the end game from previous experience. Not to mention how funny it is. I love it when they sing about the pit! Consider this recommended.
★★★★★