Initially seen as a pale imitation of The Office, Parks and Recreation steadily came into its own as an absurd, character-driven comedy with a heart of gold. Led by the intrepid Leslie Knope, Parks and Recreation follows that department in the small town of Pawnee, Indiana. The show is laugh-out-loud funny for a solid majority, while still allowing its characters to have a genuineness about them that makes them so much more fun and relatable.
The show got off to a rocky start, and some fans weren't satisfied with the saccharine conclusion, but, overall, each season gives us something to love about the show's diverse cast of characters. Through seven seasons and one unanticipated special reunion, Leslie, Ron, and the rest of the crew persevered through failure and the never-ending absurdity of government to create a show that is simultaneously hilarious and heartwarming. Here's a look at how those seasons stack up to one another.
Parks and Rec first got life as a spin-off of The Office, which was thankfully axed by co-creators Greg Daniels and Michael Schur early in the writing process. Despite these intentions, the show's first season can't help but remind us of what came before. Nearly everyone agrees that the first season of Parks and Rec is the weakest of them all; in fact, some fans argue that new viewers should skip this season altogether. That said, it's also the shortest of the seasons, clocking in at just six 22-minute episodes. It's a bingeworthy watch if only so you can appreciate how much growth the show demonstrated throughout its run.
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The biggest highlight of this season is without a doubt the final episode, "Rock Show." To celebrate Andy getting his casts removed, Ann invites everyone to hear him perform live for the first time since the accident. Come to find out, Andy kept his casts on for longer than necessary, so Ann would keep pampering him, leading to their inevitable breakup. Leslie in particular comes into her own in this episode, shedding the ditzy blonde Michael Scott persona to become the intelligent and optimistically naive woman we know and love.
The last season of Parks and Rec is surprisingly solid, but the dreaded time-skip and over-sweet ending left a lot to be desired for some fans. Writing for Slate, Willa Paskin wrote of season seven, "The [finale] congratulated itself for its own sweetness, instead of recognizing that a hint of sourness has always been part of what made Parks and Recreation so delicious." Emily Nussbaum at The New Yorker had similar complaints, writing "[Season 7] papered over every difficulty in a way that felt less like resolution than a cheat."
In addition to the saccharine ending, many fans took issue with the show's time skip to 2017. Time jumps in TV are rarely popular, but Parks and Rec navigates the speculative 2017 with mostly grace if you can forgive the too-perfect ending. Perhaps the best example comes four episodes in with "Leslie and Ron." After a mysterious falling out between seasons six and seven, Leslie and Ron have become enemies, and by the end of the third episode, everyone else is sick of it. The two are locked up overnight in the Parks and Recreation office, where they are forced to hash out their issues and reignite their friendship - with the help of some scotch, of course.
The second season of Parks and Rec is where the show starts to find its footing, and it's a delight for just how much more developed the characters feel. Leslie, for example, is far more grounded; in losing some of her excessive intensity, her good nature shines through, and she goes from obnoxious to inspiring. The excellent ensemble cast around Leslie is also given far more room to breathe. Instead of episodes focusing exclusively on Leslie's journey, this season follows the stories of other people in the Parks Department, like Ron. This season marks the first appearance of his horrible ex-wife Tammy 2 - played by Offerman's real-life wife, Megan Mullally - and the revelation of his saxophone-wielding alter ego, Duke Silver.
One favorite is "94 Meetings," when Ron rapidly fires through all 94 of the meetings April mistakenly made for March 31st because she thought it wasn't a real date. Another, "Hunting Trip," has Leslie and the other women of the office forcing their way into Ron's annual hunting trip with Jerry and Mark. Parks and Rec in Season 2 is still working out some of the comedy that would define later seasons, but it's a noticeable step up from the first season.
Season 6 of Parks and Recreation closes out many of the stories the show had worked toward since the beginning. Leslie loses her role on the City Council but soon is given the opportunity to run a new National Parks office. She even manages to convince her new boss to move the proposed office from Chicago to Pawnee. Ann and Chris leave mid-season to raise a family, but not before Ann and Leslie can break ground on the park project that originally brought them together. Tom opens his restaurant, Mouse Rat reunites for the Pawnee-Eagleton Unity Concert, and Ben copyrights his increasingly popular game "Cones of Dunshire."
The finale ends with a flash forward giving us the satisfying closure of seeing Leslie and the crew's success. It could have, and, depending on who you ask maybe should have, been a perfect ending to the series.
After years of pining for the role, Season 5 is when Leslie finally gets to become the City Councilwoman of her dreams. Because of Leslie's elevated political status, this is where the show gets to show off its best political satire. Leslie's councilman counterparts are the antithesis of her positive attitude, providing a new challenge that's exciting to watch her navigate. In addition to the challenges of apathetic and misogynistic local politicians, Leslie must deal with dating Ben long distance. Fortunately, that doesn't last long, and the couple gets married in a surprise ceremony.
Other great moments of character growth involve Ron finding love with Diane, going so far as to reveal his Duke Silver persona to her and offering to "risk" going to Europe if that's what she'd like. We also get to watch as April and Ben grow closer while they work in Washington, D.C.; it's a surprising pairing that demonstrates the show's strength in nailing character dynamics.
If Season 2 is where the show found its footing, Season 3 is Parks and Rec hitting its stride. The season starts with a government shutdown in Pawnee, which brings series regulars Ben and Chris to the show. April and Andy also get together and married this season, giving us the hilarious pairing of Burt Macklin and Janet Snakehole. Li'l Sebastian, the iconic mini pony, is introduced and promptly killed in this season, giving us the Mouse Rat classic 5000 Candles in the Wind.
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Critics praised this season for its excellent pacing and pitch-perfect combination of absurdist humor with just the right amount of heart, and fans tend to agree. In addition to the Li'l Sebastian, other highlights include Chris breaking down over getting the flu and the success of the Harvest Festival.
Ranking the third and fourth seasons of Parks and Rec against one another comes down to pure taste. Both seasons have 100% on Rotten Tomatoes, and it's a testament to the strength of both seasons. Season 4 chronicles Leslie's campaign for City Council and introduces us to fan-favorite Bobby Newport (played by Paul Rudd). Bobby is Leslie's main competition in the race for City Councilor. He's also the heir of the Sweetums fortune, making his character ripe for satirizing.
Watching Leslie take him down in her impassioned debate speech is a highlight of not just the season, but the whole show. Season four also introduces the impeccable Kathryn Hahn as Bobby's campaign manager and future boss to Ben, Jennifer Barkley.
Ranking the Parks and Recreation special among other seasons of the show doesn't really feel right given the circumstances around its creation. Originally airing on April 30, 2020, the special is a direct response to the COVID-19 pandemic, with the express interest of raising money for Feeding America. Everyone, apart from Ron and Tammy 2, is shot separately, and the "story" is more a loose collection of character vignettes than a story as they each deal with lockdown and the uncertainty of a global pandemic.
Making this an entirely new episode, rather than a table read like Community and other shows, is an interesting exercise in narrative building, but its charm lies less in its story and more in its attempts to soothe an uneasy audience. The special is peppered with references to the show's past that make it a decent antidote to lockdown blues, but not necessarily something that audiences in a post-pandemic world will care to return to.